Last week, I wrote about the City of Fort Worth, Texas turning on its 9th red light camera. I think that if these cameras get people to stop running red lights and lower the number of dangerous car accidents, then they are a great idea. The statistics from other North Texas communities that are using red light camera show that they do indeed work.
Today, I read in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that there are products out there which consumers can buy to help them not get ticket as a result of these cameras. One product is good and the other should be criminal. The first is a GPS receiver which can be programmed to alert the driver if he or she is approaching a red light camera. I think this is good as it will only encourage the driver to slow down and be cognizant of the approaching light. In fact, the intersections have signs that tell you ahead of time that it is a camera monitored intersection. So this is a good product.
The other one is a spray you can use on your license plate which will supposedly obscure the plate so that the camera will not be able to read the license plate number. So if this product were to work as intended, it would allow the driver to run the red light and get away with it. This encourages red light running—so it should be illegal. The good thing for us citizens of Fort Worth is that this spray does not work on the high quality cameras our city uses.
