Friday, June 13, 2008

Red Light Cameras on St. Charles Avenue are a Bad Idea

The City has decided to put up red light cameras in a desperate grab for more taxpayer money. Mark my words, this will follow the same pattern as it has in every other city that has done this: (1) initially, the City will raise a bunch of money catching people running red lights; (2) people will figure out where the lights are and slam on the brakes as they approach those intersections to avoid a ticket, causing lots of injuries and property damage in rear-end accidents; (3) as the accidents pile up and people learn better, they will avoid red light tickets more and more, causing the City to "earn" less money off the backs of taxpayers; and (4) the City, desperate to keep this new source of taxpayer money flowing, will shorten the yellow light time at the ticketing intersections in order to catch more people, leading to more accidents, etc. Red light cameras are a bad idea anywhere, but they're particularly idiotic on historic St. Charles Avenue, where they've been sprouting up lately with an ugly gray box in the middle of the neutral ground, unsightly tall poles with ugly cameras attached, and attention-grabbing street signs announcing a red light intersection.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I e-mailed Stacy Head about this, and she did not respond (which she normally does). She must be in favor of these cameras.

Speed Camera Detectors said...

Yeah Red Light Camera Only for increasing Revenue. Thanks for posting such information.