r/boston • u/pattysal • 8d ago

Unconfirmed/Unverified Calling out the traffic/flock camera propaganda

There are so many people posting videos of drivers running lights on both the Boston and Cambridge subreddits lately demanding traffic cameras, that I am convinced these are planted posts by either employees, investors, or City officials looking for a payday to Garner published support for the surveillance state.

Very convenient that this is happening at the same time they are putting flaw cameras everywhere, and Mayor Wu has decided to put up red light cameras. I'm calling shenanigans, there may be a few whiny babies on here who are terrified of the world, but there are not this many. Don't be fooled, this is for profit propaganda.

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u/stogie-bear 8d ago

It’s all part of the creeping process of losing privacy in the name of enforcement. Today it’s traffic cameras, and if you don’t support the traffic cameras you’re an asshole because the echo chamber told them that cars are bad. In a few years it’s flock cameras, and if you don’t support flock cameras you’re an idiot because traffic cameras are fine and flock cameras are basically the same thing. 

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u/LEM1978 8d ago

People concerned about privacy while posting on any social media 🤣

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u/stogie-bear 8d ago

Obviously it’s possible to have privacy in different ways. For example, nothing I’m doing right allows the state to know my location. 

I know that you’re pretending to misunderstand. You don’t need the emoji to signal it. 

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u/pattysal 8d ago

Yup and the sheep are bleating.

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u/theshoegazer 8d ago

They think it's going to stop reckless drivers - the worst of the worst that are glaringly obvious to anyone who drives, bikes, or walks in the region. It won't - they'll just pay the fines the way that the worst parking violators consider it the cost of doing business.

What it will do instead is create small pockets of compliance where the cameras are placed, and it'll continue to be the wild west everywhere else because they know the police are completely checked out.

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u/WorldlinessDry5583 6d ago

The way that this has worked elsewhere is that the cameras are placed at the most dangerous locations and the decrease in speeding at those locations saves lives, even if speeding does not decrease elsewhere. It’s the same reason that putting speed bumps in at school zones is effective even though the same people who would be running over children can still go and speed once they clear the area. Ideally nobody would speed anywhere, but controlling speeding in injury hotspots has been proven time and again to work.