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Camera Cash
Traffic light surveillance
Do towns install red light cameras to protect people’s lives, or are the devices, in the words of Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins, a scheme to “raise revenue under the guise of traffic law enforcement”? The latest American city to debate the question is Des Moines, where the police want to install several cameras around town.
According to the Des Moines Register, the city’s pro-camera faction argues that the plan is “about safety, not money.” Police Chief Judy Bradshaw told the Des Moines City Council in late July that cameras at high-risk intersections throughout the city will “have paid for themselves” in lives saved. Yet Des Moines police officials project that their new cameras could pay for themselves—and then some—in a more conventional way as well, with each camera bringing about $100,000 in annual revenue to the municipality.
One city councilman said he approved of the idea as long as it was “budget neutral.” But other cities in the state have struggled to stick to budget neutrality once the cameras, which cost about $60,000 each, are up and running. According to the Sioux City Journal, nearby Davenport, Iowa, collected more than $1 million in revenue from 13 speeding and traffic light cameras between 2004 and 2007.
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Pingback| 11.3.09 @ 11:31AM
Camera Cash – Reason Magazine links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 11.3.09 @ 11:48AM
Camera Cash - Reason Magazine | Camera case live today links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
|11.3.09 @ 3:04PM|#
There is an easy way to prove they are about safety: they just have to agree that the yellow light times at intersections with cameras will be set to no less than 6 seconds.
Of course, they never will. They'd rather make them more dangerous by lowering the yellow light time.
Barnet Fagel|11.4.09 @ 11:59AM|#
If the question of red light ticketing cameras is put to a public referendum, it will most likely be defeated as it was in 3 cities yesterday and all other cites in the past. And adding the proper amount of yellow time ( 1-2 seconds) provides safer intersections economically. To see how Chicago has shortened their yellow traffic signals to increase revenue go to http://www.youtube.com/user/MrBFagel
Motorists.org
|11.14.09 @ 6:40PM|#
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My only point is that if you take the Bible straight, as I'm sure many of Reasons readers do, you will see a lot of the Old Testament stuff as absolutely insane. Even some cursory knowledge of Hebrew and doing some mathematics and logic will tell you that you really won't get the full deal by just doing regular skill english reading for those books. In other words, there's more to the books of the Bible than most will ever grasp. I'm not concerned that Mr. Crumb will go to hell or anything crazy like that! It's just that he, like many types of religionists, seems to take it literally, take it straight...the Bible's books were not written by straight laced divinity students in 3 piece suits who white wash religious beliefs as if God made them with clothes on...the Bible's books were written by people with very different mindsets..
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