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Ooh - the State Assembly has passed a bill doublnig the number of red-light cameras in the city. Red light cameras record who has been running red lights, and Assembly Ivan Lafayette of Queens explains, "As soon as you put a red-light camera in at an intersection, the number of collisions there will drop by 70% in a matter of months. The bill will double the current number of cameras to 100 and could generate up to $13 million in revenue from fines. Gothamist, more a pedestrian than a driver, loves the Red Light Camera program, but we do acknowledge that lots of pedestrian cross against the light, even though cars have right of way. Not that we want things to be Giuliani-style with $2 jaywalking tickets again, but traffic problems do begin when some party is not following the light.
The Red Light Camera program has been in effect since December 1993. The DOT says over 2 million summonses have been issued, with about 10,000 drivers found not guilty. There are also 200 "dummy" cameras around the city.
Photograph of traffic light during Chinese New Year from crankyT
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This guy hates red light cameras:
http://www.streetsblog.org/2006/06/28/caption-contest-dot-guy/#comments
Yeah! 100 down a couple thousand more to go.....
Hmmm, 70% reduction in collisions. Why are these not at every intersection in the city? Preventing traffic accidents and raising money for the city at the same time, what could be better? Oh, and maybe these might reduce the number of bike riders that keep getting killed these days.
Actually, there is much debate over the effectiveness of these cameras. They often lead to an increase in rear end accidents as people slam their brakes to avoid going through the light. These accidents also typically have a higher injury rate. Meaningful alternatives include increasing the time of the yellow warning light. Increasing this light's time exponentially reduces the number of accidents at these intersections. Red light cameras are a HUGE income generator, though, so I don't imagine they'll be investigating other alternatives, even if they're safer.
70% reduction in collisions? BULLSHIT!
70% increase in revenue maybe...
glennQ
hooray for surveilance!
to live outside the law you must be honest