Scott Shenk wrote an interesting article about the plague of red light running that takes place every day in the United States. There’s certainly no doubt that running red lights causes accidents, but what’s the best solution to make the intersections safer?
It’s certainly not a problem created by judicial leniency. The area judges are almost uniformly tough on traffic light violations. They of course require the Commonwealth to prove that the violation took place, but if the evidence supports a conviction, it’s difficult to get the charge reduced or dismissed.
One possible solution is red light cameras, but I’m not convinced they’re the answer. For one: people still run lights, even with cameras issuing tickets. It’s not a tool that actually stops the problem; it just theoretically minimizes the number of light violations.
But the other problem with red light cameras comes with the lack of discretion. In Virginia, the law is that you have to stop on yellow if it is not safe to continue. How can a camera tell if it’s safe to continue or not?
There’s no easy solution to red light violations. Perhaps the only good option is to have more officers on the road to monitor intersections. They can use the proper discretion about whether or not to issue a ticket. But of course, there’s the expense of having them on the road. And that’s where we have to decide what road safety is really worth to us as a society.
Photo by: fazen