Cameras are a success in Quebec (for speeding & red lights)

[wikityler]

I like red light cameras. If you can't use an intersection properly, then you deserve a ticket, and I don't care where that money goes (although ideally it would be used to force you to attend driving school).

It's the law to stop at a red light not to enable ticketing, but to facilitate the safe functioning of our road networks. Issuing tickets is the current way to enforce the law, and having cameras do the ticketing frees police resources to deal with more complex issues like property crime and violence.

[tasdrouille]

I think the reason it's fairly well accepted is that they are not trying to hide it at all. There are warning signs. They also have a couple mobile cameras, and they tell you they can be anywhere on a specific segment, so people will slow down not just for the spot where the camera is as with fixed ones, but for the whole segment.

I don't get people being paranoid about cameras. You are already being filmed everywhere you go by the private sector anyway. What's it gonna change in your life if you get your picture taken driving?

[dcb]

I'm with Frank on this one, it took an immeasurably small amount of time before the cameras around here were abused for printing money for the municipalities that installed them and not having any effect on safety or efficiency.

[Frank Lee]

I think the reason they are accepted is they fall outside the sheeple's narrow range of vision.

[DonR]

Lets just have our car computers send a satallite signal (via OnStar) to the government when we speed. This way we have coast to coast coverage & you cut down on the infrastucture required.

[tasdrouille]

Well, there sure are whole bunch of happy sheeple around here who have better to do then worrying about the govt spying on them...

[99LeCouch]

You Canucks sound like you have the right idea behind the cameras. Install them for a specific purpose, place many signs warning of them, don't change anything else about the road except install the camera, and use the funds for a specific cause.

Unlike the US where there's no warning and the locals who operate them are often caught gaming the roads around the cameras to encourage tickets. Examples abound of yellow lights set dangerously short (2 seconds or less) and speed limits being lowered excessively.

[greasemonkee]

Frank Lee hit the nail on the head. The true motive maybe far from what we perceive it to be, it takes a lot of work to undistort the original truth. Manufacturing consent is here to stay, and grow.

[RH77]

I agree that red-light running is a big problem, but there's a civil liberty question at stake with using cameras. We're starting to get them here too...

So, it begs the question: there's a tractor-trailer riding your bumper. The light turns yellow and there's no escape lane. Run the light, get a ticket and live? ...or slam on the brakes and enjoy the carnage? Studies have shown that the yellow light duration decreases when these are installed. Revenue generators indeed (also for insurance companies).

The scenarios are endless -- so there has to be at least a simultaneous video feed and some sort of human interface instead of an automated "Postcard" ticket. I doubt that's very common.

Speaking of which, there are video cameras at nearly every major intersection here. I'm told they're for accident investigation until they get the "green light" to monitor violators on a continuous basis.

It's like that small town that generates 95% of its operating budget from driving infractions -- it's just not ethical.

So the next time you're EOC-ing down a hill and go 1-MPH over the limit, you better be ready to pay the price.

RH77

[Clev]

Then there's the technical problem: the lights in my area flash everyone turning right on red. You see the flash and then get to spend 3-4 weeks waiting for that $450 ticket to come in the mail and decide if it's worth taking a day off to NOT face your accuser. Thus, people simply no longer turn right on red, even though it's perfectly legal, and now traffic backs up into the prior intersection.

They're really great at night. You see a blinding flash, but you don't know who ran what, or if the light is timed wrong. I ended up leaving myself voicemails to get the timestamp, describing the exact circumstances of the flash in case I get the notice in the mail. Since then, I (and many others) now tear through a nearby residential neighborhood to avoid the light.