Columbus -- Cleveland's year-old program of using cameras to catch speeding motorist is being driven quickly towards extinction by the state legislature, some city leaders say.Substitute House Bill 56 was approved Tuesday by the Senate highways and transportation committee after hours of tense debate between city and police officials and the committee's chairman, Sen. Jeff Armbruster, a fervent supporter of the bill.
The so-called red-light traffic bill would put significant restrictions on how the cameras can be used, making them so cost-inefficient that some cities might have to consider dismantling their programs altogether.
This is where my libertarian side comes out. Anytime a revenue generator is introduced as a safety measure, I'll call bullshit and flip you the bird. Traffic light cameras are not very effective and cause much more bureaucratic headaches than they're worth. Hopefully the newly elected Democrats at the state level can do something about the lack of money available for cities in Ohio. That way we'll never have to fake safety for cash again.