Red Light Cameras Everywhere...For Safety? or Revenue? (Chicago, Lombard: income, to live in)

[jessiegirl_98]

There's one on my corner and I walk to work. I see an average of 4-5 tickets a day just on my walk....yea, that's a lot of $$$$$$$

[Drover]

Revenue, pure and simple. Especially here in Chicago where the yellow lights are about 8 hundredths of a second long. That was made perfectly clear by a couple of aldermen who wanted to ban GPS devices that notify drivers of the locations of stoplight cameras -- that is, they wanted to ban devices that help people obey the law.

If they were really concerned about safety they'd install countdown timers on the lights like they do in other countries so nobody is ever caught off-guard by a yellow and forced to make a split-second decision about whether to keep going or stomp the brake. But then, that wouldn't actually bring in revenue, so forget about ever seeing anything like that around here.

[loudes13]

$10,000 Ticket Challenge - Press Releases - National Motorists Association

$10,000 TICKET CAMERA CHALLENGE

The NMA knows that engineering solutions are the real way to prevent red-light violations and accidents at problematic intersections. In fact, we are willing to wager $10,000 to prove that engineering will work better than ticket cameras.

The revenue from ticket cameras serves as a reward to cities that fail to make motorists safer through proper signal timing, better signal design, and improved intersections. The apparent increase in red-light violations is largely the result of a 20-year pattern of deliberately changing the standards for the timing of yellow lights. This is an engineering problem, not an enforcement issue. Today we say to the communities that employ ticket cameras, "Let's put traffic engineering solutions to the test."

Here's our challenge:

Show us any camera-equipped intersection that still has high numbers of red-light violations and we will guarantee a minimum 50-percent reduction in red-light violations through the application of engineering solutions.

If our recommendations fail to meet our minimum goal, we will pay the community $10,000 to be used on any traffic safety program or project it chooses. However, if we succeed, the community must employ our engineering-based recommendations at other troublesome intersections and scrap its ticket-camera program.

What do you have to lose, other than your ticket-camera revenue? If you have any questions about this challenge or you believe your community would be interested in participating, please contact the NMA at (608) 849-6000 or via email at nma@motorists.org.

[bobinc]

i hate the fact that when the lights dont work from a power outage the camera does

[NYrules]

Anything in Chicago is SOLEY about taking your hard earned money, plain and simple. Parking rates have soared, taxes are through the roof, cops will write you a ticket for anything they can to justify their existance instead of fighting "real" crime, license plates are once again going up, city stickers are a complete rip and serve NO purpose what so ever as they are meaning-less other than to line politician's pockets, now red light cams for "supposed safety"? Excuse me as I bust out into laughter from this complete misguiding information we have been fed. wait, wait, noooo not done laughing yet, wait, a little more.... Ok done. It really amazes me how stupid politicians think we are, but the saddest part is that so many sheeple believe every little thing they are told as long as the sheeple hear it on the television. (I guess sheeple feel if it's on TV it must be right) I guess the sheeple really are stupid.

Anyhow, as Chicago continues to lose more and more business as businesses flee back out to the burbs (like in the 1980s)where it is easier to get around for one, costs far less in taxes, can pay it's employees less as employees don't have as high of transportation costs causing them to demand higher salaries, and then the residents follow by altering their shopping habits which will force more tax revenue to be lost to the burbs and cause more businesses to flee the city, then perhaps Daley will realize, doing everything possible to make Chicago the most miserable place to not only drive, but live was a BIG mistake.

[SJaye]

Originally Posted by noid_1985

good post- Have anyone noticed that Chicago Yellow light times are much shorter than the burbs? And the suburb of Bellwood has a camera on pretty much every major intersection that's in their village

I believe engineers generally make the length of the yellow lights proportional to the speed limit, i.e. the speed they expect the cars to be traveling based on the understanding that the faster you are going to more time you would need to stop. In the city, cars are generally traveling slower so they don't need as long of a yellow.

[Drover]

^^ It's not like speed limits are substantially higher in the suburbs. Cicero Avenue doesn't suddenly turn into 50MPH as soon as you enter Lincolnwood. The yellows are stupidly short in the city. In many 6-way intersections it's possible to be traveling the speed limit, have the light turn yellow just after you enter the intersection, and when it turns red you're still in the intersection. That's absurdly short.

[Avengerfire]

One of these intersections Drover alludes to with very short yellows is Fullerton,Lincoln, and Halsted in Chicago. The lights were not timed like this before the red light cameras were put up. Coincidence? I think. The cameras at that intersection must be pulling in a couple thousand every day in tickets.

[Drover]

The yellow lights in this city have always been moronically short even before the red light cameras went up. But it never occurred to the city that this might be part of the problem. As for how much revenue these stupid cameras generate... they are now clipping along at $50 million per year. Yeah, go ahead and try tell me this isn't about revenue. Bonus points if you can do it with a straight face.

When a few people run red lights, then fine, catch 'em and deal with 'em. But when enough people are running red lights to generate $50,000,000 in revenue per year from cameras that are posted at only a small fraction of the total red-light interesections, then there's clearly a traffic engineering problem. But addressing the actual problem would cost money rather than make money, so naturally the city chooses to make money on its own shoddy engineering.

[trailerguy]

Of course it's all about the money. Ditto for the new scheme to set up electronic speed traps on the expressways. I hope one of the parties grabs on this issue in the next election. They'll get my vote.