Okay, let me get this out there: I hate red light cameras. I mean really hate. I just loathe the idea that R2D2 is perched up there on a post, waiting with mechanical patience for me to violate some regulation or another so it can fink on me to HAL, who will then mail me my citation.
Nonetheless...
Just as a prisoner in a concentration camp may loathe the guards, yet still feel a bit of schadenfreude when they put a beat-down on the camp bully, I get a warm 'n' tingly feeling when I see that fireworks display of flashes go off as some asshat of an eighteen wheeler pilot runs the reds at the Lovell Road exit, now that the shiny new cameras are up.
Schadenfreud is a fine emotion, to be indulged in often.
ReplyDeleteYou know, here in Alabama they tried & failed to get that crap voted in. When that didn't work, some quasi-"private" entity installed cameras on the intersections anyway. You can't get a ticket from one (yet) but by golly, they'll figure a way to shove it through. Meanwhile, our privacy is being trampled anyway. That's how it's done here.
ReplyDelete-Tracy
Where I'm from (Holland) it feels like you're living in someone's 1984ish police-state nightmare. There's a traffic cameras everywhere. Some sections of interstate have a speed camera right in your face in the left lane every 100 meters. Sickening!
ReplyDeleteLuckily, the spirit of freedom has not yet been completely crushed, and some of my more enterprising compatriots, who in earlier generations would no doubt have been fighting the Germans or the Spanish, resent the imposition of yet more government control over their lives. So far, I'm aware of incidents using guns, paint and tractors to thwart the cop-taxcollector's devious little moneymaking scheme.
It makes me feel really, really good to see a $40,000 camera paid for with money that was extorted from me at gunpoint pointing at the sky because some farmer with a tractor and a sturdy chain didn't like it either.
Tam, and others, red light cameras, and other stuff causes more problems than the public is aware of. If we consider ourselves "firearm threatened" we typically belong to the NRA for support. If you feel "motor vehicle threatened" look to the National Motorists Association for support. (didn't know we had one did you)
ReplyDeleteI have stumbled accross as site in England devoted to pictures of destroyed traffic cameras and maps of where the latest installaitons are. Maybe it is time for a similar effort over here. Austin TX city council voted last night to go ahead with their plan to seek private partner to install red light cameras here after overwhelming public input that said NO!.
ReplyDeleteHere in Germany many of the private radio stations warn you about traffic cameras just like traffic jams (I'm not aware of any public fee-funded stations doing it).
ReplyDeleteYou mean this page...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.speedcam.co.uk/gatso2.htm
It's truly heartwarming to see that the spirit of freedom hasn't been totally crushed in all subjects of Socialist Britain.