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1) Edge of the Wedge for Automated Tickets  by Anonymous Citizen on July 7, 2003 
House Bill 4864 will require the Departments of Transportation and State Police to approve 10 locations throughout Michigan as test sites for automated traffic tickets. Although the sites are all to be at signalized intersections, and casual readers of the bill may presume that only red-light violations will be ticketed, the bill permits automated tickets for all traffic offenses, including speeding. Since most red-light camera hardware is also capable of issuing speeding tickets, motorists should assume that automated speed traps will be operated at all ten locations.

MDOT and MSP will be asked to award what are in effect licenses to rob motorists of vast amounts of money. Ten lucky cities will win chances to turn mis-timed yellow lights and unrealistic speed limits into profit centers. This bill is not a traffic-safety bill, it is a revenue-sharing bill to funnel money into local city and court budgets.

Automated tickets are already legal in Michigan for use at railroad grade crossings, but since such installations don't yield much revenue, this law has never been used. This is the third attempt to enlarge the scope of automated tickets. It uses an imaginary crisis of red-light running as the thin edge of the wedge to make automated tickets legal. This bill is the first step toward universal legalization of photo radar. Based on this precedent, cities will use underposted speed limits on through streets to justify hundreds, perhaps thousands of tickets a day. Although these automated tickets will not result in points on driver's licenses, usual fines will apply and they will each be subject to a $40 surtax by the state government. They will lead to enormous increases in auto-insurance premiums. The auto insurers are the principle lobbyists for photo radar, intending to use automated speed traps to issue large numbers of tickets to low-risk drivers, and so increase premiums or move average customers into high-cost insurance pools.

Worst of all, automated enforcement gives cities a powerful cash incentive not to remedy underperforming signals and obsolete speed limits.
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2) No Tickets Via the Mail  by mrogers on June 23, 2003 
Video imaging utilizing cameras at intersections is wonderful to optimize the traffic signals, so motorist experience less congestion. However, using this technology to conduct enforcement activities of traffic violations is not an appropriate use of the technology.
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3) No to Bg Brother cameras  by Ann Rock on June 23, 2003 
In America , We have the right to face our accuser. Vote no to cameras at intersections that could issue violations. Have you forgotten the lessons of history?
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