Red means stop

If you’re like me and you hate the notion of red-light cameras, you’ll be pleased to learn that they “just don’t work”:https://ww2.motorists.org/issues/red-light-cameras/studies/. That’s right, they do not reduce the number of accidents at intersections; they increase the number of accidents.

Red light cameras always bothered me because:

  • Private companies run the cameras and municipalities turn over a percentage of the fines to them.

  • I deplore the idea of government watching citizens by camera

  • The motive is clear: profit, not public safety.

The “University of South Florida study”:https://web.archive.org/web/20080917200612/http://hscweb3.hsc.usf.edu/health/now/?p=404 on these cameras supports that third point, since the cameras HURT public safety, not improve it.

One perfect example of this is the red-light camera on West Florissant at the entrance to the parking lot of the old Dellwood Schnucks. This strip mall has been mostly vacant for several years!