Drivers beware
I hope you weren’t planning on running any red lights today: as of yesterday the city isn’t giving warnings anymore to people caught on camera running red lights. Now they’re handing out $101 tickets [P-I]. (Whose job is it to look at the cameras and issue the tickets? Sounds awful.)
So far, they’ve caught somewhere between 1,800 and 2,000 people, but they’re pretty sure those numbers will drop off once people have to start paying. Aside from fining people who are caught running red lights, they’re also going to look for people who turn right on red without making a full stop first, which is pretty hazardous to pedestrians. This pedestrian right here got hit just last year in that exact situation.
The cameras will photograph only the vehicle and license plate, and the tickets are treated as parking violations–they won’t show up on the driver’s record.
“The new cameras catching red-light runners are focusing initially on four intersections:
Rainier Avenue South and South Orcas Street, with cameras facing north and south.
Denny Way and Fairview Avenue North, with cameras facing east and west on Denny.
Roosevelt Way Northeast and Northeast 45th Street, with one camera.
Spring Street and Fifth Avenue, with one camera.”
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Hopefully this will reduce the number of drivers that run red lights..
“(Whose job is it to look at the cameras and issue the tickets? Sounds awful.)”
Err, no ones really. The camera is motion activated and only snaps a shot when a car runs the red light.
So, yeah, sure, someone has to look at the picture at the end of the day, but it’s not like someone is tuned to channel “Rainier Ave S and South Orcas”