Sports Science Gone Haywire: Catching Speeders at the Speedway
Are racing fans fast drivers? Is there evidence of heavier feet on the accelerator after a race? If one relies on the efforts of one small Tennessee town it would some believe the answer to these questions is an emphatic “yes.”
Bluff City, Tennessee is a small town near the Bristol Motor Speedway, a major NASCAR racing track that is the 8th largest in the world. Practically every race held there draws well over 100,000 fans. When these fans come to the races they flood nearby motels and campgrounds. Because of its proximity to the track Bluff City is especially popular for accommodations. Local businesses are enriched by the visitors and thrive during racing season. One would think then that the town officials would do all it could to welcome racing fans, but that’s not the case. In fact, they have decided to deploy what some call a gimmick to legally fleece visitors.
Only recently considered a future technology, high-tech cameras have been used for some time now to catch traffic violators. Especially useful at red lights, the technology is useful to police departments where budgets are tight. To maintain enough resources to combat serious crime they are deployed at key locations to spare resources spent on traffic law regulation. Their use has been supported by the courts and over time hundreds of thousands of violators have been nabbed. One incidental benefit to municipalities are significantly increased revenues from fines.
Bluff City is no exception. In an effort to reduce speeding drivers, some of whom seemed inspired by a visit to the Bristol races, Bluff City installed a camera on a stretch of highway well frequented by these drivers. That’s all well and good, right? Well, there has been a bit of a controversy surrounding the camera and how it has been used.
One of the chief complaints isn’t about the camera itself. Rather, it’s how the set-up is laid out. As one approaches the camera the speed limit is 55 MPH. Within about a half mile an inconspicuous speed limit sign posts a 45 MPH speed limit. Many drivers don’t always slow down the instant they see such a reduction, but instead gradually slow down. But by the time many of these drivers have just taken their foot off the gas they see a flash of light. A few weeks later they get a speeding citation from the Bluff City Police Department. The citation includes a couple of photos of vehicle’s rear-end and license plate along with instructions on where they can go online to watch a video of their violation and how the fine can be paid.
It matters not a whit to Bluff City’s finest whether the violation is only a couple of MPH in excess of the limit. And in spite of complaints, no effort has been made to improve the speed limit signage, which is difficult to see in low light. And it’s not that the town can’t afford injecting a little common sense fairness in the set-up, as it is alleged that the town averages over $250,000 a month in speeding fines! So controversial has Bluff City’s high-tech speed trap become that Tennessee’s legislature has more than once debated and voted on its legality.
Visitors are fighting back. When the town’s police department ineptly allowed its domain name to expire, an enraged victim of the trap bought the domain and offered it as a forum for others to express their opinions. As one can guess they haven’t been favorable. Many threaten to never visit the town again. Others claim they haven’t received a traffic violation in decades and find the town’s effort more of a gimmick to make money rather than an effort to improve safety. If that were the case they argue, a better speed limit sign with a clear warning of the use of traffic cameras would be more effective. Bluff City’s speed trap has all the appearance of sports science run amok.
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