I don't understand how this is a waste of money if it causes people to be more aware of their surroundings at red lights and drive safer. I see an astounding number of people every day who run the lights in Tyler. This causes the next traffic set (who has a green light) to have to wait longer for those running the red light to clear the intersection. Then, cars at the back of that traffic end up running the light as they feel "cheated" since they would have made the light if someone wouldn't have ran the light when it was green for them. It just creates a cycle until someone jumps the green light and gets side swiped by someone else running the red light (like I witnessed this weekend). I've lived in both Tyler and Longview and I can definitely say the problem with running red lights in Longview has declined exponentially since the traffic cameras were installed, while Tyler just seems to be getting worse.
Regarding the guy insinuating the truck "caught in the intersection" was wrongly ticketed. First, if the truck was really already in the intersection when the light went red then the cameras wouldn't have gone off, the sensors are before you enter the intersection. Second, even if the cameras were set up differently and had somehow gone off, if he was blocking the intersection he was still in the wrong. If you miss-judge traffic and pull into an intersection but can't move when your light goes red you are violating a law.
All in all I think so many hide behind the "privacy" front when really they are just banking on the benevolence of Texas police officers over computers.
Anonymous User May 12, 2009
at 11:51am
I don't understand how this is a waste of money if it causes people to be more aware of their surroundings at red lights and drive safer. I see an astounding number of people every day who run the lights in Tyler. This causes the next traffic set (who has a green light) to have to wait longer for those running the red light to clear the intersection. Then, cars at the back of that traffic end up running the light as they feel "cheated" since they would have made the light if someone wouldn't have ran the light when it was green for them. It just creates a cycle until someone jumps the green light and gets side swiped by someone else running the red light (like I witnessed this weekend). I've lived in both Tyler and Longview and I can definitely say the problem with running red lights in Longview has declined exponentially since the traffic cameras were installed, while Tyler just seems to be getting worse.
Regarding the guy insinuating the truck "caught in the intersection" was wrongly ticketed. First, if the truck was really already in the intersection when the light went red then the cameras wouldn't have gone off, the sensors are before you enter the intersection. Second, even if the cameras were set up differently and had somehow gone off, if he was blocking the intersection he was still in the wrong. If you miss-judge traffic and pull into an intersection but can't move when your light goes red you are violating a law.
All in all I think so many hide behind the "privacy" front when really they are just banking on the benevolence of Texas police officers over computers.