Red Light Camera News Buffalo NY: “If they don’t work in other cities, they’re probably not going to work here,”
http://www.buffalonews.com/2010/07/15/1113439/no-decision-made-yet-on-cameras.html
No decision made yet on cameras at stoplights
Officials weigh experience elsewhere
By Brian Meyer
News Staff Reporter
Published: July 15, 2010, 12:30 am
The plan to install cameras at Buffalo’s busiest intersections to nab red-light runners is stuck on yellow.
The administration of Mayor Byron W. Brown is taking a second look at the cameras and ultimately might decide not to pursue the idea.
“We have not made a final decision yet,” said Communications Director Peter K. Cutler. “It has not been abandoned. It’s in abeyance.”
The question is not “when” red-light cameras might begin popping up at 50 busy intersections, but “if” they will be installed, Cutler said.
The administration is reviewing experiences in other communities across the nation, he explained.
An article earlier this year in USA Today documented what was described as a “growing public backlash” against such cameras. Voters in a few cities passed referendums last fall banning the cameras, while a growing number of states took similar steps. Some communities that have installed the cameras are considering new restrictions on their use, and the cameras have been targets of numerous lawsuits brought by people who believe the devices are unconstitutional.
Cutler stopped short of saying that public opposition and problems reported in other communities have delayed a program that the mayor has been fighting to institute for several years.
He only would say, “We’ve just decided that there’s more diligence that needs to be done.”
Since shortly after he became mayor in 2006, Brown has touted red-light cameras as a way to reduce accidents. Installing 50 cameras at busy intersections also would raise at least $2.75 million a year in revenue. That estimate has prompted some critics on the Common Council and in the community to call the program a “money grab.”
The Council voted, 5-3, last year to seek state permission to install red-light cameras.
The state authorized the program, but city lawmakers emphasized they would need answers to many more questions before giving the project final approval.
The long list of questions raised by Council members include privacy issues, worries that the cameras might spur an increase in rear-end collisions and suspicions that motorists might be targeted as they legally drive through amber signals. Even if the Brown administration opts to proceed with cameras, it has no guarantees that city lawmakers would authorize them.
Council Majority Leader Richard A. Fontana said he was pleased to hear the mayor has put the red-light cameras on hold.
“I don’t like them as a motorist, and I don’t like them as a lawmaker,” Fontana said.
The Lovejoy District representative said he believes the surveillance devices will spur some drivers to slam on their brakes and cause an increase in rear-end accidents.
Fontana said he is aware of the problems that red-light cameras have encountered in other communities.
“If they don’t work in other cities, they’re probably not going to work here,” he said.
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