KING 5’s Up Front ran a report on red light cameras today, with a lot of focus on Lynnwood.
The use of red light cameras and speed cameras to enforce traffic laws is widespread in Washington state. About 20 cities use them. But people are pushing back saying the photo enforcement is all about the money, not about making communities safer.
In Lynnwood, a large part of the city budget is wrapped up in red light cameras and anti-tax activist Tim Eyman has targeted it as an example of why photo enforcement can be abused.
This was some first-rate reporting from KING5 and it bore out what some of us have been saying all along — these cameras quite literally:
1. Put the fox in charge of the henhouse and
2. Are actively deleterious to public safety.
Point 1 goes without saying, but point 2 should take your breath away. A 4-second yellow caution cycle would be appropriate, but the camera company REFUSES TO PERMIT THIS.
Think about that for a second. The city of Lynnwood is putting a company in charge of public policy which actively wants to shorten the yellow caution cycle so as to pro-actively increase the probability of accidents so it can make more money. It’s right there in the contract!
And the sheep will continue to bend over and insist that it’s all about public safety, when the truth is, it’s all about ensuring that more accidents are likely to happen so the company (and the city) can make money.
They are literally putting your life and limb, and your childrens’, at risk by operating these cameras.
Does that make you feel all warm and fuzzy all over?