OPINION:
Montgomery County hopes to be among the first to convert its familiar yellow school buses into rolling speed traps. As each bus picks up and drops off schoolchildren during the day, it also would mail out $250 tickets to passing drivers - all in the name of safety, of course.
Let’s get one thing out of the way. Greedy politicians claim everything they do is to “save the children,” especially when they’re hoping to disguise a cash grab. We’re expected to imagine careless drivers are mowing down schoolkids by the thousands. The facts show it isn’t so. By the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s count, there were 33,808 traffic fatalities nationwide in 2009. Just 21 involved someone walking near a school bus, and 13 of those - the majority - were the fault of the school bus driver.
Because using cameras to address the larger problem (careless school bus drivers) wouldn’t be particularly lucrative, school districts around the country hope to pounce on ordinary drivers when they make harmless, technical violations of a law that in many situations is less than clear. For example, a Woodbridge, Va., resident was backing out of his own cul-de-sac driveway while a school bus was stopped next door. There was no danger. “I never passed between the bus and the kid’s house, and the bus was there to pick up a single child,” the driver noted. Nonetheless, he received a warning notice in the mail.
Thanks to the inexplicable signature of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell in April, such warnings will soon become actual citations in the Old Dominion. Across the state line, by Montgomery County’s count, 1,645 minor slip-ups could be ticketed daily. That’s $411,250 in a day and tens of millions over the school year. With much cheaper $40 citations, speed cameras in the Old Line State generated $77 million last year, according to official records obtained by StopBigBrotherMD.org. For Chevy Chase, College Park, Forest Heights, Mount Rainier and Riverdale, the haul represented more than 10 percent of their entire annual budget. Montgomery County made $12 million.
Similar visions of dollar signs danced before the eyes of Maryland’s General Assembly, whose own legislative analysts predicted, “General fund revenues increase significantly to the extent that several jurisdictions implement school bus monitoring programs.” There’s one hitch, however. The public hates traffic cameras. Last year, 61 percent of Sykesville voters turned to the ballot box to block the town’s attempt to set up photo radar. Residents in major cities across the country, including Albuquerque, N.M. and Houston, have followed suit.
Perhaps that’s why Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley didn’t bother including the school bus bill in a press release about the “legislation aimed at making Maryland neighborhoods safer” signed on the same day as his camera bill. Politicians are justifiably nervous that there could be a price to pay at the polls for their schemes. Montgomery County residents ought to turn out in force for a scheduled Jan. 24 public hearing to let county council members know they’re being watched.
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