Some people just don’t like the idea of being watched. Being monitored and punished at the behest of a law-enforcement robot sounds like something out of a science fiction movie, and not an especially cheerful science fiction movie.
Others worry about safety. Red-light cameras are supposed to make us safer by discouraging people from running red lights. The trouble is that they work too well. Numerous studies have found that when these cameras are put in place, rear-end collisions increase dramatically. Drivers who once might have stretched the light a bit now slam on their brakes for fear of getting a ticket, with predictable results. A study of red-light cameras in Washington, D.C., by The Washington Post found that despite producing more than 500,000 tickets (and generating over $32 million in revenues), red-light cameras didn’t reduce injuries or collisions. In fact, the number of accidents increased at the camera-equipped intersections.
Of course, we’ve known this pretty much since day one of red light cameras – and yet they continue to spread. So, either people are still stupid gullible enough to think that red light cameras make them safer, or else the people in charge of putting them in (and getting the money they generate) are just ignoring safety to line their own pockets.
Hmm, I wonder which one it is? But, whichever one it is, it tells you something deeply disturbing about ourselves…
