↓ Archives ↓

Posts Tagged → traffic safety

Red Light Cameras vs. The People

Last year I was nabbed by a red light camera in New York City. Wondering why, at the time, the yellow light lasted all of about half a second, I found out a month later when the neatly packaged “fine” arrived by US Mail.
Turns out that red light cameras are big business. Municipalities have been caught rigging yellow light times to blink-of-an-eye spans so that more drivers qualify for red light tickets. Never mind that shorter yellow lights cause many more drivers to slam on their brakes, and then get hit from behind, so that safety is not increased. Rather, these cameras are all about the money, for both the private companies that install and maintain them, and for the municipalities that have their hands in your pocket.
Across the nation there has been a citizen-led fight to reclaim red lights from the Nanny Staters, and below is a link to an outstanding Weekly Standard article about red light cameras written by Jonathan Last (yes, yes, our names are the opposite).
Read it and learn how to return at least a smidgen of control to We The People, and how the red light camera companies are fighting back to retain their huge profits.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/rolling-back-nanny-state_577297.html?page=1