S.17.5-4: FAST Act (Statute)

[IceAgeComing]

Fellow Delegates,

I support the reasoning of this legislation to some extent, and I feel that there is reasoning for significant parts of the legislation.  I have a few questions that I feel need to be addressed first.

Firstly; what would be the safety implications of having an eighty miles per hour limit rather than seventy?  I know that was the primary reason why the Motorway speed limit remained at seventy in the UK; and I was wondering whether the proposer of the legislation may wish to expand on that.  Additionally; justification for section 3 would be appreciated;

Secondly; I would personally support a clarification that section 4 would only apply in rural areas; or in areas where pedestrian traffic would be unlikely to be present in significant quantities.  I feel that without that provision there would likely be a safety risk to pedestrians trying to cross the road otherwise: and this house should not be seeking to discourage walking.

Finally; I generally disapprove of this chamber removing the rights of lower authorities to implement solutions for problems in their own communities so therefore I'd personally support either striking section 5 in its entirety; or redrafting it to allow for a series of conditions that would have to be present for municipalities to implement red light cameras.  Indeed; I feel that the latter would be better legislation; since then local authorities would have clear guidelines and the introduction of red light cameras would be more uniform throughout the region, and also it'd mean that this house would not have to vote on every single request for a red light camera which strikes me as being inappropriate considering that we represent such a large region.

In the bill in its current form, I would have to vote against it.