Dear Editor:
Cash grab speed cameras – that is exactly what they are.
We received a speed camera ticket just shortly after they were activated and long before school was back in. Leaving Rockwood on Main Street North, by the new Catholic school and childcare centre, there are two cameras, maybe 20 to 25 feet apart; one facing into Rockwood so they can get you coming and one facing north so they can get you going. Just past the last sidewalk the speed limit changes to 60km/h.
So where there are no sidewalks on Main Street North, I received a ticket for 14km/h over, just before the 60km/h speed limit sign.
I’m pretty sure that the majority of us start to accelerate coming up to a speed limit sign change. So I was ticketed $90.25, which included a $15 victim impact fee and, to add insult to injury, a $5 or $8 licence plate search fee. There’s two cash grabs for you.
You can request a “meeting” conducted over the phone to dispute your ticket, but for goodness sake don’t forget about it because if you do they will charge you another $16!
I truly would like to know the percentage the county gets of the speeding portion and who gets those other two amounts.
According to the article in this newspaper, the county has collected $6 million to date – imagine how excited our politicians are about that. I would like to see a detailed breakdown of this. Maybe they are just going to put in an interest bearing bank account. I doubt it.
Put in rumble strips instead, or, and I know this would be annoying for the snow plows, but let’s try speed bumps in those critical areas. We avoid areas with speed cameras and find alternate routes, which just increases traffic in other residential areas. It’s a cash grab, pure and simple.
Jane Cullen,
Rockwood