I don’t necessarily mind speeding/red light cameras, but I do mind when the lights are manipulated to maximize revenue.
It’s not about public safety, it’s about generating revenue for the city.
Red light cameras and speed cameras generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for municipalities across the country-politicians refer to this as “not raising taxes on the working class”.
Let's see if the town even misses its governing body.
Those cameras are all over the greater area around Denver with quite a few here and there in tourist areas on the Range in CO. Plus the tricky, new ammunition magazine laws targeting out-of-staters, marijuana law traps, fire bans in place, recreational firearms use outlawed, etc.
Bipartisan politicians don’t call the funds taxes, BTW, but “revenues” (re. Boehner comments). The political/regulator class constituents and their pet bureaucrats need them to enforce political correctness and prevent competition from the unworthy.
We have several of the damnable things in our town. I don’t mind the ones in the school zones because that’s a static, fixed speed situation.
I know that it’s an entirely anecdotal observation on my part but the impression I get now with the large intersections is more, not less extreme behavior as drivers race to avoid the red.
Our mayor claims that the streets are safer but we recently had a fatality where the car accelerated wildly to beat the light only to hit and kill a pedestrian a hundred feet down the way. They aren’t including the incident in the stats because (they say) it “didn’t occur in an intersection”.
A pox on them and all who enable them.
Sickening.
??? I live in police Mommy state Maryland and red light/speed cameras are the last of my concerns.
They have to be visible to work and my phone warns me whenever I approach one.
In fact we have roving speed camera vans in my county and while they make lots of money they are just too easy to see and beat. In fact I regularly take pictures of them and I report their positions on my phone app.
Honestly, people HERE who I lecture on how these work get caught more than once by them afterward, People are clueless/
Its like the state lottery, for morons.
Uh, you forgot the main problem with the cameras. They increase the number of rear end collisions by changing the meaning of a yellow light from "Stop if you can do so safely." to "Slam on your brakes instantly or risk a ticket."
One study found that a one second increase in time a yellow light was displayed resulted in an 80% reduction in red light violations. The lesson is obvious: if you want to decrease accidents, increase the length of the yellow and get rid of the damn cameras. Some greedy municipalities do exactly the opposite, adding cameras and shortening the yellow to generate more revenue. Bring on the lawsuits.
They could do what we did in Anaheim,Ca. The residents voted to never have red light cameras in the city. The residents of this town should do the same. People have the right to control their lives, all they have to do is take charge.
Frankly, why would a small town need traffic lights in the first place? It’s all a big fat scam.
Some solutions:
http://photoradarscam.com/protest.php
and there are various spray-on products and LED license frames that block the camera image.
Ohio Ping
Article is about suburb of Cincinnati
#16 refers to phone app
Maryland speed camera vans
http://howardcountyspeedtrap.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-speed-camera-vans-in-howard-county.html
These cameras have nothing whatsoever to do with safety. Get rid of them.
Regards,
A simple way to starve the gaping maw of government (at least here in New York State) is to set a recurring yearly reminder on your computer or smart phone to get your car inspected and/or your registration renewed in time. Local governments are now dependent on setting up police road blocks to pull people over and charge ridiculously high surcharges on top of fines for expired stickers. These surcharges are more than the fine itself. If even half the people who are now being snagged this way were in compliance in the future, these mindless bureaucrats would being to feel some pain and have to look for another, more obvious way, to bleed the taxpayers.
My response to the cameras is simple and very effective:
I choose to not visit the businesses within a one block area. Too risky.
Many others are doing this too.
“The people’s business” my ass. 2/3 down, 1/3 to go.
When the government indiscriminately surveils the citizenry of a country, the government has erected the machinery of tyranny.
Whether it’s traffic cameras or Internet snooping.
Those politicians that enable the indiscriminate surveillance of the nation’s citizens should swing at the end of a rope.