Legislation watch
Most Recent Comments
1) Mis-use of Red-light Cameras [by Anonymous Citizen on September 24, 2001]House Bill 4598 will make it legal for any city, township, county or the state to issue tickets for violating traffic signals by means of automatic cameras. Tickets would go not to the driver, but to the registrant of the automobile or light truck. (Because their license plates cannot be photographed, operators of semi-truck tractors would be exempt from automatic tickets.) No driver's-license points would be assessed for these tickets, because the driver would not be identified. As written, the bill would permit registrants who were not driving the car at the time to attest on an affidavit to that effect, and they would not be obliged to pay the ticket, and would not be obliged to identify the responsible driver (although this requirement might easily be added at a later date). It is alleged by city governments, insurance companies, and camera salesmen that there is a worsening crisis of "red-light running." In fact, many traffic signals have yellow phases set too short for the speed of the approaching traffic, and what is said to be a "crisis" is in fact an epidemic of sloppy traffic engineering by city governments. Many of these jurisdictions will seek to profit from the incompetence of their traffic engineers by issuing large numbers of unjustified red-light-camera tickets. This bill will enable cities to turn inadequate signal installations into profit centers. Firms selling cameras will encourage cities to install these machines rather than improve and modernize their traffic signals, at a serious risk to traffic safety. This bill contains several provisions that appear to address the problems of automated traffic tickets (requiring the cameras to be under the management of the police, requiring a program of data collection and evaluation, and requiring a city to "consider" engineering improvements), but all these provisions are so weak as to be meaningless. The bill is alleged to prevent insurers from surcharging motorists' car-insurance premiums for the automated tickets they receive, but there appears to be nothing in the bill to actually prevent insurers from doing so. This bill should be thought of as a preliminary step toward legalizing automated enforcement of all traffic-control devices, including speed limits. The potential is great for city governments to turn automated enforcement into an uncontrolled tax increase on motorists. Aarne H. Frobom, National Motorists' Association 402 West 2nd Street, Waunakee, Wisconsin, 53598 (608) 849-6000
Reply
Introduced in the House on April 17, 2001
Click here to view bill details.
Reply
View Full Conversation
