Originally sent to the Mercury.
As usual once in awhile something catches my eye and this article in paper certainly did .
Our Mayor indicated at levee the other day she may entertain the Red Light Cameras issue
I know as usual anything I ever send into council for non consideration generally falls on deaf ears but I just feel compelled to encourage all ppl to vehemently oppose such idea.
For those who drive thru Guelph regularly you have to notice the numerous traffic lights where YELLOW to RED occurs in milliseconds . And lights at interections such as Willow Speed and hanlon that wont go green late at night and ppl drive thru eventually in frustration. Consider that cameras as I understand pick up you in intersection on RED where tickets are automatically issued …
I have witnessed in cities where this is used what occurs is PANIC breaking at intersections on yellow which is dangerous at any time and extremely so in winter conditions.
Nobody wants to see ppl who blow red lights and creating danger to all in intersections but more often than not when I have spoke to ppl who have suffered the mechanical no emotion penalty for Red light cameras they have not been your careless impatient drivers only ppl who have got caught in a fast light or made a decision on proper driving skill of safely going through and not panic braking there vehical.Everyone must remember that a safe passing mentioned above observed by an officer with common sense does not result in a ticket these cameras won t have any common sense or proper discretion and the penalties to that driver are far beyond the traffic ticket into years of serious increased insurance rates to already stressed ppl struggling to pay there bills and raise families in our city .
I get tired of hearing the party line on interest of public safety and when I hear about the police stress to cost of patrolling I cannot swallow that as almost everywhere in the city there are speed traps , with tales of 5 km and 8 km hr speeding tickets issue in non school zones of 50 and 60 k limits . Or the stretch from the cutton club to Edinburgh Rd on college where no speed limit signs are posted and often a speed trap at side streets near Ed road intersection . Drivers entering from Gordon to College do not see any signs for posted limit.When drivers question the ticket and no signs of course the sign on outside of city limits is referenced to where its 50 anytime not posted is stated if you can read all that while driving .
I am not condoning careless speeding by anyone but I cannot help reading between another statement in levee where it talks of revenues gained and cant help going back to age old belief of there are quotas for traffic officers to meet .
We can hide behind the public safety all we want but try going thru university on Gordon at 2 am or downtown at night when our students are casually walking across the street or in front of moving cars on red lights or where no pedestrian can cross and I have never seen an officer take these ones aside and issue a ticket for that . This to me presents a true an imminent danger to the students and extreme anxiety to the driver . Add the numerous bicycles operating with no lights with impunity I have to wonder whether public safety or is it a war on motor vehicles in our city who need to travel.Again I realize for some reason every time a new bylaw which either is discriminatory or designed to penalize a group of ppl these things just get rammed thru by the always same few councillors sounds like to time for a change. Perhaps the police budget would be in better shape if we forget about 30 plus million police headquarters renovations .
And what are Red Light cameras going to cost when our taxes are yet again going up or is once again we are going to hear that these costs are somehow already covered somewhere ?? Our city is becoming so unfriendly to anyone who does not ride a bicycle or walk to work its ridiculous .. DM