November 9th, 2009
CBS 2 Television News Los Angeles,
I just now watched your interesting exposé on the red-light cameras and whether such helps to prevent motor-vehicle accidents or whether the devices are nothing more than revenue generating devices for the cities of our nation – as aired on your eleven o’clock nightly news. After being charged with a red-light camera violation which was subsequently dismissed, I also studied the red-light cameras. I determined that the red-light camera monitored intersections appeared to have the traffic lights timed so that when one approaches that intersection upon accelerating at a normal rate from the previous intersection (such as the red-light camera on La Brea Ave. north of Sunset Blvd or Santa Monica Blvd. – I cant remember which intersection it is), the light then turns yellow. Such then requires the vehicle that has been accelerating at a normal rate to either heavily apply the brakes or go on through the intersection and therefore likely have the camera take a picture for going through the yellow light which by then has turned red and, as such, is a moving violation. Given this example of tempting the driver to run the red/yellow light or unsafely and quickly decelerate to a stop prior to entering the intersection, clearly shows the unsafe situation created by these red-light cameras. Though it appears that cities such as Los Angeles are unconcerned by routinely creating these unsafe situations at city intersections and are more concerned with generating revenues from fines generated by these monitoring devices. Thanks for your time and your airing the interesting news story on these red-light cameras and how these devices actually are likely to cause an increase in motor-vehicle accidents. Please keep up the good work and let me know if I can be of any assistance in your future investigations.
Sincerely,
Adam V. Trotter
PS. I will be posting this note to my blog at: www.adamvernontrotter.blogspot.com
Cc: LA City Council Member Dennis P. Zine
An Afterthought: I should qualify this blog with the sentiment that I have not looked into this matter for sometime. Given the fact the City of Los Angeles has modified the stop-light sequencing of much of its ‘surface’ streets in an effort to benefit the flow of traffic through the city, my blog above may no longer be entirely accurate concerning the stated specifics of the red-light camera on La Brea Avenue. :)
