taking a grip of intersection patrol across the United States?
On the surface, it seems like a really good idea. Somebody runs a

red light and the cameras take several pictures with data imprinting

along one of the edges with critical data. The photograph attempts to

get the license plate and the face of the driver, location of the

vehicle when the light turned red, and how long it took to clear the

intersection. Some of the data imprinted include the posted speed

limit, time and date, speed of the vehicle at the time of the red

light infraction, often there are other pieces of information.

The theory sounds good and it should prevent people from blatantly

running red lights. But then there are some undesired side effects.
Some of these include:

• increased rear end collisions caused by excessive sudden breaking

  (and inadequate following distance) to avoid a ticket
  

• falsely assuming that the red light running accidents have

  decreased (as caused by red light running) due to photo enforced

  ticketing.
  

It has been discovered that the yellow light time length has been

decreased to increase the number of tickets issued, resulting in more
revenue gathered. Here's the incentives to issue more tickets:

• it is easier to set up the camera than to hire additional

  officers to patrol or enforce the law

• with a shorter yellow light time, there is a 37% chance that the

  motorist will not have sufficient time to brake safely, and still be in

  violation.

Adding 1 second timing to the yellow light would typically reduce the

number of violations, but also make the camera less financially

appealing to local governments. But the financial incentive outweighs

the safety aspect by making the intersections less safe for most

municipalities. Bizarre isn't it? Lets consider some more information

about the red light cameras, like the bright light flashes actually are

bright enough that the picture appears that the vehicles' lights were

off! Vision of the driver gets impaired which could cause loss of

vehicle control, a legal problem should the driver get in an accident

following the red light incident! This would put the municipality at

fault, regardless of who owns the cameras. Most cameras installed

nationally are rented via contract and some are actually monitored

and send notifications via postal mail for municipalities. There are

many other related issues as well. One of them being not being served

by the officiating officer who witnessed the incident. A friend of mine

called me up and said that a news broadcast (Fox) was telling people

that these would be illegal nationally by November. I looked it up

online (not a big fox news fan) and found it was a challenge that may

be presented to the voters of AZ at election time. Still significant, but

not national level. Minneapolis MN had theirs challenged in court and

lost the case, forcing the cameras to be taken offline. Rewrites of their

related laws are in progress to allow for the camera use.

So the real question is, are these red light cameras effective or just

money makers at the risk of the motorist's safety?

Reference:
Dick Army, Office of the Majority Leader, U.S. House of

Representatives, "Final Report Red Light Investigation" May 2001



That's all for today Folks!

Be Safe,

Have Fun, and

Watch Out for those

Crazy

Drivers!!!