Gardina’s ‘unscientific experiment’
Prior to the Tuesday evening vote on speed camera legislation, a few councilmen took the time to explain why they were about to vote the way they were about to vote.
Councilman Vince Gardina, a Democrat who represents the 5th District, said his vote was based, at least in part, on what he explained as a month-long “unscientific experiment.”
“Over the last month or so I’ve been trying to drive the speed limit all the time,” said Gardina, who represents Perry Hall, Carney and Towson.
“Somebody ought to try this once: Drive the speed limit on any given road — 40 mph, 50 mph, 65 mph, 30 mph,” Gardina said. “It doesn’t matter what (the speed limit) is. I would say that people that drive on these roads exceed that speed limit by way more than 12 mph.”
Gardina said he can be driving on the “Beltway coming from anywhere, and everybody’s passing me and I’m going 55 mph. I can be driving on (Interstate-95) going 65 mph. Everybody passes me. Everybody passes me.”
“Not one or two or three or four, but everybody, and that happens time and time and time again,” Gardina said.
“So, my own little unscientific test here over the last month seems to prove this is a major problem,” Gardina concluded. “Speeding for some reason just seems to be a way of life now rather than an exception, and I think the more we do to curtail (speeding) the better we are.”
Bryan McIntire, the council’s sole Republican, agreed with Gardina that speeding motorists are a problem — but had a different solution.
“I believe that the best way to enforce it is having the police department alerted to this problem and making every effort to ticket those who exceed it,” said McIntire, who represents the 3rd District including Parkton, Cockeysville and Kingsville.
And in the spirit of bipartisanship McIntire made his fellow councilman a promise.
“I won’t pass you,” McIntire said.