Much has been written recently about the legal issues, privacy issues, and revenue generating issues regarding so-called red light cameras. These cameras are placed at intersections and set to take pictures when motion sensors determine a car to have entered an roadway through a red light.

Some people indicate that this doesn’t make the streets any safer. There are studies that indicate placement of these cameras has cut down on the amount of cross-traffic (broadside impact) collisions but they may have raised the amount of rear end collisions (fender benders). Fender benders are usually less fatal than a broadside collision, so this is seen as a valid trade off.

Some drivers claim this is a right-of-privacy violation while other claim you have no assumption of privacy while you are on the public roadway.

Others claim that this technology is either part of a “Big Brother” campaign to monitor citizens’ movements or is purely put into place to generate revenue. The latter argument is solved if people stop running red lights. If no one runs red lights then no one pays these extra fines, if no fines are paid there is no increased revenue.

While these are all arguments heard over and over in recent years, a new issue is being brought to light by a number of people ticketed for running red lights (here is one example letter to the editor). The issue is the proper length of time a light should remain yellow. In truth, yellow lights should be somewhat standard in terms of their length. Training people that they have 2 seconds, for example, to safely enter the intersection when the light turns yellow and then having some lights operate on 1 second delays could actually cause more accidents or tickets. Some more complicated intersections require longer yellow lights to make sure traffic can get completely through the intersection safely before cross traffic is released. An interesting issue that should be followed closely.

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