Red Light Traffic Cameras

[lou]

Takin a break from studyin exams; i need to start a new subject:

What does everyone think about red light cameras?

I hate red light cameras with a passion! Capital Blv in Raleigh and Independance Blv in Charlotte; many people will slam their brakes at a yellow light treating it as a red light or a sudden stop, resulting with vehicles behind to slam their brakes. Fortunately, Moore and Randolph Counties do not have them thank god. North Carolina is very popular with those evil cameras in the cities of: RALEIGH/Durham, Chapel Hill, Fayetteville, Wilmington, CHARLOTTE, Rocky Mount and Greensboro. (Note that the caps indicate there are A LOT of them). Im just shotgunning random stuff out of head, pardon me. Thank god NJ dosent have them because there would be an accident at every intersection and the agency who implemented the cameras would be billionares. Also, it is against the law under the general statue to put up cameras at intersections for red light runners. If any place where red light cameras had to be put, I think they should be experimented on downtown busy intersections where there is heavy pedestrian traffic. Any motorist would rather hit a car than a pedestrian.

[simarc]

They should put them in busy midtown Manhattan intersections, so all the "gridlock" creators would be penalized and no additional accidents would occur.

[lou]

I agree. If its proven to reduce accidents, reduce the amount of cars blocking side traffic and make Manhatten intersections safer, I'm for it. Lets just hope the fines aren't 300 bucks, ya know how the city is with fines.

[Guest]

Took me a while to answer you on this topic Lou. Actually I thought you would have more responses.
I have very mixed feelings about this. Being an ardent advocate of privacy rights, I really hate the thought of big brother looking over my shoulder more than he does already. And, in this day and age, when we have lost so many of them, big brother is looking to take even more.
I do however feel that we, the people, are our own worst enemy. We bring things on ourselves.
Here in Massachusetts, (now doesn't that tell you something) the running of red lights is not a problem. It's an art form epidemic. Daily we watch cars race through red lights as much as 3 to 4 seconds after turning red. For those that think 3 or 4 seconds is not long, think about how far a car can travel doing 30, or more in some not so rare cases. Now i'm not talking about just 1 or 2 cars. I'm talking about up to at least 5 cars at a whack.
The jokes on TV about yellow lights meaning "pedal to the metal," is quite true. The amazing thing is that we don't have more broadsides than we do. Don't forget that other guy, waiting for the green light, at the "start" line, ready to get the jump on everybody else. You know the scene.
For this reason, unless someone can come up with something better, I relutantly think cameras might save some lives and injuries.
On the other, other hand, let me bosh myself here. Cameras installed. Joe Brain Dead is racing down the road, sees the red light, starts to run it, remembers the camera, slams on the brake, & Tailgate John slams into Joe's rear. Can't win can we.

[lou]

I agree with you Lakota for the most part, im goin to school in New Jersey, motorists run red lights like theres no tomorrow. However, i still stand that downtown streets with heavy pedestrian traffic, red light cameras or some kind of camera to record dangerous activity at busy intersections should be looked at. red light cameras on highways such as Route 1 through New Jersey (6 lane highway with lights and no left turns, utilized by jughandles to execute left, right and U turns) SHOULD never be installed there because motorists will be creaming each other at every intersection when the yellow light comes on.

[Guest]

I have to agree with you Lou. It's quite a problem & we read about the results almost every day.

[TomD]

As we get older and seem to be in less of a hurry it would not matter if a camera was connected to a red light or not. what does bother me though is that the whole camera deal is to make money for our state goverment. Soon they will have those cameras mounted on telephone poles with the speed detector triggering them and we will be getting speeding tickets in the mail along with our tax bills. Think about it. they do not have to pay an officer run a car and they could be everywhere all the time. I think back in the 60's when street drag racing was my favorite pass time, things were a lot simpler. I think we should burn computers, cell phones, and every thing else we have created in the last 40 years to make us fat and lazy. Yes even me for I am an IT manager with all the tecky gadgets.