I've come across a blog called
Makarios that makes a half assed attempt to argue against the
many studies which show that red-light cameras cause accidents.
I found it through a Google search and it kind of pissed me off because this idiot fails to even link to the post he is trying to argue (let alone even my blog itself!) so I'm not even sure what he's directly responding to, but he makes use of the all popular "I don't have a counter argument, I just don't like what you have to say, so I'll insult you" tactic. As it so happens, this is the same guy who couldn't seem to wrap his head around the fact that these cameras cause accidents when we had a short back and forth at
another post in the comment section. Even there I cited studies, but he just ignored them! Having been proven wrong here, I guess he decided to whine at his own blog and hope I never saw it. He thought wrong.
The name of his post is titled
"Funny? Shameful? OR Stupid?" where he apparently is bitching about a variety of things like how atheists argue that social Darwinism isn't evolution, about another atheist who is complaining about speed traps, etc. The short section where he mentions me is his first complaint and he says:
1) Arizona Atheist: ‘Red light cameras are a bad idea for two reasons -
One, the police are using them for surveillance.
Two, when people slam on their brakes so as not to be caught running a red light, others from behind are crashing into them.’
I'm not kidding. That's what he wrote.
A.A. doesn’t blame the accidents on the second driver tailgating with the intention of running the red light along with the guy in front of him (hence the need for the cameras in the first place).
A.A. lays the blame for accidents on the cameras themselves.He makes it appear that this is nothing more than my opinion (and because he failed to link to my blog in any way no one can check
why I said this), of course, if he had actually looked at some of the studies I cited, such as
this one, maybe he wouldn't be looking like such a fool right about now...
The article says in part:
"The rigorous studies clearly show red-light cameras don’t work,” said lead author Barbara Langland-Orban, professor and chair of health policy and management at the USF College of Public Health.
“Instead, they increase crashes and injuries as drivers attempt to abruptly stop at camera intersections. If used in Florida, cameras could potentially create even worse outcomes due to the state’s high percent of elderly who are more likely to be injured or killed when a crash occurs.” Now, someone may argue that these rear-end collisions are more preferable than the side-impact crashes these cameras are
supposed to stop, but a 2005 Federal Highway Administration (FHWA-HRT-05-048) study shows the right-angle crashes were only decreased by 40%, while an increase in overall crashes (due to rear-end collisions) occurred. These more dangerous right-angle crashes were decreased by
less than half! Another study showed that only a 24.6% drop in right angle crashes occurred! A 2005 Washington Post article also stated,
"Three outside traffic specialists independently reviewed the data and said they were surprised by the results. Their conclusion: The cameras do not appear to be making any difference in preventing injuries or collisions. 'The data are very clear,' said Dick Raub, a traffic consultant and a former senior researcher at Northwestern University's Center for Public Safety. 'They are not performing any better than intersections without cameras.'"This, while crashes overall increased! If this guy had done his research he would have (possibly) seen that these cameras do
not make the roads safer and are purely for revenue! How do I know this? Because, many states, after the installation of the red-light cameras,
shortened the length of the yellow light times, thus ensuring people would run the red lights! The more people who run red lights, the more tickets they can issue, and the more money they get. And people actually think these cameras are there to increase safety? Bullshit!
If this idiot had done some actual research instead of flapping his mouth off he would have seen that
increasing yellow light times dramatically cuts right-light running:
Eric Skrum, Communications Director for the National Motorists Association said, "Records from Fairfax County show that increasing the time of yellow lights significantly decreases the number of red light violations. The Virginia Department of Transportation increased the yellow time on the traffic lights at US50 and Fair Ridge Drive by 1.50 seconds on March 26, 2001. This increase in yellow time from 4.00 seconds to 5.50 seconds resulted in a 94 percent drop in citations, less than one per day, at this red light camera enforced location."Red-light running has a pretty easy fix: simply give more time for people to get through the yellow light!
Even though I've demolished this guy's pathetic whining he mistakes for an argument, this guy has
another complaint, however. He complains because
I complain about the privacy issues with these cameras that record people 24/7. Well, excuse me! But I do not appreciate being recorded wherever I go!
With all of these cameras going up, our right to privacy is being entirely eroded! The only place there aren't any cameras is inside our homes, and who knows how much longer until
that becomes a reality?! Think it won't happen?! What if the government makes use of that useful weapon called fear (just as they did with their bullshit war in Iraq!) to get us behind a campaign to stop people from making drugs so the government forces all home builders to install cameras throughout the houses they build, hidden so as to prevent tampering. Or they do the same thing, but argue they want to more easily find "illegal alians" or terrorists hiding out! It's happened before with the Patriot Act, and many of our other rights (see James Bovard's
Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty). The government is like the old Arabian proverb: "If the camel once gets his nose in the tent, his body will soon follow."
He also neglects to mention an example I gave of cameras being put in place for safety at a boarder crossing being used by unethical people to spy on innocent people! The same can, and likely
is, happening with red-light cameras! I even cited a statement by the ACLU about cameras!
"There are also important privacy issues raised by the cameras. The ACLU is most concerned about what we call 'mission creep' -- that the data collected by these cameras will be used for purposes other than tracking reckless drivers. Government and private-industry surveillance techniques created for one purpose are rarely restricted to that purpose, and every expansion of a data bank and every new use for the data opens the door to more and more privacy abuses.
Similar systems have already been used to invade privacy. For example, cameras installed at the Texas-Oklahoma border have been used to capture the license plate numbers of thousands of law abiding persons, who were subjected to inquiries about why they were crossing the border." I think this idiot (and anyone else who thinks like him!) should heed these words because they might be written on his tombstone some day:
"He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither."
- Benjamin Franklin
(or not?)
Willfully Ignorant, Shameful, or Just Plain Stupid?
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