- Buttigieg on Thursday revealed plans to ‘promote’ speed cameras across the US
- The plan is part of a safety package backed by $14 billion in new funding
- In the UK, speed cameras have been ubiquitous for decades and are despised
- In the US they are a matter of debate, and banned by law in at least seven states
- US critics from both the right and the left are opposed to speed cameras
- Conservatives view them as overreach and liberals oppose fines funding police
- In the UK omnipresent speed cameras are matter of fury and controversy
US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s plan to ‘promote speed safety cameras’ is raising the troubling specter of ubiquitous automated traffic enforcement in the style of the UK, where the cameras are widely despised.
Buttigieg’s 42-page plan road safety plan unveiled on Thursday and backed by $14 billion in funding from the new infrastructure bill, contained only brief mention of the speed camera plan, but it was enough to set alarm bells ringing for worried motorists.
Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson slammed the plan as a misuse of the funds in the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Bill, fuming that ‘you’re about to get a lot more speeding tickets from robots.’
‘When the country applauded $1.2 trillion going to fixing the roads, bridges and buildings, a lot of us were dumb enough to think that’s what might actually happen,’ he said.
