Skip to main content

Survey finds speed, red light cameras divide Americans

A new survey from free legal information website FindLaw.com found that 52 per cent of Americans support the use of radar speed cameras, while 48 per cent oppose them. Advocates say the cameras increase safety, but opponents contend they are often little more than revenue grabs by communities seeking to fill their local coffers. Interestingly, there is a split between men and women on the issue – a majority of women support the use of speed cameras while a majority of men oppose it. Ohio recently adopted a
March 12, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
A new survey from free legal information %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal website Visit Findlaw website false http://www.findlaw.com/ false false%> found that 52 per cent of Americans support the use of radar speed cameras, while 48 per cent oppose them.
 
Advocates say the cameras increase safety, but opponents contend they are often little more than revenue grabs by communities seeking to fill their local coffers.  Interestingly, there is a split between men and women on the issue – a majority of women support the use of speed cameras while a majority of men oppose it.
 
Ohio recently adopted a law requiring the presence of a law enforcement officer when a speeding ticket is issued, effectively banning automated speed cameras. Nationwide, however, the 7120 Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says the number of communities using radar speed cameras increased from 115 in 2011 to 137 in 2014.
 
This is in contrast to the use of cameras that enforce red light violations at intersections. The use of such cameras is decreasing, and FindLaw found that Americans oppose the use of red light cameras by 56 to 44 per cent.
 
"The landscape of jurisdictions using automated cameras for traffic citations is changing constantly, due to decisions by courts, voters, legislators and city halls," said Stephanie Rahlfs, attorney-editor at %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal FindLaw.com Visit Findlaw website false http://www.findlaw.com/ false false%>. "If you drive across the country, you might encounter a red light camera in one city, a speed camera in another city, and neither in other cities. It's always advisable for motorists to be aware of the applicable traffic laws wherever they travel."

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • High resolution lenses for ITS
    October 29, 2014
    CBC Europe offers a wide range of high resolution Computar lenses for a variety of applications, including machine vision, intelligent transport systems, traffic monitoring, automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) and advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS). New additions to the range include 4/3” lenses, lenses for thermal imaging cameras and board-mount lenses with 4k resolution.
  • Florida DOT hosts annual transportation data symposium
    August 18, 2015
    The second Annual Florida Transportation Data Symposium takes place on 18-20 August at the Omni Orlando at ChampionsGate. Hosted by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and the Florida Institute for Consulting Engineers (FICE), the Data Symposium aims to bring together public and private transportation data providers and users to share knowledge regarding data needs, availability and methods for sharing and integrating data to provide optimum value for FDOT, its partners and other customers.
  • FLIR thermal imaging cameras ‘ideal for traffic monitoring'
    October 18, 2012
    Flir will use the ITS World Congress to highlight its new FC-Series T thermal imaging cameras which the company says are ideal, and affordable, tools for traffic monitoring applications. They produce high image quality, are easy to install and designed for use in harsh environments. Just like all Flir thermal imaging cameras, the FC-Series T works perfectly together with video analytics, and can be used for applications including vehicle detection at intersections, road side monitoring, monitoring traffic i
  • ITS America on-demand archives
    September 28, 2012
    Archives of sessions at the 2012 ITS America Annual Meeting and 2011 World Congress on-demand archives of sessions are now available. They offer many hours of recorded content for reference to sessions attended and those that you just didn’t get a chance to hear. Click on http://www.itsa.org/events/meeting-archives to view the full set of available recordings and instructions about how to download and purchase. Starting at the 2013 Annual Meeting in Nashville, ITS America will offer these audio synch-to-s