Whatever happened to making cops do their job? Oh, that's right, they're busy raiding medical pot shops, paying for body rubs yet "saying no" to the handy, and harrassing homeless people. Fuck Big Brother!

If they install more red light cameras, they need to extend this penalty to cyclists as well. Theres no way in hell drivers are going to continue to be a tax/punching bag to patch a budget hole.

You cant resolve your problems by continuing to fine or tax cars and their drivers. It just adds more suspicion to paranoid anti-McGinn drivers who think that the mayor has some secret war on cars going on.

@1: You mean, you still have police where you live?

Seriously, Goldy? Do you actually believe that red light cameras are about anything other than revenue generation?

Studies not funded by red light camera manufacturers have shown no significant change in accidents (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_light_c…). Yes, fewer T-bone accidents, but also more rear-end accidents. Cities have an incentive to increase revenue by shortening yellow lights, and many do (http://blog.motorists.org/6-cities-that-…).

I'm all for increasing vehicle taxes and government revenue in general. But there has to be a better way to do it than this.

for once, Time Eyman is right... (if only by accident)

@ 2, how are these cameras supposed to identify the bicyclists? There aren't license plate numbers they can run.

i am against the panopticon.

@ 2: If drivers don't want to be "tax/punching bags" simply stop running red lights! What is difficult about that??? Are there that many arrogant drivers out there that don't give a shit about the safety of pedestrians, cyclist and other drivers?

Eyman sucks... But correct. This shit is always run by outsourced fuckers on commission. Another case of privatized efficiency!

But in GTA: Emerald City, blowing thru stop signs and red lights is a good thing ...

Goldy, you are for passive observation by your government? ORLY?

Shame on you, Goldy. Why do mayors support red light cameras? Because they generate revenue. Follow the money. And you can cite as many "running red lights is dangerous!" statistics as you want, but the relevant statistic is then "do red light cameras help the problem?" And the answer, as @4 mentioned, is fairly definitely "no".

I'm all in favor of skewering Tim Eyman, but this is the least egregious things he's ever done. And if you're still going to skewer him, don't be lazy about your research.

File this Eyeman initiative uner "even a broken clock is right twice a day".

@8 and others: you assume people run red lights out of apathy, selfishness, or some malicious motivation. I'm willing to bet most red light running happens because the driver was drunk, asleep or overly tired, wasn't paying attention, etc. Red light cameras don't solve any of these problems.

@2 has a good point. Check this out: http://boingboing.net/2011/06/08/3-way-s… Of course there’s no way yet to identify the cyclists, but why do they get a free pass?

Stranger was against cameras in the park. But loves Big Brother at every intersection. I call bullshit. Also call Convictions of Convenience.

Finally, as others pointed out, there have been WAY too many proven cases of cities tampering with the lights and cameras to get more money unfairly, aka fraudulently.

Tim Eyman is a dick. But even a broken dick is right twice (once? Hard to believe he’ll ever be right again) a day.

Ugh. Sometimes I'm really glad legislators, not blog commenters, make laws. The same people whining above are the same people who were against seat belt laws, drunk driving laws, lower speed limits, school zones, helmet laws, etc etc etc.

Yes, obviously be smart about it - don't reduce yellow light times - but it's very clear that red light cameras save many lives. Even the Wikipedia article linked @4 says as much if you have scientific literacy.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/201…

Dogmatic ideology about "big brother" or the "panopticon" makes you sound ridiculous. This is about pragmatism. Car drivers kill more people under 40 than any other cause, including murder, drugs, cancer, heart disease, etc. Car drivers kill more children and teens than all other causes put together. It should be the government's #1 responsibility to protect against the #1 threat to public safety.

Red light cameras?! THAT'S your takeaway?

US Conference of Mayors Declares Drug War a Failure.
http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2011/…

Am I confused, or didn't Washington already decide the red-light camera issue isn't within the domain of what can be decided via initiative?

I have a feeling this will eventually be decided by your State Supremes—at which time, I'd hope both lefties and righties would agree that all car-driving justices should recuse themselves.

Good, we didn't really need privacy anyway. Such an overrated idea and besides, if you aren't breaking the law you don't have anything to worry about. Right? Right!!

"to help reduce red light running and speed related injuries and fatalities"

If I recall correctly, scientists were paid big bucks to find out what the effects of red light cameras were on speed, and they found absolutely no link between having cameras in place (and signs reminding them that there are cameras) and drivers being more cautious. If anything, they found that people increased their speed more because, OMG THERE'S A CAMERA I SHOULD GO TWICE AS FAST. Though like great humans of science they backed off from that claim. They went further to try and find what variable would affect both the speed of the driver and how it related to injury and fatality. They found that longer yellow lights did this. Period. So, if you truly care about "reduc[ing] red light running and speed related injuries and fatalities" the variable you need to concern yourself the most with is how long that yellow light stays up. Red light cameras? Are about revenue. Even a blind idiot can see that. Oh hey look, you linked to Eyman.....

OMGOSH I almost forgot about that case where these guys in Norway stole government license plates and ran a bunch of red lights (sending the government thousands of dollars worth of tickets, and making the roadway less safe). Combine that issue with that of people taking a legal right getting a ticket and it's beyond clear these mayors are drunk on the promise of money. Who cares if the system works WE REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY WANT MONEY ANYWAY JUST GIVE IT TO US. They're like fucking heroine addicts, give them a little taste and damn whatever consequences, who cares what people say about it, who cares what the software does, MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY. I don't like being lied to, they should just be honest about what they're trying to do here. The fact that we know we're being lied to and they don't seem to care worries me. Maybe it shouldn't, maybe I should blindly trust a government that's never told the truth, maybe I'll get employed by the stranger one day.