Since this has become such a hot topic lately, of course, I must weigh in. I learned about these cameras several years ago. I contacted all of the cities that had installed photo cameras in their cities. At that time these cities included: Paradise Valley, Scottsdale, Tempe, Phoenix and Chandler. I wanted to obtain some of these photos to use in the "Caught on Tape" segment of the "How is Your Driving?" show. All of the cities except Scottsdale gave me the run around. Through two officers at that time working for the Scottsdale Police Department, they actually gave me video footage to use for the show.
With that said, I never really was a "fan" of the cameras because they do not PREVENT speeding or red light running. As I said in a previous article "I don't mind hitting motorist that violate the law in the wallet; but, I also want to hit them in the head!" I want to adjust their attitude about speeding, running red lights and obeying all driving laws and rules.
Red Flex Traffic Systems a Scottsdale Arizona based company at that time served the above mentioned cities. They installed and monitored the photo systems these cities used. To give you an idea of the amount of money that was being made lets look at this one example. Red Flex would from just one of these cities would earn about $60,000 a month! But the city would take in an estimated $780,000 in one month from around 6,000 traffic violators!
So when the former Governor learned of this and how much money was being made she did not hesitate to put cameras on the highways; her motive was to use the funds to relieve the state of its debt! She did not bite her tongue about her intentions. Therefore, she didn't give a damn about the speeders except that if you were going to speed then you were going to bail the state out of it's debt!
As an advocate for save driving, saving lives and reducing collisions I say its better than nothing. I would think that DPS is correct, that collisions are down because of the cameras. Some people just can't afford to keep on getting tickets. Other people may have the attitude of not giving a damn and will not pay them as many people have decided to do. But when it comes time to register your vehicle what will you do then? One woman in another state let her traffic fines amount to over $19,000! She is now doing time in jail, prison if you will! The bottom line people are still dieing from automobile collisions. Speed kills! Once you get over a certain speed you are suspect to losing control of your vehicle and of course once you loose control of your vehicle you're now on a roller-coaster ride and on your way to killing yourself and others.
I say act responsibly, obey the driving rules and laws. Choose life over death!
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