New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie might be about to pull the plug on red-light cameras, the automated systems that ticket traffic violators.
A five-year pilot program comes to an end soon, and Christie has indicated that he won't renew it.
"I'll wait until all the evidence comes in ... but I will tell you that my gut feel on this one is that I don't favor it," he told The Asbury Park Press.
According to Autoblog, Christie shares that sentiment with a lot of other officials. It appears that after 20 years of growth, red-light camera programs are on the decline. As of two years ago, there were 540 programs across the nation, but that number has dropped to 502.
On the other hand, speed-camera programs are rising. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the number of speed-camera programs has risen from 115 to 140 in the past three years.
It's unclear why one type has seen growth while the other has faltered, but it's likely that a combination of changes in laws, changes in community fiscal situations and controversy over the cameras themselves all play a part.
Of courses, voters don't like being ticketed by cameras of either type. In the past 23 years, cameras have been rejected by voters 27 out of 30 times. When distilled down to red-light cameras only, it's been 10 out of 11 times.
The Chicago Tribune has reported that there have been spikes in the number of violations at certain locations that the city of Chicago couldn't explain, and lots of drivers were given tickets they didn't earn. The former CEO of RedFlex, the vendor that operated the system, has been indicted on corruption charges.
Meanwhile, a New Jersey judge has tossed around 17,000 tickets out because of a technical glitch that was keeping motorists from getting their tickets in the mail.
It seems that motorists are finally getting fed up, at least with red-light cameras. We'll see if speed cameras suffer the same fate in the coming years.
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