Banning traffic cameras may be a growing trend

TopSpeed

By Alexander

Published Apr 18, 2010

We must admit that we have never received a picture in the mail detailing at which intersection and at what speed we were traveling when we ran a red light. We don’t think that experiencing that could harbor any good feelings towards the little electronic snitches mounted on poles along the very same roads where we decide to throw out our inhibitions and break some laws. A little rough, but apparently, these are the exact emotions that citizens in certain cities in Maryland, Ohio, and Texas are experiencing and they are not taking it lying down.

Residents in certain parts of these states are putting their foot down and putting together petitions to ban the red light and speed cameras that have been installed on their roads. Their goal is to offer local residents the opportunity to vote on whether automated ticketing should continue or not. They hope to place this vote in the next elections. Ordinances in Sykesville, Maryland are already in place and are scheduled to a hearing on May 4, 2010. Paul Kubosh, an attorney in Houston, TX, is targeting the same type of automated ticketing in his hometown.

Hit the jump for the full story and to see what states have these electronic snitches installed.

"The city of Houston shall not use photographic traffic signal enforcement systems to civilly, criminally, or administratively enforce any state law or city ordinance against the owner or operator of a vehicle operated in violation of a traffic control signal, specified by Section 544.007(d) of the Texas Transportation Code, nor shall it collect any money from any recipient of a Notice of Violation issued, in whole or in part, in connection with the use of a photographic traffic signal enforcement system," the Citizens Against Red Light Cameras petition states.

Petitions such as these have already succeeded in cities in Louisiana, Ohio, Texas, Arizona, Illinois, and Alaska. If the citizens in a particular city get enough votes on their petition then they could be granted a referendum to ban these cameras. And they’ll probably win too: Photo enforcement has never survived a public vote. How’s that for some good odds?