TRAFFIC CAMERA LAWS Ban photo radar across Colorado?
Re: “Why traffic cameras shouldn’t be outlawed,” Jan. 9 letter to the editor.
Letter-writer Larry R. Seals wrote, “Traffic cameras weren’t created to raise revenue. They were created to slow down the killing and maiming on our streets and highways.” If that were true, they would be surrounded by flashing yellow lights so people would know they were there and would slow down, and there’d be a sign that says, “Smile! You’re on Candid Camera!”
Most drivers don’t know those cameras are there, so they are not a deterrent. And those who look carefully for them are taking their eyes of the road.
Jeff Miller, Thornton
Most people would agree that a driver who blows through a red light and is captured by a red-light camera deserves at least a ticket. But when those cameras are used to ticket drivers whose front bumper is 6 inches over the stop line and short of an empty crosswalk or who enter an empty crosswalk so they can safely turn right on red, legitimate objections to their use surface. If the law limited their use to people who really run red lights, objections would disappear.
David Wolf, Lakewood
Studies have proven that traffic cameras have had little or no effect on how people drive, and yet they remain. Let me suggest that there is an ever-increasing disregard for traffic laws because of the horrible way traffic signals are timed.
As someone who drives for a living, I am seeing more and more frustration among drivers who are having to stop at every traffic signal, sometimes turning red even when there’s no one waiting to get through, which I believe incites people to not only speed but to run red lights as well.
What happened to the good old days when if you made one green light, you made ’em all?
William P. Blosser, Centennial
Traffic cameras provide a necessary measure of safety, but only when they are used with a countdown timer so all drivers have time to react to the changing red light when traffic is moving 35 and 40 mph. The Denver Post’s photo of Paul Houston collecting signatures for a ballot measure to ban red light photo radar just happens to be in the town of Sheridan, which has one of the most hazardous photo radar cameras at U.S. 285 and River Point Drive.
Keep the photo radar, but demand that all traffic lights where there is photo radar have a countdown timer so drivers have a fair and safe way to slow down for the changing traffic signal.
John Shevlin, Lakewood