Big Brother Problems

I get a nutty email (with good health observations) that I won't scare you with. Rather below is an excerpt you can check, if you like. Since I like the information, I will believe it without any questions.

I could not figure out the mania to put cameras all over, to monitor our streets, when they do nothing useful in our town.

In some places the camera can issue a ticket if it catches a car doing something bad. The owner becomes liable.

I knew some sort of conspiracy was afoot, but did not worry as the lights, at least in Saratoga, could not possibly be monitored, though the police stick an officer at a monitor station. Apparently, I missed the point...

Researchers in Florida have found that those Orwellian red-light cameras have significantly increased traffic accidents at the intersections where they've been placed.

Researchers from the University of South Florida College of Public Health concluded that "rigorous studies clearly show red-light cameras don't work." And yet these lights are showing up at more and more intersections nationwide.

According to USF professor Barbara Langland-Orban, one of the lead authors of the study, the cameras actually "increase crashes and injuries as drivers attempt to abruptly stop at camera intersections." Langland-Orban says the problem is compounded in Florida by the fact that "the state's high percent of elderly are more likely to be injured or killed when a crash occurs."

And in compiling their research, USF found that Florida isn't the only place where these traffic-light cameras are a safety issue. Studies from North Carolina, Virginia, and even Ontario, Canada, also reported that the traffic-light cameras have played a significant role in the increase of intersection crashes in those cities, including a rise in crashes that involve injury and excessive damage.

The lobbying group out there to support traffic-light cameras is the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). ... And the insurance industry LOVES traffic-light cameras, because its revenues skyrocket every time some poor schmuck runs a light and gets another moving violation tacked on to his license. The more points on your license, the higher the premiums you have to pay. Follow the money!

Apparently, the findings that were unearthed by the USF study have been unearthed before. Langland-Orban said that a paper published in 2001 by the Office of the Majority Leader of Congress called traffic-light cameras "a hidden tax levied on motorists," and even determined that the cameras are associated with increased incidents of traffic accidents.