BART Cop Smashes Drunk Dude's Head Through Glass
SFist Tonight
Week Around the Ists
SFist Tonight
The Week Ahead: Bay Area Concerts 11/23 - 11/29
SFist loves cameras. Public, private, wherever, whenever -- we want them up, we want them rolling. So, we were tickled exuberant after hearing that San Francisco transit officials plan to install continuously-running cameras on Muni buses. The cameras would "trigger an alert every time a driver hits the brakes hard, swerves or gets into a collision," according to reports, and be placed inside and outside buses. If all goes according to plan, they will capture electrifying footage like this.
This plan will cost around $2 million, with an addition $400,000 a year going toward video monitoring. $129 million deficit be damned!
Although, sadly, not everyone is thrilled at the idea of Big Brother's continuing encroachment of Muni. James Dupre tells SF Examiner, "If you're in the public, you should not be afraid of being [videotaped] doing whatever you're going to do. Enough of that occurs already." Bah! What if all of us were being videotaped, God willing -- and no one watches? That's the real fear here.
Anyway, transit officials hope to get the cameras up by fall.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
How about triggering an alert any time fare poachers rush in through the back doors or when kids (you know who you are, and you're probably not reading this) graffiti crap all over the interiors and exteriors of the buses?
ARGH. MUNI's budget deficit... The fare increases... The reduction in service... This interminable wind!!
All of this behavior is already on camera. Someone just needs to actually review it.
And, of course, we would need a district attorney who cared about this sort of thing, which is not forthcoming.
Muni already has video cameras, several in fact, on just about every bus and train I've ever been on.
So essentially the $2 million isn't a necessary expenditure, it's just a band-aid upgrade to collect better evidence to bolster their so-called safety program, which is a band-aid to their poor training program, which is a failure of union/mgmt negotiations.
It's a system ungrade we don't need to show us what we already know and already have the means to collect the data. Muni drivers have poor driving skills and as a result people get hurt. Look at the video you already have.
There. Problem identified. Pay me $2 million.
I'm going to have to agree with Travin on this -- cameras are not the answer. Collecting evidence does not solve the problem.
Firing the shitty drivers IS the answer, and solves the problem. It's a public safety issue, plain and simple.
Expect to soon see a rise in incidence, and media reporting of, various crimes and misdemeanors on muni, no doubt accompanied by less enforcement, that suddenly begs support for this plan.
And a $400k monitoring budget? What are they smoking? They're going to pay 2-4 jokers $60k each (minimum) to sit on their butts to "monitor" this system and we're supposed to believe that system-wide somewhere around $175k a year is going to cover all maintenance, repair, replacement of the installed equipment itself in addition to supporting processing, review and interface equipment and training?
And we're to believe only 2-4 administrators can actually handle the workload. Really? Seriously? They could burn through that kind of cash just on meetings and donuts alone.
Get freakin' real, people.
So with this supposed budget problem that MUNI faces, how can they pull 2 million out of their asses? A few years ago they got a bunch of new vehicles and now they want cameras?
This is a GREAT idea. It will save millions in personal injury accident payouts alone - if the photos are actually used.
To remind everyone, this is a CAPITAL project, which is different from the OPERATING budget that is currently in deficit.