There was nary a soul in the council audience Wednesday to protest the city’s implementation of traffic cameras to catch red-light runners and school zone speeders.
There was one critic on the stand. Adam Brockus voted against it, saying he hadn’t overcome his fears that the program was a step toward the “Big Brother” that oversaw every aspect of life in the novel 1984.
Brockus was alone in his vote against the program.
People have protested it here before, but I predict we’ll really hear about it once the cameras start shooting photos.
Assuming it follows the life cycle the program has elsewhere, it will become a fact of life, unless someone takes the city to something beyond municipal court. As mentioned in a previous post, there have been lawsuits.
We need a devise invented that can be placed into a car and automatically turn the car off if it detected erratic driving and notify the police at the same time.
I like to think of such a devise as Big Brother protecting the innocent from impaired drivers.
Sharon O’Hara
I am all for them in the School Zones. What constitutes “running” the red light is very much a judgment call based on the timing of the light and traffic flow at that particular intersection. Speeding and not stopping at crosswalks in a School Zone on the other hand has NO excuse and violators should be ticketed.
Sharon, that device already excises and was implanted in everyone at birth. Its, called common sense.
If people would just obey the speed limit in school zones and other rules of the roads we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
However, we have people like the Road Warrior advocating that it’s alright to drive 5-8 mph over the speed limit and School Zone speed limit law vaguely witten (When children are present) people are able to talk their way out of a ticket.
So we have to install camera to get proof.
Frank G, I don’t think the Road Warrior advocated breaking any laws – he simply wouldn’t.
Most of us drive about five miles over the speed limit. We’re obligated to ‘keep up with traffic’ and most of the traffic I drive in runs about five – ten miles over the posted speed limit…often times on 1-5, traffic is going even faster.
The only exception I can think of are the school zones.
…in my opinion,
Sharon O’Hara
I’m against the whole idea of ‘Big Brother’, but I also know that it’s really irritating when I’m sitting at a light, it turns in my favor and 4-5 cars continue to go past me. I know that the police can’t physically be there all the time, so I think that at certain intersections [Kitsap Way/Marine, for instance] one of these camera systems would do quit well.