In response to South Florida's recent red-light-running camera enforcement angst, Broward County Commissioner John Rodstrom suggests we all wait a few seconds.
Rodstrom would like to keep red lights running longer rather than expand the county's photo enforcement camera program. The idea: Instead of adding more cameras to county intersections, simply slow things down by delaying green lights.
In other words, as one direction of traffic gets a red light, the other wouldn't see an immediate green light. Instead, it would have to wait an extra two seconds to allow any red-light runners to clear the intersection.
Rodstrom's suggestion will be considered during today's County Commission meeting, when the board will decide if it wants to continue building the county's red-light-running camera enforcement program originally conceived to reduce the number of intersection accidents and increase pedestrian safety.
Commissioners had also hoped to bring in as much as $3 million from red-light-running tickets. It's a far cry from the now estimated $500,000 in revenue once you factor in court costs for the increasing number of ticket fighters -- making the cameras more of a burden than a bonus.
Broward County currently has 18 intersections with cameras. If camera expansion plans move forward, there would be as many as 64 camera-enforced intersections in the coming months, projected to produce more than 5,000 citations at $158 apiece by the end of the summer.
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