Houston has been promoting the draconian measure of red light cameras in the city “to increase safety”.
While many of us may be annoyed at that last person squeezing through a red light at 20 miles per hour during rush hour, there have not been any rashes of deadly accidents caused by red light runners.
There are lots of accidents in the city every day. But in a world where we allow people to take a test once at 15 years of age, and to drive with cell phones, hamburgers, make-up, and video displays (not to mentioned unmuzzled children) we are to expect some distracted and incapable drivers.
There was a recent study showing a slight rise in accidents due to red-light running, with a shift from side-on to rear-end.
Also, extending the yellow light duration has a much greater safety effect.
Now, the National Motorist Association (via sivacracy.net) shows that in 6 cities (two in Texas), the yellow light duration was shorter than the minimum suggested by state traffic safety organizations. Not really surprising. The only goal of red-light cameras is revenue generation.
Municipalities are given a hard sell by the companies who make them (and administer, for a cut of the profit) shaming or forcing our pliable “leaders” to decide to buy them “for the safety of the people”. Houston has even talked about expanding it to people “rolling the red light to turn right”. This is not a major problem!
Traffic lights, signals, and signs have 2 goals: to facilitate traffic flow, and to do so safely. They are not there to punish us, they are not installed to provide revenue. Any camera to surveil the populace is one too many!
This kind of reminds me of safety nazi….
For example, if you look at highway stats, and what causes accidents, it is skewed….investigators can write anything down as the cause…and even multiple things….so the number add up to more than 100%…..
So when you see a stat that say 50% of accidents are caused by bla bla bla….it really mean that that MIGHT have been a factor…..
For example SPEED doesn’t cause an accident…..there MUST be some other contributing factor…..some driver MUST make another mistake for there to be an accident….now I will admit that speed will increade the likelyhood of an injury.
Please allow me to offer the friendly rebuttal:
Maybe red-light runners aren’t a problem in Houston, but they damn sure are in Austin. I’m sick of it. And since I’m often commuting on my bicycle, it’s not just a matter of a fender-bender for me – it could mean broken bones or much, much worse.
And I don’t buy the “surveillance on the populace” argument at all. Bottom line: If you’re in a place where a red-light camera can photograph you — i.e., the middle of an intersection — then you are in PUBLIC. While we do retain minimal privacy rights while out in public, the fact is, you give up most of them the second you set foot out the door.
You are driving a publicly registered vehicle on a publicly financed road and engaging in a publicly regulated activity. If people want privacy, they need to stay in a PRIVATE place, such as their home.
If the police stationed an officer at that light to watch for red-light runners, how would that be any different? In fact, I think most citizens would applaud his/her being there. Every time I see one of those red-light runners I wish so bad I could make a cop instantly appear, like a genie from a bottle. Why do some people get so upset when the real cop is replaced by a mechanical one?
If the government wanted to set up cameras to spy on our private lives or to peer inside private property, I’d be with you. But what you’re talking about with traffic lights is exactly the opposite.
Lee,
What all that was leading up to is that cities are setting up these cameras on lights that have entirely too short yellow light cycles.
If they’re interested in your safety, they should lengthen the yellows.
Yellow light-length is a much better argument. And unfortunately, it’s the first time I’ve heard it made. Every other time I’ve had this discussion with someone, it’s always been about how the government is supposedly using them to spy on us. Not that there aren’t elements in the government spying on us, I just don’t think they’re doing it with traffic cameras.
I stop for green lights now, and don’t turn on reds at these intersections. Interestingly, seems these intersection were the first to be fixed, or never went offline after the hurricane.
In the videos from these cameras posted on Chron.com, I saw police and Metro buses in the footage running reds. The only collision I saw in the footage was a fender bender becuase someone stopped, then creeped into the intersection.