Red-Light Cameras: The Trojan Horse

There has been wealth of attention focused on red light cameras over the past few months. Even though the press and politicians seem devoted to avoiding mention of the NMA, most of the stimulus for this attention has come from the NMA and its members.

It is slowly seeping in that red light cameras are primarily a money grubbing scheme. Any positive effect they might have can be equaled and exceeded by simple improvements and adjustments to traffic lights. In most instances adding a second or two to the yellow light duration eliminates red light violations at most intersections.

Once the tort attorneys put two and two together, they're going to figure out that there is a huge population of clients out there – victims not of red light runners, but victims of city governments that chose cameras over intersection safety improvements. How do you think a jury is going to react to a city that could have prevented a tragic accident by simply lengthening a yellow light, when instead the light was kept short to feed a ticket camera?

Nevertheless, red light cameras have served their primary purpose; they have opened the door for automated/camera-based traffic law enforcement, most notably speed enforcement.