State Sen. Dan Duffy (Dist. 26) is the chief sponsor of Senate Bill 2466, which would ban red-light cameras in the State of Illinois. The bill was assigned to the Transportation Committee, where it got a hearing yesterday.
According to the Daily Herald’s live blog of the meeting, it sounds like there wasn’t enough support for the bill to get it sent back to the floor for a vote. Instead, a five-member (3 Democrats, 2 Republicans) subcommittee was formed to try to “find the middle ground on this redlight camera policy.” Sending a bill to subcommittee is often the same as killing the bill, but the chairman of the committee indicated that he would like to schedule a subcommittee meeting in early March.
They don’t say who was assigned to the subcommittee, but local senator Dale Risinger is a member of the larger Transportation Committee. Risinger doesn’t sound like a big supporter of red-light cameras, judging from this Peoria Times-Observer article.
Risinger, a former IDOT engineer, said, in his view, red-light cameras do not reduce accidents….
Risinger added he is also concerned about tickets being issued to motorists who pull forward to make a right turn on red without making a complete stop.
Risinger said he is concerned about the city growing dependent on the revenue that could be generated by tickets to red light violators.
He said Chicago became dependent on this revenue and began ticketing motorists who pulled forward at red lights for visibility reasons while trying to turn right on a red light.
I believe his concerns are warranted.
Arizona’s experience…. it is about speed cameras but that is more or less the same issue. From today’s Morning Edition NPR:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123501023
They claim fewer accidents.
Don’t you just love living in a police state?
Mahkno: Good link. It seems it is simply un-American to not speed and disobey the laws unless caught red handed by a real police officer. Those poor people.
Elaine: I know what state I’m in, where are you?? La-la Land?
Sorry to ask this question here but does anyone know why the Petelle150 blog comments are closed?
I saw this at the bottom of her comments: Like gas stations in rural Texas after 10 pm, comments are closed.
I wonder where the insurance companies fit into all of this?
what are the cameras used for? which Insight laid fibre optic cable to and are mounted at certain intersections in Peoria now ? at the time installed there was a Lame reason given??
it is simply a $$ for the companies that run the cameras and send fine notices out . Big brother is watchimg is the NEXT step ! CCTV in UK where 4,000 cameras for every person !
I do not like the sound of this, there are too many ways for people to get tickets without actually running the light. If the city wants to generate more money they should figure another way to do so. I will start shopping in other neerby areas that do not have the technology.