Posted on 06/13/2003 7:16:09 PM PDT by mhking
(CBS) John Irving knew he had been caught. He knew a traffic camera had seen him run a red light, but he also thought the yellow light had turned red too fast. So he returned to the busy intersection and timed it.
His findings: 2.7 seconds.
"Not even three seconds," he says.
Three seconds, when every other yellow light on the stretch of road was four seconds long. In other words, as he drove the street, the yellow lights in order lasted four, four, four and out of nowhere three seconds.
"It's a blink of an eye - a $70 blink of an eye," says Irving.
Many communities around the country are using cameras to try to stop drivers from running red lights. It's a safety issue, yes, but drivers like Irving are say it's really about making money for local governments.
Why this light in Bethesda was three seconds might have a million dollar answer. Literally. This one traffic camera earned the county $1 million in fines over 14 months.
"It shocked me," he says. "And the only explanation for it is that light is a trick. And law enforcement shouldn't be a trick."
Lon Anderson of the Triple A's mid Atlantic office complains too many traffic cams today are money scams for the cities that put them up.
Washington D.C. collected big on an odd double yellow light that turns red when it's not even at an intersection. In Baltimore, Anderson says, you can get a red light ticket by missing the light by one tenth of a second.
These systems can work, but why can't they work without tricking them? Why can't they work without gimmicks?
But County Executive Doug Duncan calls traffic cameras essential in an era when red light running is rampant.
"These are not traps, these are not tricks," says Duncan.
He says the cameras reduce red light running 40 to 70 per cent.
"Its a way to make people safe," says Duncan. "We put those cameras up at the intersections that are most dangerous."
Still, Duncan won't defend the three-second light.
When asked why that light is three seconds, Duncan laughs then adds, "I don't know, it should be the same as everywhere else."
He says he plans to change it.
Two days after CBS News taped this interview - and a year after Irving first complained, the county set all the lights on the stretch at 3.5 seconds. The county keeps to its belief the cameras are for safety -- so it plans to keep the $1 million.
"Hold muh beer 'n watch this!" PING....
If you want on or off this list, please let me know!
This says everything you need to know. People cannot be "made safe". When the government is actively trying to make me safe (or so they say), that is a warning sign of too much government. There are other things in life far more important than safety.
You forget the barf alert or, at the very least, "it's for the children" alert! :-)
When yellow light times are consistent and reasonable, they allow motorists to decide whether it is safer to stop before the intersection or proceed through it. Gaming the intersection timing pressures people to stop before they have a chance to ensure that it's really safe; worse, in cases where the right course of action may be unclear, the traffic light cameras pressures people to choose what is likely to be the more dangerous action.
I'd like to see a law passed that any politician or government official who installs a red-light camera with "rigged" timing shall be personally required to pay $1,000,000 to any motorist who gets rear-ended stopping for the cameraed intersection, or any motorist who makes a full and reasonable attempt to stop before such an intersection, fails, and gets clobbered by cross-traffic.
New Rome Police Department was just shut down recently after thirty plus YEARS of this sort of thing -
- an ENTIRE TOWN was paying for EVERYTHING with ticket revenue on a very short strip of road outside Columbus Ohio ...
New Rome chief quits, no police force for nowMore:The Columbus Dispatch
© 2002 The Dispatch Printing Co.
All Rights ReservedSteve Stephens THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH New Rome’s police chief, who presided over a department nationally noted for writing thousands of traffic tickets on a 1,000-foot stretch of W. Broad Street, resigned Friday.
Larry Cunningham could not be reached for comment. But his attorney, Benson Wolman, confirmed that Cunningham had resigned as chief and as village administrator. Wolman said he did not know Cunningham’s reason.
The village of 60 and its police department have been under fire from all quarters, including state government. Gov. Bob Taft recently signed into law a measure widely acknowledged as being aimed at New Rome.
The law eliminates mayor’s courts in villages with fewer than 100 residents. It also has provisions for dissolving small municipalities that have persistent financial or elections irregularities.
Cunningham’s political opponent Ed Anthony, a village councilman who led an unsuccessful campaign to dissolve New Rome, said that Friday was "a big, big day for the tiny town.’’
www.wbns10tv.com/news/archive/060803local5134.php?story=060803local5134
I love men dearly and fight for their rights daily but only a guy would come up with a scheme like this.
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