I saw a TV special about these cameras recently and they were showing one horrific crash after another that were directly caused by the cameras because people start panicking as soon as they see the light change yellow, they slam on the breaks and cause whatever is following them to crash into the rear of their car. One crash in particular stood out, because it was a fire truck that rolled over on top of a car that did just that because the driver was terrified that she would get a ticket if she didn't come skidding to a stop when the light changed while she was right under it.
Red light cameras have almost nothing to do with safety and everything to do with revenue. In many places in the U.S. the contractor that operates the lights somehow ends up shortening the yellow light, because the cameras do NOT generate enough revenue on their own to ever cover the cost of installing and running them. In many intersections you can cross the white stop line on a green light, and have the light cycle to yellow and then red before you can exit the intersection on the other side while doing the posted speed limit. It is not physically possible to exit the intersection in time while doing the posted speed limit. By law if you are in the intersection when the light turns red, you are running a red light and get a camera violation. The result is cars that SLAM on their breaks to not "run the red light" even if it means getting rear ended by a car following too close behind. This is NOT about safety at this point, but generating more money for liberals to simply piss away like all the rest of the taxes we pay!
I saw a TV special about these cameras recently and they were showing one horrific crash after another that were directly caused by the cameras because people start panicking as soon as they see the light change yellow, they slam on the breaks and cause whatever is following them to crash into the rear of their car. One crash in particular stood out, because it was a fire truck that rolled over on top of a car that did just that because the driver was terrified that she would get a ticket if she didn't come skidding to a stop when the light changed while she was right under it.
ReplyDeleteRed light cameras have almost nothing to do with safety and everything to do with revenue. In many places in the U.S. the contractor that operates the lights somehow ends up shortening the yellow light, because the cameras do NOT generate enough revenue on their own to ever cover the cost of installing and running them. In many intersections you can cross the white stop line on a green light, and have the light cycle to yellow and then red before you can exit the intersection on the other side while doing the posted speed limit. It is not physically possible to exit the intersection in time while doing the posted speed limit. By law if you are in the intersection when the light turns red, you are running a red light and get a camera violation. The result is cars that SLAM on their breaks to not "run the red light" even if it means getting rear ended by a car following too close behind. This is NOT about safety at this point, but generating more money for liberals to simply piss away like all the rest of the taxes we pay!
ReplyDelete