I lived in Virginia when they installed the cameras. I didn't see any increase in accidents, but I am willing to believe the report. What I DID notice was that drivers were a lot more cautious in approaching intersections, ready for the light to turn yellow and willing to stop when it did. It was wonderful! At the same time, as a driver, it kept me aware of my driving habits. Cameras weren't just installed at red lights. They were also installed at bridge overpasses at freeways to catch speeders. Along with the cameras, they installed many speed display gizmos to give drivers a visible warning of the speed they were driving at. I thought these were pretty useful. If you haven't been paying attention, you couldn't ignore the sign that flashed your speed at you.
It certainly seemed to me that Virginia driving habits improved tremendously when the cameras went in. One of the problems they experienced was that people who were ticketed (the car owner) would go to court and claim that they weren't actually driving their car that day but had loaned it to someone else, or their teenager had it and had let a friend drive. It got to be quite a hassle to enforce the tickets. Dottie Titus Jordan REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
