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.