CARS
For Ms. Jane Rubini whose work with MLKVoice4Youth continues to inspire and encourage
A young woman wakes up when it’s still dark outside. She gets ready to drop her child off at school and drive to her first job. After her first job is done, she drives to her second job. Along the way she exceeds the speed limit by a few miles in her rush to get to work on time. She doesn’t even realize what she did or the fact that she just broke the law. Exhausted, she drives back home traveling on a desolate road late at night and jumps a red light on this still night. The young mother is impatient and wants to get started on her online college course work. She has hopes for herself and big dreams for her child.
The traffic violation tickets that she’ll receive in the mail will change all of that and throw her entire life into disarray.
How does something that is “about making sure that we keep communities safe” turn into a monster that has derailed peoples’ entire livelihoods.
How does it cause a 28-year-old entrepreneur to have to borrow money to pay off debt or risk bankruptcy?
How does it derail a daily wage earner and single mother’s plan to finally get her college degree?
The commercial ventures behind these traffic enforcement systems unashamedly proclaim the virtues of the “Race-Neutral Traffic Cameras” but somehow…. still end up hurting the most weak, vulnerable, and impoverished.
Black drivers, who account for only about 31% of motorists, receive 58% of traffic tickets, and are over two times more likely to be ticketed than white drivers.
I knew people groan about receiving traffic violation tickets, but never knew that it could nudge people into bankruptcy.
So, I looked further into these eye-catching headlines, and what I found shocked me. It was then that I realized that traffic tickets could shatter lives and, drag down entire communities
Drivers from minority communities across the nation are disproportionately affected by traffic laws that are meant to keep all of us safe.
Is it just a case of bad driving, plain bias, or something more complex?
The establishment of a new traffic light safety system in Chicago exacerbated the consequences of minor traffic infractions. Eleven tickets later, Rodney Perry was spiraling into debt within a year. Three tickets for running red lights and eight for speeding – five were for going at speeds that were previously permissible.
He acknowledged his fault and was willing to pay his due, but struggled to completely pay off the tickets. His efforts were not enough to stop the late penalties from piling up, and he owed the City almost a thousand dollars.
It seemed as if things could not get worse for Perry, but then the City immobilized Perry’s car. Now Perry couldn't get to work to even try to earn money to pay off his debts. Perry was stuck in a quagmire of debt, until family was able to come through for him during his time of need. Although Perry’s story has a simpler ending, his story is just one of the thousands out there.
We know that it is the financially insecure, who are unable to pay traffic fines in time to avoid late penalties. Yet, about 50% of tickets received by low-income residents will result in additional penalties, while for higher-income residents only 17% of tickets will incur additional penalties.
That is simply illogical.
I understand that everyone needs to take responsibility for their actions, and the local government also has a valid interest in providing for road safety. However, there must be greater considerations made to evaluate the socio-economic circumstances of the individual.
Do the financial consequences that arise from a “ticket” based on an individual’s socioeconomic circumstances fit the nature of the crime?
Chicago had passed its new traffic laws to improve safety and accountability on the road. It did not pass its laws to cause undue financial distress to hardworking and vulnerable families. Lower income individuals, Blacks and Latinos suffer consequences from traffic tickets that are simply disproportionate to the offense committed.
Furthermore, punitive measures such as traffic ticketing do not address the root cause of the issue. Traffic ticketing alone, cannot not fix the structural racism that has created not only the ticketing disparity but also the higher mortality rates for Blacks and Latinos on the road.
As we cruise through the expressways, we fail to realize that a lot of those expressways were built through predominantly Black, Latino, or lower-income neighborhoods. As the mostly Black and Latino drivers get off these expressways to get home, they may speed through not realizing they exceeded the speed limit or jumped a red light, getting caught by the strategically placed traffic cameras. These neighborhoods may not have a separate pathway for cyclists either, so they will be fined for cycling on the sidewalk.
Black and Latino drivers are on the road for longer periods of time. Given the location of some of the low-income neighborhoods, Blacks and Latinos must drive further go to the grocery store or get to work.
Our current traffic ticketing system perpetuates this cycle of poverty and debt.
There has probably been some point in our lives when we have received the dreaded “golden ticket” in our mail - traffic tickets. We may get them for any number of reasons; speeding, jumping a red light, parking and more. We may pay and then move on, but it’s not always as simple.
As we craft policy, it is important to consider its implications on the more economically vulnerable and insecure. Because at times, paying a fine is not about accountability or bad driving, but is rather about deciding between putting food on the table or risking bankruptcy.
References:
https://econofact.org/what-drives-racial-differences-in-speeding-tickets
https://crimeandjusticeresearchalliance.org/rsrch/racial-disparities-in-traffic-ticketing/
ttps://www.propublica.org/article/chicagos-race-neutral-traffic-cameras-ticket-black-and-latino-drivers-the-most
https://www.propublica.org/article/chicago-mayor-lori-lightfoot-proposes-further-traffic-ticket-reforms-to-help-low-income-motorists
