In advance of our trip to Bolivia, I decided to get a new camera: An Olympus E-PL5. It’s a mirrorless DSLR, which means it is capable of taking much better photos than a point and shoot, and it uses fancy lenses.
If you’re like me and you hate the notion of red-light cameras, you’ll be pleased to learn that they just don’t work. That’s right, they do not reduce the number of accidents at intersections; they increase the number of accidents.
Private companies run the cameras and municipalities turn over a percentage of the fines to them.
The motive is clear: profit, not public safety.
The University of South Florida study on these cameras supports that third point, since the cameras HURT public safety, not improve it.
One perfect example of this is the red-light camera on West Florissant at the entrance to the parking lot of the old Dellwood Schnucks. This strip mall has been mostly vacant for several years!
People always seem surprised to learn that we don’t have cable, high-speed internet access, cell phones or a digital camera. After all, we are a highly computer-literate family, and I am a lover of technology. Well, now you can knock one of those off the list: we got a digital camera. But I wouldn’t bet on any of the othe rs changing anytime soon.