Catching the slippery one

I often get stuck in traffic jams on my way to work. On those days when I am too tired to hold the book in the bus, I look out of the window to see if I can figure out the reason for the traffic jam. The first reason of course is that there are too many vehicles that come in too many varieties (as I wrote earlier). Obviously!! But the second reason is that there is always some moron or the other who tries to do something spectacular, like going on the wrong side of the road, crossing the yellow line or something and then the whole traffic collapses into a catastrophic chaos.

I must admit I have had my share of jumping the red light, over taking from the wrong side etc. But as always is the case, I never get caught. Exactly! If I was caught the first time I jumped a signal or parked in no parking, and penalized heavily, chances are that I would never ever do it again. Believe me, I have lived in Singapore. The fine system works just fine.

So now we have a solution that makes the traffic a bit more streamlined and lives a bit more safe. The solution is to catch the violators and fine them heavily. Easier said than done. The biggest problem is that there are not enough resources with the police to man every junction, watch every yellow line.

That is where yours truly will apply his extra-ordinary brain powers to come up with a solution.

The solution is as simple as it sounds. Just privatize the traffic regulation.
How it works is, I - being a private contractor- take up the ‘rights’ to monitor certain area, say M.G road (the same way BMP used to auctions parking lots). I pay the government certain money for giving me the right. Then the government tells me “see, you can go catch and fine all the people out their risking their and others lives, but you can not fine anyone without first having a photo/video of them violating the rule”. Then I invest some more money to hire people, equipment (traffic cameras, speed radars etc). Then I go install the infrastructure on MG road and I will record on my camera every guy who crossed the yellow line or jumped the signal or the like. I catch that guy at the next junction, and tell him ‘Dude, we have you on the tape crossing the yellow line. That would be 2000 Rs fine. Will that be fine?’.

Now do you see how it works? The government is happy because it gets more revenue than before. The contractor is happy because he makes more money than he invested, the police are happy because now they can concentrate on really important things like channeling traffic to help VIPs go to a dinner party, the average commuter is happy because the traffic is smoother and he know he cant be implicated without genuine evidence. The only person who feels sad is may be the guy who paid those 2000 Rs. But 4 out of 5 is still a good score.
What do you think?