Got a question for you guys.  How do you feel about municipalities putting those cameras up at intersections?

I recently moved to an area where a couple of municipalities have done so.  Yesterday I saw the strobes going off as the camera took the picture of a guy in a truck that had to stop in the middle of the intersection because the guy in front of him stopped for no apparent reason.

I've also seen people slam on their breaks when the light turned yellow as they were entering the intersection.  While I haven't seen anyone rear ended yet, I'm sure that it's just a matter of time.

From what I understand, what happens is that these cameras take a picture of you and your car when the camera things that you've done something wrong.  Then the police department mails you the ticket. 

It sounds good in theory and I'll admit that it irritates me to see greedy people pushing their way through an intersection well past the point where they should have stopped, but what about the times that the light changes as your approaching the intersection?  Yesterday this happened to me and I started to slam on my breaks, but I looked in my rear view mirror and saw the lady behind me looking down at something in her passenger seat.

I did some quick math in my head and pressed on through the intersection.  I think that I'm safe because I didn't see the strobes go off, but it got me to thinking.  How do you fight one of these tickets?

I know that the guy in the truck that I mentioned above is going to get a ticket.  He was indeed in the middle of the intersection when the lights changed, but how is he going to fight it?  The car in front of him had already sped off after having stopped.  There wasn't a cop to witness this fact.

How about confronting your accuser? Isn't that one of our constitutionally guaranteed rights?  Well, maybe not since the patriot act, but isn't that what the founding fathers put that protection in there for? 

Being new to this area, it's one of the biggest things that I've noticed and I don't like it.  I suspect that these cameras are a pet peeve to many who live in areas that have them.  Does it bother people enough to not want to live in these areas?  I don't think that I'd go that far, but it's definately not a positive attribute of an area. The funny thing is that I live just outside of the corporate boundaries of these two cities that utilize these traffic cameras, so I don't have a say.

I did a little checking on the web and it seems that these camera are more about cities making money than improving public safety.  I found one web site that lists 5 different studies that show that these cameras actually increase accidents, not decrease them.   

So how about you folks out there?  Are they a good thing or a bad thing?

R. B. "Bob" Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

Bob Mitchell is the president of ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc., St. Louis' largest discount/full-service real estate and mortgage company.  To find out more about Bob, ValueList or our flat-fee listing program please feel free to visit our web page, valuelistre.com