Red light cameras have been busting motorists in Colorado Springs for nearly six months now.
Perhaps they will come to your neighborhood someday.
For now, the cops-on-a-pole operate at four intersections:
And folks are not happy about them.
.
One reader believes the city has shaved a second off the yellow light cycle to catch more cars in the intersection.
Pat Miller said she was shocked how quickly the light at Nevada and Bijou changed from green to yellow to red.
And she was not happy when she got a letter from the city with a photo showing her car exiting the intersection. The photo was attached to a $75 ticket for a red light violation.
So Miller, a retired school teacher, went back and timed all the lights visible along Nevada. She concluded the yellow cycle at Bijou was 25 percent shorter than any other intersection in sight.
Most traffic signals had a four-second yellow cycle while the Bijou yellow shined just three seconds.
The city invested $5,800 per intersection to install the cameras. As of March 21, two officers supervised by a sergeant have issued 5,366 tickets using the red-light cameras.
If every motorist received a $75 as Pat Miller did, the cameras were a good investment for the city, generating $402,450.
The cameras were installed to combat red light runners, said Dave Krauth, city trraffic engineer.
“I would love to see everyone stop running red lights so we can tear them out,” Krauth said. “Red light runners cause the most serious accidents.”
Consider the hearse I photographed Thursday evening as it drove north on Nevada.
The hearse approached the intersection as the signal was turning red and pedestrians were crossing.
Clearly, the traffic light was red as the hearse accelerated into the intersection.
Not a problem for our hyper-aggressive hearse driver. Maybe he was trying to drum up business as he made a hard left onto Bijou, lurching wildly. I can only imagine a casket doing a death-roll in the back.
The red light cameras must have gotten a good shot of the hearse because the system’s lights lit the intersection as if it was high noon.
The brain-dead driver never slowed and went roaring west down Bijou.
Here’s a link to a story about a new van the Colorado Springs Police bought to combat speeding.
And here’s an earlier story on the red light cameras.
Got questions about driving? Read for yourself the Rules of the Road in Colorado.
Or read the law: Colorado Revised Statues 42-4-603.
========================================================================
I’m a relatively safe and cautious driver, so getting a ticket doesn’t worry me…. however, the extremely bright flashes can be startling and obnoxious. That is my one concern with the photo intersections, that they will blind someone and cause an accident. Has it ever happened?
They really need to put one of these up at I-25 and Garden of the Gods. Easily the worst intersection for red-light runners in the city.
Drivers turning left from the northbound off-ramp of I-25 onto westbound GoG enter the intersection up to six seconds AFTER the light turns red. And there are three or four of them at a time.
I agree. Those flashing strobes are dangerous. First time I saw it, I dropped my iphone in the middle of a text and spilled the latte I had balanced between my knees. I nearly had to slow down! Actually, they are supposed to be flashing from behind so they shouldn’t cause any wrecks.
This is being enforced in Massachusetts now as well and I’m hoping it will give drivers more incentive to not run (at least as many) red lights. It’s so dangerous! Here is a blog that we wrote about the implementation of these cameras here: http://ma.encharter.com/about-us/our-blog/You_Never_Know_Whos_Watching_or_How_Easy_it_Can_Be_to_Raise_your_Mass_Car_Insurance_Rates – Thanks again!!
Too bad the pedestrian and cyclist weren’t cited for running their no-walk signal! On top of that, cyling in downtown walkways carries an additional $75 penalty (but CS police make it a point not to enforce non-motorized infractions).
I have to say as someone who fequents that area at night, but doesn’t drive due to a seizure disorder. I reall do have to say the flashing of the lights especially after sunset causes myself and others I know with similar disorders quite a bit of distress. Ihave seen the flashing from these lights cause a couple of people full granmaul seizures, along with triggering different episodes in myself.
The fact that we are wasting money on these lights, overpasses and other wastes of time in Colorado Spring. Especially when we are shutting down schools, asking teachers to take pay cuts or only work 1/2 days in some districts, cutting back on pay for police and firemen, etc. This really makes me wonder in who’s interst are stories like this and the accompaning so-called improvments. Between these camera, all 3 over passes that have been built down here in the last 5 years, the upkeep on each of these projects and the time that will be wasted as people start to fight the tickets. We could still have lights in all neighborhoods, our raods in better shape and less over crowding of our school amoungst other things.
Please in the future be more like the other papers you are connected with like the Village Voice and Westword and do really investigative journalism.