msturtz wrote:
WyoTraveler wrote:
It really makes sense to put up red light cameras. We drove about 120 miles on an 8 hour shift in a police vehicle in SO CA. Multiply that by 3 i.e. approx 330 miles a day on a police vehicle. With the cost of fuel and maintenance of vehicles it really cuts into a budget. With cameras you can still monitor crime and dangerous intersections with a lot less cost. I don't have a problem I stop at red lights. I think they should have them in all school zones also. Radar and cameras. JMHO
I would have less of a problem with red light cameras if in fact they didn't play games with them to increase revenue. The other problem is rear end and other collisions occur more frequently in areas with red light cameras. One of the common methods the red light camera vendors do is fudge the "yellow" time. There is a standard yellow time depending on the speed limit on the particular road. What the companies that install, sell and service the cameras do is shorten the yellow time to idiotic limits such as two seconds in a 35 MPH zone. Their "studies" show that if the yellow time is say 6 - 10 seconds they don't receive enough revenue to justify the camera installation and maintenance. The companies and cities doing this see this as a revenue instrument rather than an incentive to ensure people stop at intersections. I hate it when people run red lights however I hate it more when governments collude with big business to use red light cameras as a revenue tool.
Pre post: Apologies to the OP for getting a bit off track from the original post topic.
Well,
As you've somewhat stated, much of the problem that has occurred with the Red light cameras is the fact that, the mechanism in place, is not doing what it was intended to do. And that is/was, to decrease the running of red lights, in problem intersections. And, in the process, a fixed camera, recording the actual action/s, would therefore have un-biased alligations that someone did or, did not violate any driving laws by entering an intersection and, even proceeding through it, AFTER the warning light, (amber) had been displayed and, had changed to the stopping light which, is red.
And, as was also originally intended, when a red light camera photo was to be reviewed, by and officer of the jurisdiction involved, and was validated to be of true violation (there is some "grayness" in many of them), the "REVENUE" is/was to be divided by the city/county/jurisidiction involved and, the company that developed/installed and maintains the cameras.
However, in many of the jurisdictions, way more of the revenue went to the private concern, than entered the city/county coffers. And, while many PD entities were "sort of" happy that the use of those cameras permitted the PDs involved to use their limited amount of personnel in what they think/thought is more valuable ways/assignments than just paying an officer to sit at an intersection, waiting or a red-light-runner, the "gray" areas, i.e. as you pointed out about the TAMPERING with the amber light timing, started causing way more complaints and, in-validated citations due to improper operation of those cameras.
And, once the public was made aware of the fact that in many cases, the private concern which, could be a half to a whole state away from the cameras in question was making WAY more money than the city/county they were living in, from the validated ones, many did some serious complaining to CITY HALL! So, that's at least some of the story on the evolution and, falling down of the infamous "Red light Cameras".
If, the cities involved, had designed, built, installed, operated, and maintained all of the cameras involved in their jurisdiction(with no influence from any private concern) and, had a timely review of the operations of each, said camera, by both the PD involved and, a citizens review board, to make sure the entire operation of each camera and, timing of all the lights, green-amber-red, have not been altered, AND MOST IMPORTANT, the money collected from all validated citations, WENT TO THE CITY INVOLVED, then the entire red-light camera scenario across the nation would be considerably different than it is right now.
Scott
