Red Light Cameras In New Jersey Have Officially Gone Dark

http://www.app.com/story/news/local/new-jersey/2014/12/16/red-light-cameras-nj-go-dark-midnight/20501891/

AsburyParkPress- At midnight, the video feed on red-light cameras all across New Jersey will fade to black.Steve Schapiro, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said municipalities will have 90 days to issue tickets to motorists for any alleged traffic violations that are recorded before the cameras go dark at midnight.

Hallelujah. Amen. The fraud has been halted. Best fundraiser the state has ever played off as a safety issue. I have never personally got a ticket in the mail for running a red light, so I'm not nearly as spiteful as I could be. With that said, it has definitely affected my driving. I see a yellow light and start getting paranoid like a high schooler smoking pot in the janitor's closet. I guess that's one of the goals of the cameras too, too scare people into driving safer. Well, fuck that. I might run twelve red lights on the way home. One for every stupid ticket I have been given to meet some quota. One for every alternate side parking ticket. One for every ticket I have gotten for a broken tail light or something hanging on my rearview mirror. 

If you think those cameras were anything other than a way to make money off aggressive drivers you are delusional. It's not like New Jersey had a problem with people running blatantly red lights. Sure, most people push the boundaries of what is acceptable by accelerating through a late yellow, but no one is closing their eyes and praying they don't get t-boned just to avoid waiting 30 seconds at a light. The people that do are suicidal, in which case, they aren't too concerned about the ticket they might receive in the mail. Suicidal people don't pay tickets or show up to court. Read that in my old health book I think.

To realize this was no more than a money making scheme look no further than the fact that it was a FIVE year program. You couldn't have checked the results after year one and told me if there was sufficient evidence to it's positive impact? Get the fuck out of town, literally. It was way easier to just put the program in place and watch a steady stream of revenue roll in for five years without any work being done. You catch me running a late yellow, by all means ticket me, but don't throw up some poorly timed camera and act like you are doing your job. That's cheating, just like driving around in an unmarked car.

P.S. Amazing that these cameras may still flash after midnight without risk of penalty. May just spend the whole night driving through red lights with my middle fingers up. May even grab a chauffeur and pay him to cruise through town while my hams are placed firmly against my windshield.