Today’s Boston Herald has a story that claims the Mass Pike is aggressively ticketing speeders to generate revenue.
The Massachusetts Turnpike has turned into the nation’s longest speed trap as state troopers, freed from their Big Dig duties, are gunning for harried commuters and writing tickets at a rate of an additional 4,000 a year, a Herald review shows.
“It’s unfair for Metro West commuters to pay higher tolls and be targeted like this,” said state Rep. Tom Sannicandro (D-Ashland).
“People shouldn’t be speeding, but I think the Pike is looking at this as a revenue enhancer, and that’s a problem,” Sannicandro said.
Here’s the policy question. Massachusetts cities and towns do not keep the revenue generated by speeding tickets in their municipalities. This is deliberate, as this eliminates the incentive for municipalities to become “speed trap towns” to generate revenue. So why not solve the whole Mass Pike problem by depositing turnpike speeding funds into the general fund?
They generally won’t give you a ticket unless they think you were going at least ten miles over the limit. Does anyone really need to go that fast? Also, don’t forget all the extra gas that is wasted when you driver faster, so why does anything need to be done about this?
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A speed trap is a trick or a scam, a posted speed limit that changes abruptly with a cop behind a billboard, or a stop light that his been rigged to change as you drive through it.
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p>Is that what they are doing on the pike?
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p>A speed trap is not just any place where you get a ticket for speeding.
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p>In contrast to true speed traps, which prey on strangers, enforcement can only boost revenues temporarily. That’s because systematic enforcement changes people’s behavior.
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p>The ban on local revenue from speeding tickets discourages the former but not the latter.