News-Record.com

Robert,
I'm afraid the argument in favor of red light cameras confuses cause with effect. A better way to deal with bad drivers would be to properly staff our police departments so that there are enough officers to enforce traffic laws. For example: Nationally most cities have 5 police officers per 1000 citizens but in Greensboro we have 2 officers per 1000 citizens.

Red light cameras might reduce the number of persons who run lights but red light cameras carry neither guns nor handcuffs and cannot arrest gangsta's. Nationally, the vast majority of felons are caught during routine traffic stops. No criminal has ever been arrested via a red light camera.

I can't do much about High Point but if Greensboro's citizens write-in Billy Jones for mayor tomorrow we will add enough police officers to make Greensboro safe:
http://www.musecrafters.com/bloggingpoet/2601/Write-in+Billy+Jones+For+Mayor+Of+Greensboro.html

Billy,

Sorry, but I do not see how adding police officers is going to improve the problem cited by the letter writer. Police officers do not sit at street lights anymore enforcing stops. At best, traffic officers respond to accidents to investigate and clear the scene. In the case of accidents without injury, their mission is to clear the scene and get traffic flowing again as quickly as possible.

The advantage that the red light cameras gave was that it raised the awareness of drivers and sometimes made them slow down. I was a victim of such an incident on High Point Road. We were t-boned by a driver. He got out and was declaring that he head a green light. Fortunately, other drivers saw the accident and gave witness. A red light camera would have solved that problem nicely. Any extra police officers that are added need to be assigned to fighting real crime, like the rise of gangs.

If there is blame on the cancellation of the red light program, you can address it to the schools. When they were awarded the proceeds of the program, the city's canceled the program as it cost them money to run the program. If the schools had been willing to take a smaller slice, the city, schools, and public would have all benefited. But, as it is, everyone is a loser.

Red light cameras are a waste. The only ones that get penalized with those are the registered owner of the car, not nessessarily the actual driver.
Again, more law enforcement is the better idea. Another way is to make the fines so expensive, that drivers fear paying them more than the inconsiderate dangers on running red lights. The average fine for a red light violation is what? $50.00 or so, then court cost. That less than a couple of tanks of gas, today!
And, habitual light runners are usually without a valid driver's license. That was revolked when the driver did not appear in court for their previous violations.
There is no real answer to this problem. As a concerned citizen and safe operator of your motor vehicle, be alert! Never forget that the uncaring, conceited, power-ego, chemistry-consuming lowlifes are out there. They don't give a dad-gum about your life, your family and for that matter, their own family. They care only for themselves, and they know that they are immortal.
I drive like everyone out there is completely drunk. The dog's outa here.
Crime Dog

Red lights are just the start of the problem, Robert.

Here's my top 20 of things that really piss me off when driving:

1. Cars that speed up beside you, pull quickly in front of you, and then stop to make a turn.

2. Cars that KNOW their lane is going to end, but ignore the mile-long line of people who are waiting in the lane that doesn't end, only to try to pull in front of all of those cars when their lane runs out.

3. The idiots that let those cars pull in front of them after they've passed all the cars that are playing by the rules.

4. Cars that ride your butt and act like you aren't going fast enough for them even though there is a red light 50 feet ahead.

5. Cars that are 200 feet in front of you when their light turns green but wait until you've come to a complete stop before they take their foot off the brake and decide to go.

6. Cars that ride in the right lane when they have a choice of 3 lanes (example: High Point road) and then act annoyed or beep their horn because somebody in front of them slows down to take a right turn.

7. When I'm waiting at a red light and the car behind me beeps their horn for me to go when the light hasn't even turned green yet.

8. Cars that slow down to 25 miles per hour for a school zone when it is 11:00 pm at night.

9. Along that same line, cars that constantly go 10 to 15 miles per hour slower than the speed limit.

10. People who talk on cell phones while driving and either go 20 miles under the speedlimit or 20 miles over, weaving all over the place the whole time.

11. People who drive 10 miles per hour UNDER the speed limit in a no passing zone but then speed up to 15 miles per hour OVER the speed limit as soon as you have an opportunity to pass them.

12. When 3 vehicles ride side by side down a 3-lane highway for miles going slower than you want to go.

13. People who refuse to pass a riding lawnmower or a humaround because there's a double yellow line.

14. When you pull over to let a firetruck pass you but the firemen still beep their loudest horn/siren at you when they drive by you.

