Los Angeles is repealing a portion of Big Brother. The Red Light Cameras are going down, and not a moment too soon.
The Great Recession, which has rocked states from coast to coast, is shaking all the unnecessary regulation from city, state, and federal law. Why attempt to enforce laws that do not collect fines? Why enforce fines that are easily disputed or ignored? The state has no right to pick up fines at length in order to fill the budget gaps threatening the solvency of state coffers. Useless red light cameras only contributed to the budget deficit that Los Angeles is still struggling to climb out of.
Red-light cameras were installed primarily to accrue revenue. Contrary to the assertions of Hawthorne and Inglewood officials, these monitors do not significantly decrease the likelihood of accidents nor do they offer any prevention.
If municipal governments want to protect the people who drive in their communities and provide the most efficient thoroughfares throughout their cities, they could start by steadily removing stop and yield signs which offer a false sense of security to motorists. Rather than installing signs, camera, and other roving eyes from the state, why not require drivers to rely on the two eyes in their own head? Defense driving without recourse to traffic signs has actually reduced the number of accidents. The Netherlands experimented with deregulating traffic, and as a result there were fewer accidents.
With the installation of red-light cameras, the city of Los Angeles bled out more money that it took in, yet failed to prevent the projected bloodshed that harmed passengers, endangered traffic, and throttled traffic.
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