Every day I see these signs that indicate there’s a traffic speed camera at an upcoming intersection. I don’t know how or why such signs became a necessity. Do they – whoever “they” are – think of these signs as a deterrent to bad driving? Keep dreaming.

The local “all traffic, all the time” AM radio station – which, by the way, absolutely floods every hour with weather, news, opinions and ads – periodically announces where the latest speed traps are. Again, as a deterrent? Or to aid those who are habitually guilty of the vehicular crime of speeding?

Even GPS traffic devices show traffic enforcement cameras as “Points of Interest,” and websites publicly list camera locations.

Somehow I think it’s a cop thing. A lazy cop thing. Every Vancouver cop car has “9-1-1″ stenciled on it, a message that I take as “Don’t bother us, call the office.”

Isn’t warning traffic law violators the same as allowing radar detectors and police scanners in their car? Doesn’t putting up these warning signs effectively say “If you don’t see a sign, you’re safe to break the law?”

And yeah, sure, it may all be a scam. All these “warning” signs and head’s up traffic reports may be bogus, a police-plus-media conspiracy to slow us down. Frankly, I don’t think they’re that clever.

Jim Lawter

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