Red-Light Cameras Coming to a Halt?
Red-Light Cameras Coming to a Halt?
In a front-page story in today’s USA Today, it is reported that some communities are putting the brakes on the publicly unpopular red light cameras that have been installed at many intersections, including perhaps in Illinois.
Billed as a safety measure, motorists have been complaining to lawmakers that they are merely revenue-generative devices for some communities.
Illinois Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock), once a promoter of the devices when they were installed in Illinois in 2006, told USA Today that he will introduce bills this year in the legislature to “to sharply limit their use.” He said, “They were sold to us in a different manner than what they’ve been used for. The municipalities have put them in areas where they’re just to make revenue.”
He went on to tell the newspaper that since 2006, crashes have increased at half the intersections in Illinois that have these cameras, stayed the same at 25 percent of these intersections and decreased at 25 percent of the intersections.
Some states, such as Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, West Virginia and Wisconsin have banned the red-light cameras, according to the story that quotes Anne Teigen, a transportation specialist at the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Eighteen lawsuits are pending in Florida filed saying that the devices are unconstitutional because they force drivers to prove their innocence rather than the government to prove their guilty, according to the story.
The USA Today reports that red-light cameras are being used in more than 400 communities in 26 states and the District of Columbia.
