From today’s Courant:
The governor said Monday she’ll propose legislation to double traffic fines on Avon Mountain as a means of slowing drivers and punishing those who break motor vehicle laws.
Doubling fines, however, may only be the first step in an effort to crack down on drivers who speed and break motor vehicle laws as they traverse the mountain.
Also under consideration is a proposal to install video cameras that would captures images of cars and their license plates, enabling tickets to be issued even when a police officer is not around, officials said Monday.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Hartford area, Avon Mountain is a fairly large ridge several miles to the west of of Hartford. US 44 crosses Avon mountain, providing a major commute route from Avon and other suburbs to the west-northwest of the city into West Hartford and Hartford. US 44 also features a winding route complete with 8-10% grades, a high rate of spectacular fatal accidents, and an almost universal love of exceeding the speed limit by 20-30 miles per hour.
While under normal circumstances, I share the majority view that speed limits are frequently set too conservatively, contributing to drivers’ disregard…. I’d agree that on Avon Mountain, speeding is a chronic problem.
A lack of traffic enforcement is also a chronic problem on Avon Mountain. Avon and West Hartford local police will patrol the mountain for a few days after an accident, or after a media report on the mountain….but otherwise…nothing.
And before someone thinks of mentioning it — yes, the state’s also looking into other safety measures in addition to just speed enforcement. For example, variable message signs, a painted median with rumble strips, etc. are mentioned in the article, and several months ago, the state replaced signage on the mountain with new, big, highly visible warning signs.
Photo radar would make a lot of sense for Avon Mountain. However, I worry that while it makes sense here, introduction of photo radar would start the slide down the slippery slope of privacy erosion by incenting the use of photo radar in other areas, particularly areas where irrational speed limits exacerbate the speeding problem.