Washington DC Rakes In Record Profits - Decides To Double Traffic Cameras To Raise More Revenue

I love to see your statement when they start putting blackbox GPS in your car and ticket you each time you go over the limit whereever you are.

spaces21: Red light cameras are added by the town/city. They are using the excuse of safety to generate income. I have seen more accidents now where there are red light cameras than before the cameras were in place. This is solely for generating money and not for safety.

Here in NY/NJ, they had reduced the time for (amber/yellow) so that they can catch more people crossing the red light. Also i have seen that the traffic light are set up in such a way that by the time you reach the light, they turn yellow and guaranteed a free ticket. This is not for safety at all.

I would like to see the statistics from any town that the traffic light have made the road safer than before the cameras were put in place.

If you really want to make it safe, synchronize the lights, make traffic flow better. Increase the time when lights are red in both side to make sure anyone caught between yellow and red to safely pass the intersection.

monster- I can't agree more.

Not a fan of Mr. LaHood. His ideas will eventually lead to 100% monitoring of all driving to the point of automated ticketing of every situation.

Yep your wife dropping a baby in the car is no reason to speed, your GPS reported you broke five different speed limits on the way to the hospital.

You get five automated tickets, and by the way were are sharing that info with your insurance and you will now be high risk and most likely be dropped.

Sorry about that, we now have a National Fatality quota we have to maintain.

Traffic cameras are just another form of Policing for Profit as Capitalism distorts our Justice System. These companies are bottom-feeders and take a 40% cut of the tickets while creating MORE dangerous intersections by fixing the lengths of yellow lights to entrap drivers. You can read about how private companies and crooked politicians have turned our Police forces on their ear in every attempt to squeeze money out of the general public at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-privatized-police-state.html

Red light cameras produce profits ONLY when the yellow intervals are deliberately and maliciously set too short for the actual approach speeds of vehicles for the sole purpose of ticketing mostly safe drivers tricked into making split second violations by the too-short yellows.

Speed cameras produce profits ONLY when the posted speed limits are deliberately and maliciously set too low for the actual safe traffic flow speeds for the sole purpose of ticketing mostly safe drivers going along with the normal and safe traffic flow speeds.

BOTH engineering "errors" tend to reduce safety overall for the sole purpose of maximizing camera ticket revenue. If the posted speed limits and the yellow intervals on traffic lights were set to maximize safety, the ticket camera industry would collapse in bankruptcy. Cameras would not record enough violations to even pay their own high costs, let alone produce the obscene $100 million+ per year profits that the District wants to confiscate from mostly safe drivers.

Ticket cameras in DC are a predatory money grab program, NOT a safety program. DC voters need to vote out every camera supporter on Council and replace them with officials that want to maximize traffic safety with correct engineering, NOT the current ones that demand maximum camera ticket revenue with deliberately improper engineering.

James C. Walker, National Motorists Association (frequent area visitor)