The City of Lynnwood recently installed several red light cameras at some of their busiest intersections. The result? Way more people run red lights than the city had expected, which means way more $$$ for the city than projected.
This discovery does not come as much of a surprise to me. Traffic has gradually increased in the city to the point that it can take a ridiculous amount of time just to move a few blocks in the "downtown" area. (I put "downtown" in quotes because Lynnwood doesn't really have a clearly defined "downtown" area. But that's a topic for another post).
The Lynnwood Enterprise has written a plethora of articles about the red light cameras. Many local cities (including neighboring Mill Creek and Edmonds) have sat back and watched what Lynnwood has done and are considering adding cameras within their jurisdictions.
The debate rages on about whether these cameras are the right thing to do. I have yet to be the victim of one, so I can't really complain.
1 comment:
As a law-abiding citizen (most of the time, anyway), I like the idea of the cameras. Something has to be done with the constant expansion of the population. Since for budget reasons there are fewer traffic enforcement officers available, cameras are the logical step in enforcement. We can't have people running red lights just because they get tired of waiting longer (because of guess what, more people). It's a serious safety issue and we'll just have to get used to the cameras like we must get used to the ever-expanding population.
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