Sunday, February 21, 2010

Cash Cow Quartered

In today’s daily news we see that a quarter of the alleged red light runners in October –January received a Holiday gift by not being issued a ticket for an alleged violation. After careful review the League City Police department rejected about 25% of the alleged red light violations it received. A comment in the article states that the red light camera “has reduced red light violations and traffic congestion in the city.” On a daily basis I travel through that intersection during all times of the day and I can tell you that traffic congestion has not been reduced. On the weekends it is worse. What about 270 ? Has traffic congestion been reduced there ? So what is your opinion ? I do not doubt that there have been less red light violations.



A big thank you and a job well done to all those who participated in the 2010 Clear Creek Clean up. The Clear Creek Environmental Foundation has and continues to do a magnificent job in protecting Clear Creek. It will be nice to get some hike and bike trails along the creek to enjoy one of the cities greatest assets.

2 comments:

P. Moratto said...

For the whole red light camera story and plenty of people's views, see GalvestonDailyNews.com, click on Communities > League City, and scroll down to
February 10 "Vendor..." and
February 21 "Police..."
.

Jeff Hagen said...

I travel the FM270 - FM518 - FM2094 intersection regularly. In my opinion the red light cameras have not reduced congestion.

I agree that red light running is an epidemic and growing problem that must be aggressively addressed. However, I do not think these automated camera systems are the right answer. I believe a better answer would be to routinely station traffic patrolmen at intersections to arrest and ticket red light runners on the spot. They could be redeployed from less critical traffic patrol locations where fewer accidents occur, such as where I frequently see them between intersections. Until we have tried this approach, I don't think an automated system is justified.

(For the record before anyone questions my motivations, I have not ever received an automated ticket nor any other ticket for running a red light. I have almost been hit several times by people running red lights.)

Jeff