How Automatic Traffic Enforcement Disproportionately Targets Drivers Of Color

Source: The Washington Post / Getty

In roughly five months (October 2023 through Feb. 29, 2024), Washington D.C. brought in $54 million in tickets from traffic cameras. Despite her assertion that this revenue was a surprise benefit, in early 2023, Mayor Browser had already allocated an expected  $578 million in ATE revenue to address a budget shortfall. Establishing an annual reliance on money generated by such programs makes our government dependent on the very thing the cameras purport to reduce– speeding.