This Could Be The Best Way to Stop Billings From Driving Recklessly (Opinion)

I think that Billings has crazy traffic. And I enjoy reading the rants on the Reckless Drivers pages on Facebook. But nothing is changing. I have a few suggestions.

There are a few issues with enforcing traffic laws in our town. One is manpower. The main street in the heights sees between 40,000 and 50,000 cars daily. And most of those are speeding. And even if you're only a little bit over the limit, that's still technically speeding. (As I tell my daughter all the time)

And if every driver doing 36 in a 35 got cited, poor Chief St John would be answering angry phone calls all day, every day.

And Billings voted against traffic cameras a few years back because apparently a lot of you are sneaking around with somebody who is not supposed to be in your car.

It's my belief that with just a few red light runners that I see on my short commute each day were ticketed, we'd be able to lower everybody's property taxes.

What needs to happen is the fines need to be higher. I got a ticket several years ago for running a red light. And ten years ago the fine was $115 dollars. That's high enough for me. So I quit running red lights.

So even if you get a traffic ticket these days, none of them are prohibitively expensive. Subsequently, you folks are still running red lights. The low chance of getting pulled over around here also contributes.

In Finland, if you get a traffic ticket, they take a percentage of your income. I'm guessing that there's no Reckless Drivers page in Finnish Facebook because everybody drives a little more reasonably.

Be safe today in traffic. And try to be nice to each other, please.