Red light cameras in Tacoma, part II

Things have gone completely downhill since we last visited the topic of Tacoma’s shiny, new red light cameras. More of these little buggers are popping up all the time. Kamerakrieg is well underway around town and I’m much more pissed off than before. The dipshits over at traffic central are rumored to be enjoying the view from inside each other’s asses; meanwhile red light camera revenue is piling up at a huge cost to local taxpayers.

Timing these intersection cameras with the downturn in the economy, outrageous gas prices, the sinking dollar, real estate crisis and stagnant wages appears evil and calculated at first glance. Alas, I will have the politicians’ back on this one. It was not entirely evil calculation that got us to this point. It couldn’t possibly have been planned this way because they are too inept over there to be directly responsible for such accurate timing.

What can you do to help fight the war on red light cameras? I would like to recommend that you avoid these camera-enforced intersections at all cost to avoid contributing to this diabolical revenue stream (not to mention sitting through green lights while waiting to turn left, for fear of being fined $100).

Don’t we realize this is just the first step toward infinite public surveillance? Is that where we want to be in 10 years? I sort of like the idea of not being on camera everyfuckingwhere I go. Who’s with me?

Dowatchalike?

Clear Channel owed Tacoma $25,519,088.11
Clear Channel can now do whatever they want in my book. They should take their time, drag their feet, play grabass, etc. Why not, Tacoma? The more retarded they are in responding to the new rules, the more their bill goes up. As long as somebody holds them to paying the bill, I say they may just be one of 2007’s MVP’s in the area of charitable donations to the City of Tacoma. They should change their logo to resemble Santa Claus if this continues. I never thought they would have been so generous. What a wonderful company!

Cluster Channel

Tacoma and Clear Channel have resurrected a cute little quarrel from the prior century, and you can see it right in front of your mug EVERYWHERE around town. Perhaps the words “Constitutions Matter” ring a bell? Unless you drive with your eyes closed, you have seen this message everywhere, and you’ve also noticed that more and more appear by the hour.

For those of you under a rock, drive through Tacoma proper, and the first billboard you locate should explain everything.

Clear Channel has about 2,495,872,598,725,987 billboards around Tacoma, and they are all rumored to be changing to “Constitutions Matter” in the near future. A quick search of the internet for this phrase quickly brings you to an array of anti-Clear Channel articles, blogs, postings, etc. On behalf of Clear Channel’s marketing department, let me just say BRILLIANT!

Intersection cameras

The idea of putting Lakewood-inspired cameras in Tacoma intersections to catch speeders and yellow-to-red light runners is absurd for a battery of reasons. First and foremost, nobody should ever be forced to slam on their brakes because a light is changing colors. I haven’t stopped hard for yellow-to-red light in years, and I don’t like the idea of my coffee and other items loose in my vehicle flying about the cabin, not to mention my wasted gas mileage, and overall wasted time at even more red lights in town being the ultimate result.

Yellow lights should be twice as long in duration as they are currently. Who ever stops smoothly at a yellow light? I see people standing on their brake pedals and guarding their passengers with their forearm all the time. This is their prerogative, however, I choose not to play this game. Installation of cameras at key nodes in my daily travel path would likely change my behavior. This is exactly what they want, and this pisses me off.

The overall message I’d like to send here is that ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in the traffic & road realm should absorb taxpayer time and money unless it involves making them faster, smoother and/or less congested. I don’t see any of that at the heart of this issue. What I do see is scared, over-conservative drivers around town believing this to be a great idea for “making our roads safer” and generating revenue at the same time!

These folks will meet opposition as long as I’M ALIVE.