Brick township has publicly announced that it will launch a test program to gauge the effectiveness of red light cameras at intersections to catch speeders and motorists who run "red lights".
Oh, you noticed the quotation marks.
Can we say money grab. Geez. We're living in the state with one of the highest cost of living standards in the country, facing a recession (Thanks Mr. Prez) and we're still constantly smacking away the hands of our politicians as they greedily sneak their fingers into our pockets.
Later this week, they will be installing cameras at "undisclosed" locations around the township to help them decide if installing the cameras township-wide would be a good idea. Or a profitable one, rather.
Of course, the politicians engage in their usual "I care about the community" rhetoric, babbling transparently about public safety and rouge drivers who run lights with abandon. And of course, the elderly people, (ie. the incumbents enablers) will applaud the effort, as they deride the "young drivers who speed and run lights".
The cameras are set up to record the light transition and cars running through it, then a ticket will be automatically mailed to speeders and to motorists who run lights (Just wait until a cop or a judge gets a ticket, will they pay too?).
There isn't really room for disputes when you're caught on tape. Officials announce that a web site will be set up so that offenders can view themselves caught on tape, if they try to dispute the charges.
Cliched cranky rights-surrendering senior citizen comment: "If you don't run the light, then you don't have to worry about getting a ticket."
Cliched smarter, (younger) person's (logical) response: What's happened when other towns implemented this kind of thing, is that drivers become familiar with the locations of the red light cameras and slam on their brakes at these intersections at the first hint of a yellow light (because the camera tickets you if your tires are past the line of the intersection at the red light signal)
Needless to say, this causes a huge increase in fender benders and rear-ending activity, ( as other motorists are not given time to stop). Also, in bad weather, rainy weather, light snow, there is no extra time for motorists to make it across the intersection, thus adding to the wipe-outs and spin-outs the inevitably occur as motorists try to stop too fast.
The company that makes the cameras has offered to foot the township's bill for the initial camera supply, they'll be happy of course, with the steady stream of revenue that will accompany their municipal contract in lieu of initial payment.
The township, relying very heavily upon traffic tickets/ motor vehicle offenses as a source of revenue will be happy with the steady stream of money generated by the tickets.
Here's where my overstated (and largely ignored) rhetoric comes in; If you oppose the red light cameras, write your lawmakers, call them, bother them; you pay them, so they have to listen to you.