Red Light Camera’s May Be Coming Down

Shark Tank – by Nicole Sanders

Red light camera’s in Florida have been a hot topic for years. That might end soon if new legislation is passed.

This week the Senate Transportation Chairman Jeff Brandes filed legislation that would take down red-light cameras across the state as reported by News4Jax.  

What they are trying to determine is if public safety has been enhanced or if state and local government entities are just wasting money.

A lot of other states have determined the lights are only meant to produce revenue and they actually cause more accidents because drivers are slamming on their brakes when they see instead of traditionally going through a yellow light. Senator Marco Rubio even came out and said the cameras were a scam.

State representative Lake Ray (R) says its about time the cameras come down.

A number of cities and counties, actually we’re going in and they were changing the timing, so you might have had a three-second yellow light and they would change that to 2 1/2 seconds to get people ticketed.

He also said those tickets are pulling in nearly $80 million in revenue.

Ray agreed the red light cameras are actually doing more harm than good and said a recent study done by the Florida Office of Accountability determined that as well.

There were nine times as many accidents, rear-ended accidents, that had occurred and there wasn’t any evidence to show that we are reducing accidents.

The legislation said the cameras were only installed for cash flow to the government and the company that installed them. Ray said that is why citizens need to vocally oppose them.

If we need money from the citizens, then we need to make the case to the citizens of the state of Florida and say this is how we want to allocate these funds. And get the citizens input and go to the citizens, instead of finding a way to be clever about how are going to collect some money.

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