Don’t break the law
I am encouraged that the safety of Seattle schoolchildren has led the city to install traffic cameras to catch speeding drivers near schools [“Warning: Cameras get 6,000 school speeders,” page one, Nov. 29].

The need for such a program is strikingly evident from the fact that in less than a month, the cameras have captured almost 6,000 drivers breaking the law by speeding in school zones. Seattle police say, however, that “drivers will be ticketed for speeding only when the school-zone beacons are flashing — times when children are most likely to be walking to and from school.”

Does that mean that it's OK to speed in those zones when the beacons are not flashing, making child and adult pedestrians fair game for speeding drivers at those times? For that matter, does the absence of speed-detection cameras outside of school zones mean that it's permissible to speed everywhere else in the city? Are we only concerned with pedestrian safety when the pedestrians are children on their way to and from school?

For those troubled by the possibility that the city may be using the speeding fines, $189 per pop, to fatten the city's budget, I have a suggestion on how to thwart the city's efforts: Don't break the law.
—Lester Goldstein, Seattle