Lately I’ve been hearing a lot of talk about red-light cameras. Most people seem to feel that they are, at best, unecessary and, at worst, an utter waste of taxpayers money. The more I think about it the more I have to agree. Why should “Big Brother” be monitoring whether or not we run a red light? Where is it written that motorist aren’t allowed to run a red light anyway? I’m pretty sure it’s some sort sort of a constitutional right. After all, sometimes I’m in a hurry and if I have to sit and wait for the light to turn green again it might make me as much as five minutes late. Five minutes! I don’t have that kind of time to waste. That will mean there could be three or four more cars ahead of me in the Tim Horton’s drive-through. It’s not as if running a red light it dangerous or anything; the cars going the other way shouldn’t be jumping the green light without making sure it’s totally safe to proceed. If I get a ticket in the mail and have to pay a big fine, is that supposed to somehow make me think twice about breaking traffic laws? I’m driving, I can’t be distracted by thinking!
Aren’t there more important things to spend the taxpayers’ money on? I think I heard about some sort of Federal Inquiry or Hearing coming up; we have to pay for that somehow. I don’t want to have to pay extra taxes for something as frivolous as red-light cameras. And don’t even get me started on photo-radar. All I’ll say is, if the speed limit is 100 kph on the highway, why is my car capable of going 180 kph or more?
Hehe… why is it always Big Brother and not Big Half-Brother or Big Cousin?
The use of technology to enforce traffic safety laws such as red light violation and speed (in some states) has become a celebrated practice.
Approximately 260,000 crashes per year occur from the deliberate running of red lights. There were 11,600 crashes in the state of Florida alone. Many avenues have been addressed in an attempt to solve this dilemma from the adjustment of timing signals to removing baseless traffic signals with no prevail.
Conventional procedures necessitate that law enforcement officers observe the violation, pursue, and ticket the driver. Automated enforcement alleviates the chase, however hinders the driver’s right to due process, where both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution come into play. Due process plays a significant role in the criminal justice system. It is the principle that the government must respect all of the legal rights that are owed to a person according to the law of the land, which are all of the laws in force within our country.
There have been varying reports in regards to success of the automated enforcement program. Some evaluation studies indicate significant reductions in the deliberate running of red lights where WSDOT Traffic Operations Division reported that there was no significant decline especially where right angle crashes are concerned.
The issue at hand still remains are the due process rights of citizens being violated?
City’s see green:
Polk County, Florida, was one of the first locations in the nation to conduct automated enforcement where warnings were issued to vehicle owners. Since the installation of the cameras in May, over $770,000 worth of fines had been distributed.