Red light cameras get green light from finance committee

I for one am glad that Jacksonville is getting up to date with the rest of the country. I have seen red light cameras in several states and from experience know that they can save lives. There will still be those that feel the law does not apply to them. I wish the fines were higher. We need to go back to a front license plate , then there would be a picture of the driver. That way the owner would not be held responsible for the ticket. I remember a Colombo show about a big shot killing his wife and his secretary drove his car and deliberately ran a light to get a ticket, by seeing the face Colombo know it was a fake face over her real face. I hope that Clay County will do the same as Duval and put cameras through out the County.

The real dangerous runs are many seconds into the red, and they occur because the intersection (and the signal) isn't prominent enough - the motorist (a visitor, or a drunk/impaired local) may miss seeing it, entirely, or he may think it's not a major intersection. (And a camera won't stop them, because the visitor doesn't know it's there, and the local doesn't remember it's there.) Here's how to make an intersection (and signal) more prominent. Cheaply and quickly. A. Paint "signal ahead" on the pavement. A study sponsored by Florida's DOT found that doing so could cut running by up to 74%. B. Make the signal lights bigger in diameter or, add another signal head. A study by the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) found that doing either one could cut crashes by 47%. C. Add backboards to the signal heads, or enlarge those you have. The TTI study found that doing so could cut crashes by 32%. D. For nighttime driving, install brighter bulbs in the street lights and put up lighted name signs for the cross street. These things should be tried at a city's worst intersections, and the results published, before there is any consideration of putting in red light cameras.

yea well i guess they have to find some money somehow to keep those cops they're about to lay off!!! Great, give more money for citation the last thing we need in the economy, you call the cops they show up 2 hours later, "oh we're busy". go out and drive and you'll find them all hiding and sneaking on people somewhere to give citations. its the government no one can say no when they want to make money they will find a way to justify it.

Cameras!?.....You mean money makers!

"And we know by reducing vehicle crashes, it'll actually reduce injuries and fatalities in our city." Contrast this statement with the one from Brooksville, FL in that city's meeting of April 21, 2008, when an automated for-profit program was discussed and later authorized. Then look at what happened there: The minutes reflected the purpose of the program was to “… help reduce vehicle crashes and resulting injuries.” Brooksville began using automated for-profit devices at three intersections in April 2009 until June 2010 (15 months). A 15-month before and after analysis of them showed there were 11 crashes total before and after device use (no reduction). There were three red light running crashes before device use, and two after, for a reduction of one. There was an increase in injury and other crashes and no change in rear end crashes. Brooksville has proposed expanding the devices to five more intersections. Of these, three have not had a red light running crash since at least January 2007. In the past five years, the average for red light running crashes in Brooksville at all eight intersections has been about one half of one crash per year. Hallandale Beach is losing over $17,000/year on their automated devices as of 2011. They have shown no safety benefit. The "violations" observed there continue to rise in 2012, which helps revenue, but what does this say about the effectiveness of the devices, which were supposed to reduce violations and crashes? That city in a 24 month before/after study went from 59 crashes total to 88 at just one intersection. Demand your local officials show you the crash data, not just put out generic statements. Odds are, your city does not have a huge problem with red light running crashes (the overall average in Florida as of 2010 is around 2~4% for causation). These devices are not about safety. They are about revenue.