February 10, 2008

Speed Cameras Aren’t Perfect

Scottsdale dismissing nearly 600 speeding tickets is not nearly as big of a story as it should be. Lawmakers are quick to tell everyone about how good these speed are but are not so quick to tell you about the faults they may have.

The city blamed the tickets on a faulty sensor embedded in one of the cameras. If that sensor went bad who knows how many other sensors could be faulty. Are these tested on a regular basis?

The city gave refunds to those who already paid their tickets but what about those who went to traffic school how will they be repaid for their wasted time?

How many other cameras are out there right now clicking away giving out tickets that may not even be deserved? How many more people have to get phony tickets before these speed cameras will be taken down and our rights will be restored.

-Brett Warren
Tempe, AZ








Brett Warren
Matthew Jolly
Eng 102
February 11, 2008
Reflection/Analysis
When trying to decide what I wanted to write about I came across an article in The Valley and State section of Wednesdays Valley and state section. The article was about Scottsdale dismissing 600 speeding tickets due to a faulty speed camera. Since I am not a big fan of the speed cameras in the first place I figured it would be perfect for me to write about. I thought why are lawmakers so quick to put these cameras and infringe on our rights but its not even a very big story when it is found that 600 tickets were given out that should not of been.
When writing my letter I had to consider many things about my audience. Including in what way could I make my arguments and the best response out of my readers. I figured that my audience would be pretty neutral to my letter and if anything they would tend to be a little more on my side of the argument rather than being for them. My intended audience is one that does not like speed cameras and think that they need to be taken down. My actual audience is one that is pretty neutral to speed cameras and probably don’t have a very strong opinion on the subject
I figured I would use mostly Pathos in my arguments and I started that off early when I said that speed cameras infringe on our rights. I used ethos in my paper when talking about the faulty sensor that caused the tickets. This showed that I read the article and know what I’m talking about. I think that the audience responds best to the emotional appeals that I used in the letter.
I tried to maintain a pretty consistent tone throughout my letter which was pretty serious. I showed that I knew what I was talking about in the letter when I mentioned the cause of the tickets was the faulty sensor.
Had I been able to make my letter longer I would of gone into more detail about speed cameras and other instances of when they have failed. I would of also gone into more detail about what people had to do in order to get their refund. I would of also done more research to find out what the city is planning on doing to make sure that this wouldn’t happen again in the future.