{"id":227933,"date":"2010-01-25T18:34:50","date_gmt":"2010-01-25T23:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2010889356_redlightcameras.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-01-25T18:34:50","modified_gmt":"2010-01-25T23:34:50","slug":"red-light-cameras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/227933","title":{"rendered":"Red-light cameras"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Driven by greed, they target unfairly<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>State Rep. Chris Hurst, D-Enumclaw, has my support regarding the red-light cameras [\u201cBill would change fines, timing of red-light cameras,\u201d NWMonday, Jan. 25].<\/p>\n<p>The driving force behind these cameras is greed. Shortening the yellow-light period is only the start of how the citizens will get soaked. Look at the city of Lake Forest Park and their placement of a camera near the Brookside school on Northeast 178th Street. This road has been a 25 mph area for a long time. The city has created a tricky exception to the rule that is currently in existence around school zones. The camera operates during two different periods of the day: from 7-9:30 a.m. and from 2-4:30 p.m. The exception is that during these two different periods, the speed is 20 mph and the school yellow warning lights are not operating. The camera operates only on school days \u2014 another exception.<\/p>\n<p>The result is that a person with little knowledge of the area \u2014 especially during the dark and rainy period \u2014 would definitely get a ticket. In addition to that, these tickets are probably keeping the courts busy and making money for an out-of-state third-party.<\/p>\n<p>How about hiring an extra local patrol and keeping standard rules in place instead of placing obnoxious cameras that cause accidents and tension to the majority of law-abiding citizens? The backlash will be that citizens who have voted for bonds and school levies will slowly stop supporting their local government.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2014 Fran Whitehill, Shoreline<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Show me the evidence<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I seems clear there is no good \u2014 repeat good \u2014 data that camera lights reduce accidents; Anecdotes are not data.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s see the city prove it the red-light cameras not just intended as a revenue source by giving the fines to Mercy Corps.<\/p>\n<p>One Scandinavian country took out the traffic lights altogether and accidents went down. It took guts, but it worked.<\/p>\n<p>One intersection \u2014 Northeast 45th Street at Union Bay Place \u2014 has five corners and is a good candidate for a European-type roundabout. It has lots of room and will have no lights, no maintenance, no bookkeeping, no electricity and therefore no cameras and bureaucracy.<\/p>\n<p>Otherwise, show me the beef.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2014 Don Bell, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Driven by greed, they target unfairly State Rep. Chris Hurst, D-Enumclaw, has my support regarding the red-light cameras [\u201cBill would change fines, timing of red-light cameras,\u201d NWMonday, Jan. 25]. The driving force behind these cameras is greed. Shortening the yellow-light period is only the start of how the citizens will get soaked. Look at the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}