15. People who will not stay still at a stop sign. You're driving down the road and they are to your right or left at an intersecting road. They keep creeping forward as you approach and you can't tell whether they are going to pull out in front of you or not.

16. Along the same lines, people who pull out right beside you from a parking lot on your left and you can't tell whether they are going to stay in the suicide lane until they can go or just ram right into you.

17. People who feel the need to check out everyone else when they are at a stoplight. What are they hoping to see? Somebody famous or their long lost classmate? I had to add cheap tinted windows just because I don't like people staring at me.

18. 80 pound women driving alone in Suburbans

19. 14 children, with no seatbelts, in a Volkswagon.

20. When cars stop in the yield lane getting onto the interstate. Yield stupid, don't give up! Drive it or park it!

nit,

nit,
don't know what happened above :-( ------
take a deep breath and jump back into the fray. i could easily add some additional peeves of my own but your list does nicely.
just about everyone these days has a cellphone w/camera - problem solved....let's all drive around taking pictures of others infracting traffic laws ( aw who care if you aren't actually driving your own car ). more big brother is what we all need - as if facial recognition cameras, satellite cameras, government eavesdropping, google streetside cameras, airport scanners that see your private parts, and etc. - i agree that technology when used appropriately is beneficial.
in my opinon we place more trust in 'other' drivers than any other segment of society - during our lifetime how many other drivers do we pass headon (tens of thousands i suspect) - each one has thousands of pounds of sheetmetal surrounding them and each is a potential death threat to us - but we somehow place alot of trust in all those 'other' drivers. good luck to all of us to drive.

Nit:

"2. Cars that KNOW their lane is going to end, but ignore the mile-long line of people who are waiting in the lane that doesn't end, only to try to pull in front of all of those cars when their lane runs out.

3. The idiots that let those cars pull in front of them after they've passed all the cars that are playing by the rules."

This should be a capital offense for both the merger and the merger-enabler. The closest I have ever come to killing someone came from exactly this scenario.

Great list Nit but you left out my all time driving pet peeve: You are on a 2 lane road going 55mph. A car pulls right out in front of you (forcing you to slam on the brakes) goes 25mph for 1/4 mile and turns!! Why these idiots can't wait an additional 10 seconds for the faster vehicle to pass is beyond me.

Well, Since neo hasn't registered today, I will TRY to do his ridiculous rants justice here (including posting of a wacko blog) :

You bunch of "nanny state" supporters want to expand government just to help you feel safer! Running red lights should be a right, not a crime! Maybe uncle Teddy, the "wide eyed" Queen or the Harry "the cadaver" Reid want to prosecute runners of red lights, but running red lights also puts the driver in danger, so there's no harm done here. Just like wearing a helmet on a motorcycle, it should be up to the individual whether or not to run the light or not.
http://www.chaskaherald.com/node/3019

Let the "lie-bruhls" jump in with their reasons for more government control. Oh I'm sure the Canuck is all for preventing accidents by using traffic lights or cRockefeller will chime in about how it protects all of us---and "Queenie" will chime in with an 'attaboy' for the Liberal Canadian.
Thank God for Gun toting, Gay hating, God loving people like me, Hillbilly, NicDanger, Oak Ridge Runner and of course, my pet, Dan!

(Gave it a good try, but still couldn't dumb it down to neo's level. His proteges probably think it was really neo!! LOL!)

Well, the letter does say something about this all being about 'the children'.....

"According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, accidents "within intersections" contributed to 217 fatalities in North Carolina in 2006 alone."

Nice use of random numbers to buttress an argument. Don't take this the wrong way, but "within intersections" likely covers more folks turning left in front of oncoming traffic than it does red-light running.

If you looked at http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/intersections/redl_facts.htm
you would see this:
According to 2005 data from NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System, crashes caused by red light running (RLR) resulted in an estimated 805 fatalities.

Wow. 805 people nationwide died from red-light running.

The same site said there were 190,625,023 licensed drivers in 2000. Let's use those numbers and disregard any population increases and/or any of the paperwork-challenged drivers that would probably take the numbers up to an even 200 million.

0.0004%

That is four ten thousandths of one percent of the driving population.

That's how many of us died from red-light running.

