Slow down your roll stop because St. Petersburg is installing red light cameras around the city. Warning notices start September 15 and will last for 30 days. Citations will be issued after October 15. “The intent of this program is to enhance safety for our residents,” Mayor Bill Foster told Creative Loafing this week
They may protect the safety of the citizens but they could be rife with electronic errors and cost money. Parking tickets are already $25 a pop, plus the city will boot any car that has three unpaid parking tickets. Meters are 75 cents an hour all over the city. This isn’t New York City—it’s St. Petersburg.
The Florida Senate already killed a bill to regulate cameras to enforce traffic laws by the state. Lawyers argue that the cameras can’t accurately identify the drivers. Plus, there is no way to know whether the person actually sped through the light or if the camera malfunctioned. According to the Associated Press, at least nine states and more than a dozen cities have banned the cameras. Houston shut down its red light camera program only weeks after Los Angeles did the same.
Over 500 cities throughout the country still use the cameras. Opponents of the cameras argue that they make money without increasing public safety. In Minnesota, the Supreme Court struck down red light cameras.
“The problem with the presumption that the owner was the driver is that it eliminates the presumption of innocence and shifts the burden of proof from that required by the rules of criminal procedure,” the court concluded. “Therefore the ordinance provides less procedural protection.”
But St. Petersburg is ready for the plunge.
“Too many drivers choose to ignore traffic signals and risk the dangers of running through a red light,” Foster said. “We want to change this behavior and encourage people to slow down and definitely stop on red.”
Increasing public safety is a major and valid concern but there isn’t conclusive evidence that proves the cameras increase public safety. They also don’t always bring in the money either. In a down economy, parking tickets could be the last item on the priority list.
Daytona Beach, Fla., attorney Aaron Delgado is giving free services to those who receive tickets for red light camera tickets, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
The cameras could be placing the appointment of guilt into the hands of artificial intelligence—something that makes many uncomfortable. It’s one thing when a cruiser is hidden in a parking lot along Fourth Street. It’s another thing when stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic when the camera goes click.
Locations in St. Petersburg:
4th St./Gandy Blvd
4th St./54th Avenue N.
4th St./22nd Avenue N.
6th St./5th Avenue S.
34th Street/38th Avenue N.
34th Street/1st Avenue N.
34th Street/1st Avenue S.
34th Street/22nd Avenue S.
66th Street/38th Avenue N.
66th Street at Tyrone Blvd -22nd Avenue N.
These cameras are definitely stirring up a lot of discontent around the nation. I really find them rather touchy myself. I happened to walk across an intersection in Kenneth City around 5:30 in the morning when there wasn’t any cars on the street and I set off the camera there. So if the thing is picking up a pedestrian crossing the street I seriously have questions about them. Granted it was when they were first set up in the city. So it could be the calibration was off.
I think the better thing to do would be to lengthen the time the light stays yellow. In the last fifteen years it seems to me that the yellow light times have shortened.