Here in Harris County (Houston), the powers that be (city Council) are thinking of installing red light cameras. I'm not sure it's a good or bad idea. Right now the idea is stalled at the state level; the state legistlature wants to ban any such program; i think for the reason that the state wants all control over local transportation (roads). IT's hard to get city empowerment here in Texas. Anyway, the beef I have with it is that 1) It violates privacy 2) it forces everyone to be good drivers 100% of the time 3) THe revenue goes towards the contractor, it's a get rich scheme that doesn't benefit the people who need it. I guess that would be the school district.

ANyway in North Carolina they have similiar issues, and after a judge decided that 90% of the revenue should go to the schools, and the contractor already getting 50% of the revenue, well they did the math and realized they'd lose some $20 per citation. Good idea! So they shut it down while fighting it in court. Story here.