The main issues with photo-radar and stoplight cameras (in my book, at least) are the privacy and accountability issues. If I run a red-light or speed and get caught, yeah sure pay the fine, whatever. The reasons I'm going to complain about automated systems are because they don't reliably identify the perpetrator, they are *ripe* for abuse, they can't be used to link the crime to the person, and because I think the $ could be better spent elsewhere. The basis of US law is centered around being innocent until proven guilty, and these systems seem to bypass identifying the vehicle operator and go straight to identifying and fining the vehicle owner under a presumption of guilt. The issue at large is not getting caught with a hand in the cookie jar, its with the sacrifices made by society (and me) in order to allow such automated data processing to take place. It sounds like the systems could be adapted to track vehicles or keep tabs on suspicious people, and beyond a doubt puts way too much power at the fingertips of any one person. I'm not willing to sacrifice any of my freedoms to tame a few speeders, and I hope I'm not the only one. If so, lets all just get barcodes and RFID tags implanted at birth. I'll bet you could really catch some speeders then! Maybe even killers and rapists if you looked at the data long enough... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Herbert Graf" To: Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 9:43 PM Subject: Re: [OT]: detecting emergency vehicles > > Totally serious. In fact I think my county (Ventura County) has > > the highest > > number of these 'red light cameras' installed. > > Studies have shown that lengthening the time a light turns > > yellow, plus the > > time when one direction turns red before the other direction turns green > > actually does more to save lives than these red light cameras, but where's > > the money in that? > > I've never understood this "complaining" about red light cameras, photo > radar, etc. People scream "it's a cash cow" or "it's just another tax". > Well, to the first I respond: Of COURSE it's a cash cow, but if you do the > right thing all the time you'll never pay it (why are people complaining > about paying because THEY RAN A RED LIGHT. Why ARE they running red > lights????). > > To the second I answer: if all taxes were those you could avoid by doing > the right thing this world would be a far different place. > > I say bring on the photo radar, bring on the red light cameras. And yes, I > drive, every single day. TTYL > > ---------------------------------- > Herbert's PIC Stuff: > http://repatch.dyndns.org:8383/pic_stuff/ > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: > [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads