Red light cameras don’t improve safety. We know this from decades of data collected throughout the US and Europe. If you watch the videos of people causing major accidents at intersections virtually all of them are not caused by scofflaws choosing to blindly run red lights – they are you or me on a bad day after a fight with our spouse or screaming kid in the back seat or worried about our jobs. If the prospect of death isn’t enough to stop someone from absent-mindedly running through a red light, then an $85 or $140 – or $5000 – fine isn’t going to either

Unless lights with cameras are set up to entrap motorists with short yellow lights, there are not enough red light runners to pay for the devices. Short yellow lights make intersections more dangerous too – so in the name of il-gotten revenue we are sacrificing safety. The red light camera companies know this. The officials presiding over and advocating for these insidious devices should too. The camera companies are more than happy to sacrifice the health and welfare – and lives for that matter – of motorists in order to keep the hundreds of $ millions flowing out of our pockets and into theirs. Some of that $ is “invested” into the campaign coffers of passively corrupt elected officials – who then vote to keep the gravy train rolling – best interests of New Jersey residents be damned. It’s disgusting. And if we continue to permit them to so blatantly take advantage of us, we will only have ourselves to thank for their next attempts at picking our pockets – and endangering our families.