I’m part of a red light camera class action lawsuit here in Florida. Big abuse of the red light cameras. I have to remember to check the status of the lawsuit this week.
Freedom-loving people should smash down these damn cameras.
I’ve never seen one here in Maine, fortunately.
Hate, hate, hate those cameras. We survived decades without using them. Feel like rats in a maze for the govt. glaze. That they use cameras and police as revenue collectors is a disgraceful shame. Politicians should run on the issue with promises to get rid of this extortion by govt. —unless they lie.
I don’t see where there’s a libertarian quandary with these. They’re a pure big government cash grab with nothing to recommend them, clearly the kind of thing libertarians are against.
Tip of the iceberg, boys, I blame the libertarians!
This guy wouldn’t like driving through Europe. Of course every city that puts up these cameras obligatory says “we’re not setting these up for revenue, they are for your own safety.”
But I don't see any of those being done, so dump the red light and speed cameras.
Counties and cities often lower the length of the yellow light phase when they install the cameras to a couple of seconds.
When the Georgia legislature passed a law requiring traffic lights in the state to have a minimum of 4 seconds for the yellow light phase, the number of camera based tickets dropped by 80%. This disproved the idea that the cameras were only catching dangerous drivers running redlights.
Our town has never had the speed cameras but we did have red-light cameras. They were sold as (of course) a safety measure that would only be used in school zones. Now who would complain about that?!
Once they got their foot in the door they quickly expanded to every major intersection in town. Despite all the negative fallout the (pubbie) mayor refused to remove them. He’s not the mayor anymore.
Oh and they’re removing the cameras as we speak.
The problem with red-light cameras is they aren’t profitable forever. People learn to stop running red lights and the cameras eventually cost more to operate than they bring in. The solution, of course, is to shave half a second off the yellow light and WALLAH! MONEY! For a while.
But there is really no need for red-light cameras at all. If there is an intersection with lots of red-light runners, it means the yellow isn’t long enough. Add a second or two, and the red-light runners disappear.
But as Ayn Rand said, the only power government has is the power to punish criminals, and when there aren’t enough criminals you pass more laws to manufacture more criminals.
Urban legend I’m sure, but while running the light with a camera, we always use to talk about covered license plates, dropping trou and shooting a bare moon out the rear window. (A BA against glass is called a pressed ham)
Red light cameras are an abuse of government power.
IOW, they’re working just the way liberals want them to work.
Re: “A universal peeve of motorists, being fined for a harmless rolling right on red.”
Harmless?
The author must have no experience as a pedestrian.
I live in a busy downtown area and walk everywhere.
My greatest fear and most frequent close call?
People making right turns on red.
If you happen to be on the right side of their car, they are staring left, at oncoming traffic, and have NO idea you are there.
ping me