Kudos to Sen. Jim Brochin for his work against speed cameras

He has a new bill (SB 30, text here) that would prohibit state highway work zone speed cameras from issuing citations when no workers are on duty:

[Brochin] presented 2010 data from the State Highway Administration’s speed camera project “MarylandSafeZone,” that noted how, on the beltway in Baltimore County over the period from July to December, workers were deployed 131 times — but speed cameras were deployed 437 times when the workers were not present.

According to data, the number of citations issued when workers were present was 62,161, but 167,281 citations were issued when workers were not present. In the work zones, the highway speed limit is lowered from 55 to 50 mph.

More here from Bryan Sears at the Timonium Patch:

Brochin said Monday that using the cameras even though workers are not on location diminishes the argument that the devices are being used to improve safety.

"It's about revenue generation," Brochin said of the off-hour use.