Communities across the nation have begun removing traffic light cameras, according to USA Today, and the city of Dalton, which took out its red light cameras last year, was ahead of the curve.
Monday’s edition of the newspaper had a front-page feature on the backlash against red light cameras. On the second page, the newspaper had a story on Dalton, featuring Mayor David Pennington.
“They called me a couple of weeks ago. They were doing research on traffic cameras, and they saw where we had taken ours out, and they wanted to know the reasons,” Pennington said.
Dalton had red light cameras at the intersections of Waugh Street and Thornton Avenue and Shugart Road and the Dalton Bypass but stopped issuing citations from them in early 2009 and removed them in April.
Citations and revenues from the cameras had dropped dramatically before the City Council voted to remove them. But Pennington said the council voted to remove them because council members saw no evidence they reduced accidents.
“I’m in the insurance industry. I’ve said, ‘Show me a credible source of evidence that those things reduce traffic accidents,’” he said.
Data provided by the Dalton Police Department last year showed accidents at Shugart and the Bypass rose from 54 in 2006 to 64 in 2007 but dropped to 44 in 2008, the year the cameras started working. But at Waugh and Thornton, accidents had declined before the cameras went in and stayed flat afterwards. There were 19 crashes in 2005, 10 in 2006, 11 in 2007 (the year cameras started working), and 10 in 2008.
USA Today also noted the many things the City Council under Pennington’s leadership has done to improve the city’s business climate, including cutting property taxes and inventory taxes 20 percent and slashing business fees 25 to 50 percent.
“It’s time for governments to be tightening their belts,” Pennington said. “That revenue comes from citizens in some fashion, whether it is business fees or ticket fees. Our governor says he isn’t looking at raising taxes but he is proposing to increase fees. Well, that’s a tax. And right now our businesses and citizens are hurting. Hopefully, one day our federal government and state government will figure that out.”
Local News
January 19, 2010
City, mayor featured in USA Today
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