Smile, you're on Red Light Camera

Uncle Samuel Wants Your Wallet

Thanks to a new law in Arizona, people that look like mexicans or any other illegal immigrant stereotype can now be hassled in public, hauled of for further humiliation. Folks across the nation are weighing in on both sides of a complex issue, of finding a balance between tough policy and civil liberties. With the tsunami of people lured to america with the prospect of more stuff, folks have some legitimate concerns.



What in Tarnation@#$%&*!

Here in the swamp and in cities nationwide, there is a growing threat of a new kind of illegal alien trickling into our neighborhoods in an oily slick of dirty tricks.

Red-Light Cameras are invading our byways and highways.




Tic, Tax, Tons of Cake

Thanks to a shoddy new law secretly crafted by your state reps and signed by govnr Cripst, town officials across the Florida can now use foreign cameras and private technologies to further trap and snarl the motoring public. Some places like Aventura and North Bay Village already have the robust surveillance gadgets installed, they did not wait for the law that sanctions this insidious invasion of privacy and the illegitimate issuance of excessive fines. Our elected officials in Tallahassee got up to speed and have given the green-light. They are now complicit in the extorting of the public to create an obscene revenue stream that evaporates into pockets quicker than they can collect it. People pay but the real cost of this new shakedown that is being played out across the nation is a diminished quality of life for the majority.




Get the Red Out

Little is heard or read on the MSM of this impending doom. No one is concerned until it is them on the receiving end of this new schtick. Big Brother knows the motoring public has no unified voice.

You may have guessed by now that I got a "ticket" in the mail.
So I did a little surfing and found some glaring inconsistencies in the logic that attempt to justify the use Red Light Cameras.



Cross-hairs On the Crossroads

A review of preliminary collision data supplied by the city of Corpus Christi, Texas shows that the installation of red light cameras has done nothing to improve safety. Overall, the accident situation worsened at photo-enforced intersections at a time when decreased traffic levels have brought accident rates nationwide to an all-time low. The total number of accidents in Corpus Christi increased 14 percent, from 310 incidents to 353, at nine locations where automated ticketing machines were stationed. Contrary to the claim that red light cameras reduce the severity of collisions, the number of accidents involving injuries increased 28 percent from 140 to 179. Rear end collisions also increased by nearly a third from 160 to 208.



Need for Greed

...But calculations show that the cameras would bring $39.3 million into the revenue stream in the first year and up to $160.5 million by 2013-14. "I believe this is nothing more than a revenue grab," Rep. Robert Schenck, R-Springhill, said on the House floor. "The government has an insatiable appetite for our people's hard-earned money. This is the biggest, biggest intrusion of government into our lives. What's next?" The bill would put an end to municipalities splitting the fines with camera vendors. It also would require cities and counties to post signs at intersections with cameras, notifying drivers that they could be nabbed via camera for running a red light. The bill also ensures that drivers who turn right on red "in a careful and prudent manner" could not be ticketed.



What Do They Take Us For...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Red light cameras will be fully legal in Florida on July 1. Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday signed a new law authorizing the cameras as enforcement devices despite opposition from AAA. Lawmakers for several years had rejected the legislation. Opponents argued the cameras would violate privacy rights and individual liberties as well as being a "revenue grab." The bill includes a $158 fine that would be assessed against owners of vehicles caught on camera running red lights. Of that amount, $75 would go to local governments. The rest would go to the state, which must use $10 for health care and give $3 to the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis for brain and spinal cord research. AAA contended that too little of the money will go to health care and too much to general government spending. The state is expected to receive $29 million in the first year, jumping to nearly $95 million in 2013-14. Local governments would net $10 million the first year and nearly $66 million in 2013-14, according to state economists.




Right Of Way

Florida Court Rules Red Light Cameras Illegal

A Miami-Dade County Circuit Court judge has ruled that red light cameras may not be legally used to issue traffic citations in the state of Florida. Judge Gerald Bagley yesterday dismissed charges against motorist Richard Masone who had received a red light camera ticket in the mail from American Traffic Solutions (ATS). The company operates the program on behalf of the city of Aventura...



What's Next for Red Light Cameras... your bedroom perhaps?


This problem has nothing to do with traffic safety and everything to do with robbing the public.
I say keep the blasted cameras to catch the real light runners, not to make a mint by ticketing the drivers making harmless right turns with caution.
To save lives at intersections simply program the lights so the amber is timed to cause a pause of traffic from both directions.


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