Red Lights in Red States

Opposition to enforcement of traffic laws by law and order types fascinates BrooklynDodger. The same dudes who support the Patriot Act intrusions on freedom, including the feebies ability to access your library lending record, find a photograph of violating a law red-handed [or red-lit] to invade their privacy.

There’s a certain guy thing aspect to speeding and running red lights, which gives it a certain amount of Republican cachet. If the politics are consistent, this behavior would also be prominent in married, white, suburban dwelling women without graduate education.

Curiously, opponents of enforcement imply that the person who rear ends you when your are stopped or stopping in not also running the red light. Or that running the light isn't such a norm that those who stop on yellow or recent red are aberrant.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Va. May End Trial Use of Red-Light Cameras
Legislators Table Bills To Extend Programs

By Chris L. Jenkins

Washington Post Staff WriterSaturday, February 5, 2005; Page B01

RICHMOND, Feb. 4 -- Bills that would have allowed some Virginia localities
to continue using surveillance cameras to catch red-light runners were defeated
in a House committee Friday, dealing a serious blow to the state's experiment
with the technology in the Washington suburbs.
The House Militia, Police and
Public Safety Committee also defeated a bill that would have given any county or
city the authority to develop the camera programs.

… Supporters said Friday that technology can improve law enforcement
and public safety. They said that at certain dangerous intersections throughout
the commonwealth, the number of accidents dropped immediately after the
technology was installed because motorists knew that the cameras were there.

Opponents said the cameras are a violation of privacy, will not stop
red-light runners and are used only to raise revenue for government. …

"Yes, there is a place for technology in law enforcement, but we need to
balance this against a timeless criteria, which is the preservation of liberty,"
said L. Scott Lingamfelter (R-Prince William).
…
Officials from several
Northern Virginia jurisdictions said the defeat of the bills was a sign that
many in Richmond are out of touch with the realities of Northern Virginia and
Hampton Roads. …
A 2004 Virginia Department of Transportation report on the
technology found that the cameras affect the behavior of drivers and that
citations decreased by an average of 21 percent at the 23 intersections sampled
during a six-month period last year.
[BrooklynDodger wonders how many drivers were dumb enough
to get caught twice?]

But the report did not conclude that there was a "definite safety
improvement" linked to the technology. It pointed out that there was a "definite
increase in rear-end crashes" because drivers tended to stop short at the
intersections. [Short stopping drivers evidently did not include the
second driver hoping to run the light] …