Why I am in favor of red-light cameras
Fifty years ago, when I first began to drive, police were johnny-on-the-spot curbing traffic light and speeding violators. As a direct result, motorists were cautious and mostly obedient to traffic signals and signs. Over the years, as public safety money became scarcer and crime statistics rose, police were increasingly assigned away from traffic enforcement.
We motorists gradually became aware of the lessened police presence. In response, we became bolder with running yellow lights, taking 10 extra miles over the speed limit, rolling through stop signs and, more recently, skirting around corners at red lights without making the legally required full stop.
Within the last couple of years, I have avoided accidents by the skin of my teeth. Most vexing and most dangerous are the right turners on red.
Often, I can see them ahead, pulling up to the stop light and, without stopping, punching the gas to make it in front of me before I get through the intersection. Of course, I must brake swiftly to avoid plowing into them while, at the same time, controlling the rage-impulse to ram into their car.
That is why I support red light cameras/lasers or any other technological or human method of improving enforcement of traffic laws: I am simply fed up with flagrant violators. I recognize there are safety and revenue reasons for the use of red light devices, but that is not the primary reason I favor them.
At first I was neutral. Then I received a red-light camera traffic citation in the mail and became vehemently opposed. Then I reviewed the video ... and there I was, turning right on a red with barely a hesitation and certainly with no stop.
Laws should be enforced or repealed. If you are opposed to red light cameras then you must be in favor of permitting right turns on red without stopping and permitting drivers to slam on the gas instead of the brakes at a yellow light.
What? You say you are not in favor of those behaviors? Then propose a viable alternative to red-light camera enforcement.
Anthony E. Catania
Buffalo Grove