A bill to extend the expiration date of cameras on red lights in several Northern Virginia communities was rejected on Monday by the Virginia House of Delegates. Virginia legislatures had hoped to expand the bill, claiming that the use of cameras is an effective deterrent to the running of red lights. Virginia should not only expand the bill, but also implement other policies to decrease accidents caused by drivers running red lights.
Opponents claim that the cameras are a violation of the right to privacy of the citizens and that they lay the burden of proof on the citizens instead of the government. Others are also skeptical that the primary motivation for the cameras is raising revenue rather than public safety.
House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) has been the strongest voice to speak against the cameras, saying that they start Virginia down a slippery slope of reducing the civil liberties of the citizens.
Studies have found that accidents have been reduced by 34 percent in Virginia intersections, both those with and without cameras. However, it is also argued that there are more effective methods of reducing traffic accidents, which accommodate drivers, rather than penalize them.
In the Washington Post, Spokesperson for the National Motorists Association, Eric Skrum, suggests measures such as increasing yellow light times and coordinating lights with drivers’ actual speeds rather than posted speeds are more effective and less intrusive. In Detroit these measures reduced accidents at certain intersections by 47 percent, much more than the cameras have done. Skrum also commented that such initiatives are where governments, “Should be investing their resources, instead of installing cameras designed to further fleece motorists.”
Driving a car is not a private action and the cameras at traffic lights violate privacy no more than security cameras in public buildings. However, it appears that other measures, such as re-timing the lights, are more effective than the cameras at reducing accidents. The most efficient use of resources would be to keep the cameras which have already been installed in place and to expend further resources on better calibrating traffic lights to the traffic they direct.
