A Chicago study has just come out indicating a severe shortfall in generated revenue from their newly installed traffic cameras. Chicago drivers are quick learners and obey the speed limit around those cameras. So much so that the projected $90+ million revenue stream from these quasi-legal cameras generated less than $50 million.
The camera company claims they never guaranteed safer drivers and the city took it upon themselves to project the income generated from these hated devices. But Chicago drivers know where the cameras are. And the city is taking a multi-million dollar hit left with the choice of removing the cameras and generating replacement revenue elsewhere.
My question is, has the revenue stream from Ron Littlefield’s folly with the speed cams worked so well that the cameras remain installed, or are Chattanooga drivers so non compos mentis they cannot remember where the cameras are? The fixed cameras don’t move and the portable camera vans have big orange signs warning you of the camera van ahead.
My dear Chattanoogans: if you wish for those infernal cameras to be gone, cut the city’s revenue stream from those infernal speed cams and remember where the cameras are. Study after study resolve that traffic cameras have negligible effect on driving safety and a major loss in generated income, as in Chicago, will soon have our city council yanking them out by the dozen.
David Fihn
Hixson