Dallas Council Plays the Red Light Race Card?
WFAA reports that the Dallas City Council will “consider” creating a commission to "to help ensure that camera-enforced intersections are selected without regard to the ethnic or socioeconomic characteristics of the area in which the intersections are located." A little history… In September of 2007, the Dallas city council approved 40 more red light cameras (for a total of 100), more than doubling the size of their contract with Affiliated Computer Services ("We believe the impossible is possible, and that giving up is not an option). In 2007, Dallas City Council member Angela Hunt asked her colleagues to delay the vote; she believed council members did not have adequate information on whether the cameras caused more rear-end collisions at intersections. In the end, the need to fill Dallas’ city coffers ruled the day: had the council delayed the vote, they would have been forced to plug a $140k hole in the ‘07 – ‘08 budget. Why? Revenue from the additional, yet-to-be-approved cameras was already included in the City Manager’s budget proposal. Meanwhile, Lubbock Texas turned off its red-light cameras on Feb. 15th, after a study showed an increase in rear-end collisions at all intersections in the Panhandle city. And now you know the news.
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No but moeny will, its really all about the money "In the end, the need to fill Dallas’ city coffers ruled the day" This will spread everywhere because money is what the local govermenet politicos will see.
I KNEW IT! I just knew that people would start slamming on the brakes (likely because yellows are strangely short at camera enforced lights). It's always fun to be proven correct.
There's nothing for the Dallas city council to "consider" because a state law enacted last year requires the appointment of ordinary citizens to a red light camera oversight panel. Each city councilman chooses his own representative to ensure that the 1-2 anti-camera people on a city council get their own rabble rousers. It's a silly bureaucratic process designed by house legislators who hate cameras. They're pissed because, despite voting several times to ban the things, greedy cities convinced the state rep from Irving to sneak a red light camera authorization provision into an unrelated bill -- nobody noticed until it was too late. WFAA/Dallas Morning News (both Belo Corp) are in the pocket of ACS. Their "reporting" reflects it.