Compliments for skateboard video

Compliments for skateboard video

Excellent journalism from Paul Michna through his video pieces focusing on the state fair and skateboarding ("Once a skater, always a skater, Sept. 5).

I thoroughly enjoyed the three recent video pieces on Skateboarding (I loved seeing the "old guys" at the skate parks with and without their protective gear) and think that it brings a breath of fresh air to the news in a day and age where so much of what is published is less than enlightening.

The teacher who identifies with his students through their skateboarding connections and the fact that he is identifying with other skateboarders who may need a positive role model offers such a positive spin on life.

Kudos to the staff who green-lighted this talented videographer. Can't wait to see more!

Caroline Baty-Barr

Batavia

Traffic cameras are used to raise cash

I read with interest a recent story about red light-running photo-enforcement cameras now being permitted on state roads outside Chicago.

I did find one sentence particularly amusing though, the one stating, "The legislation makes it clear that the technology must be used to enhance safety and cannot be used primarily to boost revenue through increased ticketing."

Let's be serious, the primary purpose for these cameras is unequivocally to generate revenue. Of all the cameras in use currently, there is no reported documentation I have seen demonstrating an overall increase in safety. Every description I have read does discuss at length the huge revenues generated under the guise of this inferred increased safety. There is other documentation available that would appear to refute the safety ruse perpetrated by our government officials.

A recent newspaper article reported that Chicago's Ald. Edward M. Burke "bluntly admits that his recent idea to ban new devices that reveal the location of the city's traffic enforcement cameras is not about promoting safety but all about protecting the loot the City of Chicago rakes in…."

From the Washington Post: "The data are very clear," said Dick Raub, a traffic consultant and a former senior researcher at Northwestern University's Center for Public Safety. "They are not performing any better than intersections without cameras."

The studies go on and on.

Although there are many news articles describing the increase of rear-end accidents precipitated by these red light cameras, I can find no such reporting in Illinois.

It was even found that some communities -- I know this is difficult to believe -- have shortened the length of the amber light to further increase revenues.

By the way, there have been studies performed substantiating the fact that the number of intersection accidents could be decreased by merely increasing the length of the amber light. We all know what the problem with that solution is, don't we?

No money!

Jim Strnad

Lisle