RED LIGHT CAMERAS - TO SERVE AND COLLECT

For decades it's been obvious to me that traffic enforcement entails a huge amount of money collection for our regional government. Police enforcement is not about traffic safety it's all about police hiding on roads that have speed limits lower than the roads, cars and weather are quite capable of handling safely. The better the road conditions and visibility the more money the region makes. Again for decades I was appalled as drunk driving accident statistics were being cheerfully ignored by our police every Friday and Saturday night outside our local hotels. All they had to do was sit and watch patrons stumble and shuffle their way to their cars in various hotel parking lots and accost them BEFORE they had an accident on their way home. Apparently that didin't go over to well with legitimate business owners of these fine establishments.

Last Saturday's Waterloo Region Record carrys a story by Jeff Outhit entitled "Red-light cameras fall short". Clearly these too are all about the revenue and shockingly the increases in accidents at these camera intersections are of little significance to our regional officials. 31% more collisions and 51% more injuries AFTER red light cameras were installed is shocking but almost predictable. At $325 a pop drivers panic when the light turns caution and instead of proceeding through the intersection they slam on the brakes and then get clobbered by the guy behind them who doesn't have a chance. Afterall he sees the green light and the empty intersection and the last thing he's expecting is that the idiot in front of him will slam on the brakes a split second after the caution appears.

Now this is the reality today. Traffic enforcement isn't about traffic safety. It's all about speeding and collecting money with the corollary that yes drunken drivers will be stopped and charged as well. Short of that bad driving is virtually ignored. Failure to signal, failure to stay in the right lane unless passing, refusal to move over to let cars onto expressways are all ignored. Slow driving, inattention, stopping at empty roundabouts do not cause tickets to be issued. Are the idiots who hit the brakes as they are entering intersections just as the yellow light appears ever charged? Not a chance. It's the cars immediately behind them who get nailed. By the way talk about a double windfall for the region. They get the guys who are a split second late clearing the intersection AND they get the guys who rearend the brakeslammers who don't understand that yellow means you've got a couple of seconds to clear the intersection. No wonder our regional officials don't want to study the increase in accidents that they have caused based upon idiot drivers who probably have never gotten any tickets whatsoever because they don't speed.