Red lights. We’ve all been tempted to run them at one point or another in our time behind the wheel. Perhaps we were running late for class, or wanted to get to the store before it closed, or were just plain tired of being stuck behind that moron who left his turn signal on. For the most part, though, we choose to obey the law and stop because we’re aware that the penalties if we don’t aren’t that fun.
Despite the fact that the potential costs of running a red light far exceed the rewards, some individuals continue to do so. In certain areas, the problem of people running red lights was extreme enough that local authorities experimented with placing cameras at intersections to snap a photo of the vehicle and license plate so that the owner could be ticketed at a later time for the infraction of the law.
This experiment, in Virginia anyway, is about to come to an end. As reported by the Washington Post on Tuesday, “Bills that would have allowed some Virginia communities to keep red-light cameras at intersections died in a House of Delegates Committee Monday, jeopardizing the state’s decade-long experiment with the technology.”
While this technology was well-received by the law enforcement community, its opponents raise the issue that these cameras constitute an invasion of privacy and, according to the Post, “many say that there are alternatives that are just as effective, such as extending the length of yellow lights and placing unmanned police cars at intersections to slow motorists.”
I fully believe in an individual’s right to privacy and that we shouldn’t have to worry about “Big Brother” peering into every aspect of our lives. However, there are certain times when there should be a decreased expectation of that right to privacy, and driving on public thoroughfares is one of them.
Speeding through a red light is not a decision that only affects the driver of the speeding vehicle, but it puts the lives of other individuals at potential risk as well. The right to get where we’re going as quickly as we like needs to be weighed against the right of others to be secure in the assumption that if they are obeying the laws, they are not going to suffer physical or financial injury.
Furthermore, part of the experience of learning to drive includes learning the laws of the road. Every licensed driver, even those without driver’s licenses, are aware of the fact that it is against the law to run a red light.
Whether they think the law is important or not is immaterial. The fact of the matter is that the decision to break the law is not protected by a right to privacy. I feel that the House of Delegates has dropped the ball on this issue in not extending the length of time that the cameras will be used, as they are in place not to spy on drivers, but to help enforce the law and protect the lives of everyone who gets behind the wheel.
As for the alternatives that opponents feel would be as effective, I’m all for extending the time of yellow lights. I’m not a perfect driver myself, nor do I claim to be. There have been a few times when I’ve scraped through on the last second of a yellow light and performed a double-take just to make sure the police didn’t have a different view of my maneuver than I did.
However, placing an unmanned police car at intersections just to psych potential red light runners into not running the light wouldn’t necessarily work. For one thing, there are those who wouldn’t care if the cop was there to begin with, and their belief that it’s cool to run the light may be reinforced if the unmanned car didn’t begin to chase them down.
For another, in many areas police forces are understaffed and overburdened. Taking a car out of commission for the sole purpose of trying to intimidate people into obeying the traffic laws would be a waste of taxpayer money.
While there will always be those who feel that the laws don’t apply to them, the camera lights at least increase the chances that the law would affect everyone who chooses to run a red light equally. Losing the cameras will increase the danger faced by law-abiding drivers by taking away a visible deterrent to light-running behavior.