Red light cameras all about safety

While they are becoming more commonplace, photo-enforced cameras are not popular. However, a recent Saturday Soapbox entry implying that they are set up as a moneymaker for municipalities primarily over safety is really off base. If anything, they are a money saver, freeing up law enforcement for more important things. They are also far more evenhanded and fair in enforcing laws than an occasional traffic stop by a police officer who happened to be at the scene to witness it, and then even if he felt compelled to make a stop.

It is completely logical that if 98 percent of the violations caught on camera at the intersection were due to a failure to stop completely on a right turn on red, the safety issues at that intersection were probably always related to that type of violation. It is a myth that these cameras are set up solely to catch people simply running red lights, and reap the rewards in fines.

In my experience, at nearly every intersection, it is those drivers who race through the right turns on red as opposed to simply running the yellow and red lights that cause the most serious problems. Too many people try to get through a right turn before the cross traffic gets there. For every time I've nearly been struck by a car running a red light, I'd wager I'd been cut off a thousand more times by people turning right on red.

Few people in northeast Illinois come to a full stop before turning right on red; but believe it or not, by law, it is required. This goes hand in hand with coming to a complete stop at stop signs, and yielding to oncoming traffic when the green arrow turns yellow, other similar bad driving habits. The cameras will undoubtedly and hopefully cure drivers of the lazy and dangerous habit of rolling through stops, or racing to beat the oncoming traffic.

Jon E. Guiney

Elgin