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Health & Fitness

San Carlos Got This One Right And Set A Positive Trend

By now, many of you have received a ticket from a red-light camera. Belmont has one that is in its final months of operation on El Camino at Ralston. Redwood City had some, recently voted out. Hayward had a whole bunch of them on A Street operating during road construction leaving many people in the middle of intersections as lights were changing. And a few years back, San Carlos had its own red light camera at the corner of Industrial and Brittan which was eliminated in 2010.

http://archives.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=129004

Now just asking: Have any of you hit the breaks in your car when a light turned yellow that you would have legally passed through, just because the camera scared you into a reaction? Well, it seems the proof is now becoming clearer. Hayward recently got rid of some of the most ridiculous red light cameras in the Bay, they type that spanned long intersections that take forever to cross and therefore increased the chance of violations, claiming that the amount of rear-end collisions had increased since the installation of the red-light cameras. ("Rear-end collisions often increase").

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Redwood-City-Hayward-End-Red-Light-Cameras-201992411.html

And Hayward went further to explain that the amount of violations from people running red lights were not event that significant and that most of the tickets were actually coming from "California stops" on right turns where drivers were not stopping for 3 seconds when turning right on red (Jerry Hill attempted to lower the fines on these tickets but was vetoed by then governor Schwarzenegger who conveniently cited safety considerations instead of the revenue being made off the backs of California drivers).

But the real reason these cameras may be getting eliminated from the Bay Area is that they are too expensive to maintain. First, there is a revenue sharing component provided to companies like RedFlex who run the technology that issues the tickets. These contracts were incredibly costly and rewarded a private company for issuing as many tickets as possible. There are numerous examples of these companies decreasing the length of yellow lights below the legal time intervals just so they could issue more tickets. Second, a high percentage of these tickets are challenged legally, which costs money and also reduces the amount of fine money collected. And third, evidence showing these red light cameras are actually improving safety is inconclusive at best. Meanwhile, there is more and more evidence showing red-light cameras actually decrease safety!

I, for one, am delighted to see the end of the red-light camera era in San Carlos (and now Belmont and Redwood City). I never got one of these tickets, but my constant worry about getting a $550 ticket seriously decreases my driving pleasure wherever these cameras are located. Hats off to the late Randy Royce for his staunch opposition to these idiotic devices in our City. And further kudos to other Bay Area cities for eliminating this questionable practice. Now, if only San Francisco would get rid of their cameras! And Fremont! And perhaps the worst camera of all, the randomly flashing Millbrae Avenue Camera at the Bart Station which snapped my neighbor, the most responsible driver I have ever met, and sent him a ticket for $550. 

Life is short. Let's improve the quality of our lives. Let's get government and private corporations off our back with completely unnecessary taxes! Let's make the Bay Area red-light cam free!








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