Runners or runnees I'm not sure, but them's pretty good odds.

Instead of red-light cameras or more cops, I'd like to make our license requirements more difficult. From what I've seen, if you can parallel park and identify a train crossing sign then you'll get a license in N.C.

Be careful and keep your eyes open. And learn to see motorcycles. They're the most trusting of all of us.

Roger

"Thank God for Gun toting, Gay hating, God loving people like me, Hillbilly, NicDanger, Oak Ridge Runner and of course, my pet, Dan!

(Gave it a good try, but still couldn't dumb it down to neo's level. His proteges probably think it was really neo!! LOL!)"

I just knew it!!

Here we are having a very civil discussion about traffic safety of all things. Not Iraq, not Bush, not Congress, not abortion, no just plain old traffic safety. Nonetheless Demon Deacon just has to throw in a tirade of insults against someone who hasn't even posted on this thread!!

Do you really suffer for attention that much Demon Deacon? Truly amazing yet predictable yet sad. Yeah, yeah it was meant to be humorous. I'll repeat, truly amazing yet predictable yet sad.

Wow! Our resident narcissist misunderstands humor and is ruffled.

Danny, give it a rest, my writers went on strike!! : )

BTW, Danny, maybe you can see how stupid your hero, neocon, is through the parody, which was right on the money!

Who in their right mind would be against traffic control? Same folks who claimed Dukakis was not "Pro-Clean Water"......yeah, like anyone is against clean water! Get the joke yet, Danny?

Guess you consider this crap "high value":

Dan said:
"Great list Nit but you left out my all time driving pet peeve: You are on a 2 lane road going 55mph. A car pulls right out in front of you (forcing you to slam on the brakes) goes 25mph for 1/4 mile and turns!! Why these idiots can't wait an additional 10 seconds for the faster vehicle to pass is beyond me."

Wow! That's some really deep stuff there Dan! Why don't you lighten up and laugh a little. Better yet, try reading---you're running a deficit in that category! :)

"BTW, Danny, maybe you can see how stupid your hero, neocon, is through the parody, which was right on the money!"

As mentioned before, a thread about traffic safety = Neo is stupid. Truly amazing yet predictable yet pathetic, including the pathetic masked attempt at humor. A remarkable need for attention.

The Don Rickles wannabe is at it again. Nothing of substance to add, so just throw insults. When called on it, say it was humor!

What a hockey puck.

Whenever I see a letter complaining about all the other drivers on the road, I'm reminded of the results of a survey I once saw a few years back. Literally 100% of American drivers surveyed said that they think their driving skills are "above average."

I think George Carlin said it best - Anyone who drives faster than you is a f***in' maniac, and anyone driving slower than you is a f***in' idiot.

Don't comment much here anymore, but I have an observation.
The n-r blog does resemble a 3rd grade schoolyard with one bully that is constant and relentless with the insults in his quest for attention.
He apparently has nothing of value to offer in the arena of civil discourse so he seeks to make himself heard by loud and boisterous insults sprinkled with hyena-ish 'LOLs' aimed at anyone who is to the right of Ted Kennedy or Howard Dean.
I'm no expert on human nature, but my job requires that I deal with a great number of people on any given day, and if I have learned anything in 30 years of dealing with what represents a diverse cross section of society, it is this: It is almost universal that those individuals who display such contempt and are willing to insult and belittle those with whom they disagree with on a daily basis are without exception the most insecure and lacking in depth than are the ones he/she attempts to lampoon.
Anyone with half a brain - nay, anyone with ANY brain at all - can review the threads in this blog and tell who is speaking from personal experience, has been exposed to life's lessons, and is comfortable in their own skin... as opposed to those who find it necessary to insult and dish out the teenage chat room "LOLs" in order to try and prop up a point(s) gleaned from the left wing websites and Keith Olbermann.
Carry on Dan. I enjoy reading your adult points of view.
Posted by Jonniebgood | May 3, 2007 7:00 PM

TLC and Dan,

You two, Neocon, Yvonne, Darryl, and I should have a picnic together sometime. I'm kind curious to meet you all.

Yvonne and I would get along just fine. Darryl, we would be ok as well. Demon Deacon would complain about what a racist, homophobe and right wing nutjob I am if he didn't approve of my potato salad! Additionally it would be Bush's fault.