Are Small Towns Addicted to Traffic Fines and Fees?
Editor’s Note: This article was initially written for the Spring edition of Driving Freedoms magazine and instead appeared as NMA weekly E-Newsletter #592 in May 2020. The information here pertained primarily to life before the COVID-19 crisis. Still, we believe traffic fines and fees will be even more of an issue for small towns (and […]
Ticket Quotas are Alive and All Too Well
Editor’s Note: After news this week that Washington State lawmakers are pushing Senate Bill 6316 to stop the police practice of traffic ticket orders, we thought this would be a great companion blog. One of the national issues of the NMA is to advocate against traffic ticket quotas which if implemented by a police department, […]
Driving in America: An Out-of-State Speeding Ticket –Has this Happened to You?
The NMA Office receives numerous calls throughout the year from members asking how to defeat a speeding ticket they happened to receive driving in another state. Unfortunately, these are rather difficult to fight because many small towns and counties target out-of-state drivers. After all, authorities know they won’t come back to fight the ticket. Ticketing […]
The Panopticon Expands: Distracted Driving Cams+
Precedent always becomes practice. Having established as legitimate the use of cameras to robotically ticket people for “speeding” and “running” red lights — timed to go red quickly, to ensnare as many drivers as possible — it was only a matter of time before the principle to include automatically ticketing people for using their cell […]
East Liverpool, Ohio Voters win the Day against Red-Light and Speed Cameras: NMA E-Newsletter #574
East Liverpool Citizens against Traffic Cameras is a group that has been trying to get a “ban on red-light cameras” measure on the local ballot for a few years. In 2017, City Auditor Marilyn Bosco blocked the group’s proposed referendum by refusing to certify it even though there were enough valid signatures on the petition. […]
Ticket Quotas are Alive and All Too Well: NMA Weekly E-Newsletter #572
By our latest count, twenty states have explicit laws banning traffic ticket quotas. And yet, the practice continues, even within some of those states. City, county, and state budgets must be met, and a reliable target for revenue continues to be the motorist. A brief rundown of the states with quota prohibitions follows but first, […]
ATE Racket Report for November 25, 2019
Curated by Shelia Dunn, NMA Communications Director Editor’s Note: The ATE Racket Report will be taking a vacation next week, December 2, 2019 and will return again on December 9, 2019. The ATE Racket Report is a weekly feature of the NMA blog. We want to bring the issues of automated traffic enforcement to our […]
“These Cameras Are Not a Safety Tool . . .”: NMA E-Newsletter #556
The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety took a page out of its own book, and that of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), by issuing a recent report on red-light running with a title designed to send the media into a frenzy. “Red Light Running Deaths Hit 10 Year High” did exactly that. While […]
Political Interference in Setting Speed Limits Shouldn’t Happen
From guest writer Ian Tootill, who is co-founder of the grassroots British Columbia motorists advocacy group SENSE BC (or Safety by Education and Not Speed Enforcement). SENSE BC and the NMA are kindred spirits, with SENSE advocating for sensible driving standards for more than 23 years and the NMA for over 36. The issues facing drivers in […]
Officer Frank
This post originally appeared as NMA E-Newsletter #538 on May 5, 2019. Editor’s Note: Over the years, the NMA has received occasional contact from law enforcement officers who have complained about department policies, sometimes crafted to avoid direct violation of state anti-ticket-quota laws, which force officers to write a predetermined number of citations during each […]