(Thanks to www.stpetecameras.org for the link)

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20110517/news/705179857/

Article updated: 5/17/2011 2:27 PM
DuPage puts brakes on red-light cameras

Municipalities won’t be putting red-light cameras at DuPage County-controlled intersections any time soon.

The county board’s transportation committee on Tuesday rejected a pair of proposed red-light camera policies that would have given towns the opportunity to seek permission to install cameras at county intersections patrolled by municipal police departments.

Advertisement > County administrators had recommended that cameras be allowed at intersections where at least five “preventable” crashes occur a year. They said about 120 intersections in the county’s highway system meet that standard and account for roughly 70 percent of injury accidents.

But board member Don Puchalski said he doesn’t accept the claims by municipal representatives that the cameras are about improving safety — not increasing revenue.

“We always talk about whether it’s safety or revenue,” said Puchalski, the county’s transportation committee chairman. “When you see a red-light camera that makes 85 percent (profit), I question the safety matter.”

In fact, board member Jim Healy said the only way he would support red-light cameras at county-controlled intersections was if all the profit from the $100 tickets was used to fix roads and make them safer.

“It takes away anything that has to do with whether these are just to prop up the general fund,” he said.

But municipal officials don’t support that idea. In the end, even Healy and the other transportation panel members unanimously rejected a proposal that would have given the county 25 percent of the fine revenue from each camera.

Meanwhile, Jim Zay was the only committee member to support another option for a fee-based system where municipalities would have paid for a permit that covers the county’s administrative costs.

Zay said he’s disappointed municipalities won’t be given the chance to install cameras in order to make intersections safer.

“Everybody talks about revenue,” Zay said. “If one of these saves somebody’s life, do we put a price tag on that?”  (Ban the Cams note:  I love this "claim", it is a lie.  But a fun lie to read.  Go see some of the videos of RLV crashes on this site, that were CAPTURED by  RLC!  This lie is no different than someone who says I can "prevent" domestic violence if I can put a camera in everyones bedroom.)

He said there are a number of county-controlled intersections in northwest DuPage that could benefit from having the cameras.

“Ultimately, we should be worrying about safety at intersections,” Zay said. “If one of these options gives us that, that’s what we should go with.”
 

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Title
Comment	smaller | bigger
Name
Email
Write the displayed characters
Subscribe via email (registered users only)
	Add Comment Preview