Traffic Light Cameras
In many towns, including my own now, have started to put cameras up at traffic lights in an attempt to generate more ticket revenue. Some try to claim that the cameras make intersections safer and they justify having the cameras with that reason, even though the underlying reason is more ticket revenue. I’ve even heard of cases where cities have decreased the amount of time the yellow light is on in order to ticket more drivers. The ultimate question though, is this even legal?
To begin, tickets are issued to the owner of the car, no matter who may be driving it. This is a major problem in and of itself as the cities are not punishing the particular offender, they are just delivering justice to whoever, whether they are guilty or not, as a convenient way of padding the city’s coffers and accomplishing “safety”. Why is it that a lot of the things that any level of government does in the name of safety generally restricts and infringes upon our rights? It is to the point where people are guilty until proven innocent. Until these camaras can get a picture of the actual driver, all tickets given through this system should be voided. However I’m not so sure this system provides more safety anyways.
I’ve seen accidents that are caused by these cameras. People approach these lights and as they are about to get close to the intersection, the light changes to yellow. Instead of safely going on through with ample time, they stop abruptly for fear of getting a ticket if they don’t make it through the intersection in time. An abrupt stop on a busy street can cause all sorts of problems and chain reactions, none of which are safe. This causes wrecks, which in turn uses up city resources to respond to the accident, higher insurance costs, and a lot of un-necessary headaches.
If traffic citations are going to be issued, they should be issued at the time of the violation witnessed by a law enforcement officer, otherwise a person would either have to just pay the ticket, or show up to court and defend themselves, even though there is no actual accuser to cross examine in order to justify the citation. If the ticket ends up being thrown out, we have managed to successfully waste more of our court resources when they are already strained due to so many cases. In the end, the government has either gained little to no money, or lost money in this situation, all the while taking more money and time from the citizens needlessly.
on November 16th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Several years ago I came across an article that said studies showed that making the yellow light two seconds longer would do more to prevent accidents than cameras ever could. I wish I could find this article again. If their data was correct than the safety argument is worthless.
I find it amazing how post 9-11 all debate about cameras in public places has seemed to of disappeared. It seems no one cares about privacy anymore, only perceived safety and security.
on November 16th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
It’s as if no one even cares about our basic rights anymore. As long as everyone is happy inside their little bubble, these things aren’t an issue.
That is what defines this blog and I hope I can help people see the issues that we are going through on a daily basis that most don’t give much thought to when they are preoccupied with so many other things. We are moving at breakneck pace these days and we miss a lot of things.