It's pretty safe to say that the red-light cams are for safety & money.  good win-win for the city, which I support. 

Safety - Study in the Star indicating that collisions were down at red-light intersections.  Personally, I don't attempt yellow lights anymore b/c I've received a few tix. 

Money - It's not a coincidence that the ticket is a non-moving violation with a $100 fine (less than most attorney's hourly fee).  So, there's absolutely zero incentive to contesting the fine unless you're unemployed.  Time value of money. 

Legality - City prosecutors aren't even attempting to win these cases unless the driver confesses to the offense.  So, justice is being deprived.  Which I support. 

If you want to contest the fine, go into court and state "I wasn't driving."  You don't even need to say who was driving. 

Just money, really. Money for the company who makes them, mostly.

What does it matter WHY someone runs a red light or guns in through a yellow light?  If you're operating a vehicle you should be paying attention.  If people don't want a ticket, then pay the fuck attention to what you're doing.  I don't roll through corner stops or run yellow lights - not worth to it me to be unsafe and it's because I know someone who lost a 7-year old due to a driver not paying attention.  If a traffic camera causes people to pay attention and it saves one person's life or saves anyone from serious injury, then I'm all for them.

Follow the rules of the road and there won't be a problem.  Otherwise, take a different route or leave a few minutes earlier so you don't have to be put out by waiting 45 seconds through a traffic light.

Most cameras I've seen are front only.  Seems like less than 10% are setup for rear plates.  Looks like SW Tfway has a few rear plate configurations.

Let me break it down.

1. Assertion was made that cameras stop accidents, and that is why we need them.
2. Counter-assertion was made that cameras can't stop the types of accidents in question because the causes of such accidents are outside the scope of what a camera can address.

Get it?

Increasing the duration of the yellow light is more effective at accident prevention (cite forthcoming). KCMO only gets 1 dollar for every 10 of the ticket price, the rest goes to a private enforcement company in Arizona. Anyone who can't see the inherent ethical problem with that set up is probably a European.

Take the money from the tickets and synchronize all the other lights so traffic flows...

Or, take the money from the tickets and invest those public funds in a private company to operate a quasi-bus service so that people don't have to worry about running red lights... oh, nevermind.

Wow... at a cost of $25k per car.

I think that synchronizing the lights and making yellow lights a bit longer would help.  I'm probably not the safest driver in the world and have done my share of boneheaded driving, but I never text while driving and I've probably talked on my phone under 5 times while driving in any sort of traffic.  That said, I've ran red lights twice that I can remember (here, at least).  One was because I was distracted by my own thoughts and was looking at the light that was up ahead instead of the light that I was coming up on.  I didn't realize I had ran a red light until I was already in the intersection.  The other time was during a torrential downpour and it was hard to judge how close I was to the intersection.  The light had turned yellow and I was starting to stop, but realized at the last second that I'd be stopping in the intersection, so I kept going and was in the intersection when the light turned red.  I could have completely stopped, but I would have been rear-ended by the guy who was tailgating me. 

As far as synched/sensored lights go, I haven't really had this problem too often in KC, but I used to live in Springfield and would run a particular red light on a daily basis on my way to work.  This particular intersection didn't have a sensor and would just cycle through like it was rush hour.  So I would end up sitting at this light for several minutes (no exaggeration) with not a single car in sight for easily a half mile in either direction.  I was concerned at first about getting a ticket, but finally decided that if I can listen to a song and a half on the radio and not see a single other car at all, then there's an issue with the light.

Is this a one time cost? If so, I would think it would be cost effective pretty quickly. What's the salary for a cop or two?

heard a KCPD presentation on the new public safety sales tax and these cars were mentioned. funny how you don't see people freaking out about this the way you do red light cameras. what's the difference?

They aren't just a revenue grab cloaked in faux safety concern like the red light cams are. 

A better comparison would be to the police CCTV cameras installed in high crime public spaces.  There are legitimate public safety police motives beyond the license plate recognition - its just a balance against the privacy concerns. 

Too bad there wasn't a red light camera at 12th and Benton a couple weeks ago when some idiot ran red and totaled my ride.

Boooooo!

It's narrower than the headline makes it out to be:



Later, there was some lawyerly silliness and doomcasting: