To those folks who are still for RedCams,
Let’s be clear, we are for safety. We all agree that drivers who wantonly violate traffic signals should be ticketed by a police officer at the time of the incident. Yet, many, many studies conclusively prove that Red Light Ticket Cameras (RLTCs) are shown to affect traffic flow with unintended circumstances. RLTCs have been shown to dramatically increase rear-end and pedestrian collisions.
In fact, RLTCs
cannot generate sufficient revenue for government and private companies in properly safety-engineered and maintained roadways and intersections. For example, a recent Georgia law extended the yellow-light time by one second at every camera-equipped intersection. Within 6 months of the law going into effect, the red light violation rate went down 80%, the red light collision rate went down 70%, and camera enforcement companies started to remove their equipment.
Then, we can review the technical problems inherent in these cameras. When you buy a pound of hamburger, fill up your car at a gas station, take a cab ride, or get a clocked by police RADAR, each and every transaction is metered or measured by a device that meets statutory standards for accuracy and measurement. Even parking meters are subject to breakdowns and maintenance. Yet RLTCs are not subject to any of the same accepted standards of commerce, locally, on a state basis or federally. (Hmmm, wonder why not?)
Moreover, a RedCam is a mere machine: a machine with no ability to change its field of vision, listen for emergency vehicles, factor for inclement weather, arrest violators or appear in court to face the alleged violators. This is not law enforcement. It’s “Instamatic Injustice.” (
Ed. Note: the Kodak Instamatic was an early “point and shoot” camera)
Some folks say, “the law is the law.” But, that completely ignores the law of physics. When traffic engineering errors aren’t corrected and when proper maintenance is not performed on traffic signals, the RLTCs are documenting engineering errors, not enforcing the law. Incidentally, just because a bill becomes law doesn’t presume that it is lawful. The City of Chicago exhorts over $48 Million a year using RLTCs, but many of these intersections have short-timed their yellow-light time phases, below the yellow-light times provided by the federal government. Finally, even with all this revenue, Chicago’s streets and sanitation electrical department will tell you that they are short-handed and unable to properly maintain the short-timed traffic signals. They are left to respond only to burned out bulb reports.
Municipalities installed RLTCs believing their vendor’s claims of increase safety. Yet, these claims – by the very vendors who profit from getting the cameras in place – have been found wanting upon scrutiny by public peer review, whether shown as using flawed statistical methods or outcomes. You can visit
motorists.org, the home page of the National Motorists Association, to verify these facts and figures.
The Federally Highway Administration calls for the three “E”s: Engineer, Educate, and Enforce – in that order. If you want to talk more about this issue, I will be at the East Dundee Village Hall for a public safety committee meeting on this subject tomorrow, Monday the 28th, at 5:30p.m.
