A couple of clarifications.

1. The technology to catch red light runners with cameras was not banned
several years ago. What was outlawed was photo-radar, that is catching
speeders with cameras attached to radar guns.

2. With the currently proposed red light cameras, it would not be possible
to assign demerit points to the driver. Why? Read on.

The proposal is to capture the image only of the car and license plate, not
the face/image of the driver. Partly this is simply to make it easier.
Getting an image through a windshield is much harder than getting a readable
image of a car and plate. But it also short circuits some of the concerns
over Big Brother and cameras watching people.

The proposed legislation will allow a civil fine, similar to a parking
ticket, to be issued to the OWNER of the car, not the driver. That is, if
someone borrows my car and run a red, I get the ticket, just as I would if
that person parked in the wrong place.

This is used in many states. I will tell you that my cousin and her husband
had an experience with this system in MD. Her husband was driving her car,
and ran a red. The fine ($100) was nothing compared to the fury he
encountered when my cousin opened the mail and found out!

Demerit points can only be assigned to the DRIVER who commits an infraction,
and with this system there is no way to know whether the owner of the
vehicle was driving.

We should still get behind this. It will make it much easier to enforce red
light running. I have worked on this as an alder. We wanted to wait until we
had the OK at the state level before doing it in Madison, because we didn't
want to get preempted if we installed cameras before it passed the
Legislature.

Robbie

On Jan 9, 2008 9:17 AM, Matt Logan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> I say we turn the "the expense of not assigning demerit points for
> red-light camera violations" argument on its head and instead solve the
> expense problem by not waving demerit points for running a red light in
> front of a camera.  Red light running is red light running - it is the
> behavior that should determine the need for the demerit points, not the
> method of detecting poor behavior.


And Steve Drake wrote:
>Some may recall that this technology was banned in the state some years
back.

-- 
Please note that my personal email has changed. Please delete robbiew at
tds.net from your address book. My alder account remains active, and city
business should be sent there.
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