Red light cameras too good for their own good?

[Mugu]

By Alex Johnson
Reporter MSNBC

Last week, Dallas officials reviewed the numbers and decided that a quarter of the cameras they had installed to catch motorists running red lights were too effective. So they shut them down.

They are not alone. Faced with data showing that drivers pay attention to cameras at intersections — resulting in fewer ticketable violations and ever-shrinking revenue from fines — municipalities across the country are reconsidering red light cameras, which often work too well.

At the heart of the discussions taking place in city councils and county commissions is tension between the twin benefits that were touted when local governments began installing cameras about a decade and a half ago. Officials were promised that the cameras — which take snapshots of busy intersections, capturing the license plates of any cars that are running the light — would simultaneously save lives and generate millions of dollars in extra fines.

snip

Fewer violations = less revenue
Sometimes, as in Dallas, cameras generate so little revenue that they can’t even pay for themselves.


Read complete article at:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23710970/

[displacedtexan]

1. Hm. Save lives or generate revenue?

Decisions. Decisions.

What a crock! "Saving lives" was obviously the excuse used
to buy the cameras in the first place.

Disgusting.

[Dr. Strange]

2. Bingo. n/t

[OwnedByFerrets]

3. ...

Farking HILARIOUS!!!!!!! To paraphrase Monkeyboy, Money Trumps Lives.

[MaryCeleste]

4. Who says "necklacing" has no place in this country?

A small number of Brits have been destroying red light and speed cameras (called GATSOs) over the years. We need to spread that here

[Clear Blue Sky]

5. Great logic

They work so let's get rid of them...

[MindPilot]

7. No they don't work...read the whole article.

Their sole purpose is to generate revenue and they are failing at that because a vast majority of drivers stop at red lights just like they are supposed to. They do that not because they don't want to get a ticket; they do that because they don't want to get t-boned by a semi.

RLCs are a robo-cop style of unconstitutional law enforcement.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. Put up fake ones

at a fraction of the cost, and move the real ones to intersections where there are problems.

[MindPilot]

8. No, FIX the intersections that have problems.

If an intersection has a high crash rate, there is something wrong with it. There is poor visibility, confusing signage, improperly timed signals, etc. But that solution only saves lives and prevents injuries, it doesn't make money.

[Warpy]

9. No kidding, or just maintain them on a rotating basis

so that drivers never know which ones are on or off.

The main problem with them here was that they were poorly aimed so that people in the left turn lane who were already in oncoming traffic got nabbed when they turned at the light change.

Re aiming them cured that.

[MindPilot]

10. Here in San Diego they got caught entrapping drivers into getting tickets

The company that set up the cameras got $70 for every ticket. To help that process along, they shortened the yellow time and set the trigger point as much as a foot behind the limit line. If you were within about half a block of the intersection when the light went yellow, you couldn't avoid a ticket even if you stopped.

I think they should die a quiet death and never be used again. And the fuckers who risked peoples' lives to make money with the damn things should be in prison.