# New types of traffic cameras allowed by the state legislature have the potential to lead to big safety gains in Seattle -- but a potential clash over how those cameras are deployed could be on the horizon. SDOT and transportation chair Rob Saka are not seeing eye to eye.
I remember a Freakonomics episode that described an experimental alternative to traffic cops: a “good driver” lottery.
If you’re “caught” driving the speed limit, you get entered into a lottery. Less adversarial relationship with traffic cops and more drivers would be incentivized to drive safe more often.
Edit: It was apparently an article, not a podcast.
But that would require giving money away rather than making money.
I heard that episode before. Its good stuff. Unfortunately reality includes other people. Today, Sunday, I was driving from the local park to the house with all my kids onboard. The road starts as a 30mph and a minivan was following very closely behind my bumper. The road changes idiotically to a 25mph zone. So I slow down. Its 25 everywhere… Painted on the floor and on a blinking speedometer sign showing your speed and the required 25mph. The van start almost kissing my bumper. I make my left turn into our street and as I’m making the turn the guy honks and steps on it. Those people need to be bus riders. They are dangerous.