1. United States
2. Va.
3. Letter

We should expand the use of civil photo-enforcement on Virginia interstates. We should use photo enforcement to make sure that commercial vehicles are not obstructing traffic or violating lane restrictions. This will be wildly popular with your voters even through photo-enforcement is not. Let me explain. Since cameras were added to the stretch of I-81 around Roanoke that's been under construction since 2022 we've seen the first actual drop in average speed through that area. The knowledge that violators WILL be ticketed rather than MAY be ticketed changes the risk-calculus for drivers. Most of your voters hate this; the lack of urgency in these project is a lot easier to tolerate when it doesn't change the flow of traffic. But like it or not, you can't argue with effectiveness and the cameras are effective. So let's expand them and let's do it in a way that'll make Virginia voters happy. I-81 passes through your district and your voters drive on it every single day. And they hate it. They hate it for a lot of reasons but one of the most frustrating things about 81 is the disregard commercial shipping companies have for minimum safe speed. Everyone I know who drives that road complains about tractor-trailers doing 40 miles an hour up the mountain. They rant about being stuck behind one truck passing another at a 0.5 mph difference in speed. And they are absolutely incandescent with range when recounting seeing three trucks abreast crawling up the mountain at Ironto despite commercial vehicle restrictions. So use cameras. Lane restrictions should be an open-and-shut matter. Enforcement is lax on mountains because there's really no good place to put a patrol car. But photo enforcement has no such problems. Realistically, however, this is an edge case. It's enraging, but you don't see it happen often. But minimum speed enforcement would be transformative. If trucking companies could be sure of a hefty fine for doing 20+ under the limit in clear conditions you'd see traffic patterns transform at Ironto, at Buffalo Creek in Rockbridge County, on Afton Mountain, and in a bunch of other spots up and down 81. Lives would be saved. State coffers would be filled. Voters would be happy. By limiting the enforcement to commercial vehicles you avoid the political pitfalls of the program while delivering results which will be visible in the day to day lives of everyone traveling on I-81.