How many of us wince when we have to make that split-second decision to either speed up or slow down on yellow, only to feel the embarrassment and rage as we see the sudden camera flash in the rear-view mirror? Red light cameras are one of the banes of existence for drivers in many of the towns that dot the landscape in the suburbs and, increasingly, it seems, within the five boroughs. New Jersey state senator Declan O’Scanlon (R-13) is among the few politicians willing to admit that the cameras are nothing more than a poorly-timed cash grab. However, O’Scanlan went on record on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program to say that politicians need to reassess their attitude that they’re just a necessary nuisance.
O’Scanlon advised Berman and Riedel to feel riled up over the cameras. “Don’t calm down, It’s more than a cash grab; it’s a scandal. It is government-sanctioned theft, and if they do this, what are they gonna do next? But certainly, red light cameras, they don’t- if enforcement is going to change behavior, it’s got to be a behavior that people consciously decide to do. Nobody consciously decides to barrel through an intersection.”
O’Scanlan feels there is a simple solution to the cameras that should appease most people. “You see red light camera footage all the time of people running red lights, just blatantly barreling through. These again aren’t people choosing to do that. Unless they’re running from the police or are suicidal, people don’t do that. The overwhelming majority of these tickets happen within a couple of fractions of a second in between a yellow light and a red light. If you really want to reduce so-called red light running, increase your yellow light time by a half second and you’ll reduce red light running, so called, by 80%.”
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