Ok, so today I went to check the mail box and I discovered I got a $
158 dollar ticket in the mail from a photo enforced traffic camera, or as the makers of the camera system would call it….a red light safety camera. Now, the ticket was mailed to me by the
City of
Florida City Intersection Safety Program. In the envelope was the ticket for $158 dollars, and a leaflet that has a web address on it where you can go to actually view the video of the traffic violation. Here is the video of my traffic violation. But here’s the issue I have with this ticket.
Number 1, this ticket is very expensive. When you get a ticket from a red light safety camera location, you pay about 75 dollars more for the ticket. And while I can afford it with no problem, it made me wonder how many people must get their drivers license suspended because they cant afford it.
Number 2, how many lives are saved because of red light safety cameras. Now if the red light safety cameras are saving thousands of lives then I would say that is money well spent. So what I want to know is…
..do red light safety cameras benefit drivers by saving lives or is this just a clever way to for the state to pull more money from your pocket. Here’s what I dug up. Ok so let’s first look at the impact high tickets have on society. Now, these red light safety cameras issue over a million traffic fines per year. Now mind you, in
Florida the cost of the red light safety camera fine is $158 dollars, but in some states the cost of the fine is much more. So I went to the
Department of
Highway Safety and Motor
Vehicles website to get some statistics. Nationally, for the year
2013, 2,479,525 people had their license suspended for unpaid traffic fines. Now this isn’t a result from just red light camera locations, this is just a total. But it would make one believe that, maybe, just maybe, the cost of traffic fines, especially the ones at red-light camera locations are bit extreme. And there’s a snowball affect from that. If you are unable to pay a ticket, your license gets suspended. Now if your license gets suspended because you don’t pay the ticket in florida, the cost of the ticket goes from $158 to $203 dollars, because you have to pay money to reinstate your license. Now if you get pulled over with a suspended license, that’s an additional ticket. If you get arrested, that’s an additional ticket, if your car gets impounded, that’s an addition ticket…and you risk having your car auctioned off. Now when all is said and done, one single ticket can literally destroy someones life. And in fact, this is a common occurence.
You got to ask yourself, How many people, who’s lives are finically destroyed because of expensive traffic fines, go out an commit crimes to get themselves out of debt. I would say a lot, after all, that’s why a lot of people commit crimes…becuase their in debt. Ok, so what is the purpose of red light safety cameras (or photo enforced traffic cams or intersection traffic cams).
The state says that these traffic cameras are meant to modify driving behavior. That these cameras are designed to make people think twice about running a red light. They claim that in 2013, the number of intersection fatalities decreased by 27 percent as a result of red light traffic cameras. Now that would be pretty significant if that were true. But here is what they don’t tell you. Florida also extend the duration of the yellow lights in 2013. Meaning, the yellow light now last for a longer period of time.
Giving drivers a chance to make a more informed decision on whether to stop or go. Now here is a quote from Pei-Sung Lin, who is the program director of the center for urban transportation research at the university of south florida, which monitors state traffic issues. He said, Although the yellow-light increases are slight — they likely will reduce the number of red-light runners. He went on to say, the longer caution lights will help some drivers react better to a change in signal and brake for a red light. Now this is coming from an expert in the field. So it could be said that the 27 percent decrease in intersection fatalities is a result of the extended yellow light and not the because of the red light safety cameras. It could also be said that having more modern vehicles on the road has also led to a decrease in traffic fatalities, since the crash standards in vehicles continues to improve.
Not to mention, if you look on Youtube at the thousands of crash videos that happen at intersections, very few actually occur because someone is intentionally running a red light. The fact is, the majority of people who run a red light and kill or injury someone is a result of texting and driving, or just not paying attention.
Photo enforced traffic lights rules, red light camera ticket florida. How much is a red light camera ticket?
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- published: 09 May 2016
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