The area near my job site is infested with several red light cameras, as are some of the roadways I drive along to get to my job site. In more than a few places there are red light cameras set up to help spot drivers that are running the red lights and give them tickets that raise revenue for the municipality/state and supposedly encourage the drivers (vehicle owners actually) to make sure that whomever is driving the vehicle respects the stop lights.
I used to be very much anti-red light camera, but then I've just seen far too many idiots run the lights and go through very blatantly red stop lights. Not lights that just turned red, but lights that have been red for far long enough that the idiots that I see running through them had absolutely no excuse for having run right through the light instead of stopping well before the line at the light.
Just a few evening ago I was almost rear ended by a moron that was apparently ill aware of the red light camera at the stop light that I was coming up on. Though in the direction I was travelling there is no "Red Light Ahead" warning sign as there is in the other direction (in one direction the stop light can't be seen as easily and is pretty much a hidden entrance type situation, while in the opposing direction you can see the light as you come upon it), I'm well aware of the red light camera, as are most drivers that regularly pass through the area. So, as I'm driving down the road, seeing the light ahead and observing a line of cars waiting at the intersection, I'm making the assumption that the light will change at any second. Sure enough, at the second just before I could reasonably pass through the light without expecting to have my mail box filled with a ticket from the red light camera there, the light changed and I was faced with the decision of slam on brakes and stop or gun it go through the light.
Such is the choice that these red light cameras give us. Except, you have to add on top the fact that the driver behind me was not prepared for me to slam on brakes and he darned near planted his front end in my car's rear end. If he hadn't had an empty lane beside me to use, he would have. But, he too slamed on the brakes and stopped at the line and not through it, so he too was able to avoid getting the ticket from the camera.
Nearer my work, the light at the intersection where there's a red light camera (at least one of them) has a cross walk sign on the side. I can easily see the cross walk indicator and see when it's saying DO NOT WALK in the direction I'm going. As it turns out, the cross walk indicator actually has a countdown timer on it that counts down from approximately 25 seconds to 0 when the light will change to red. So.... I'm fairly easily able to tell when approaching that light (downhill as I come upon it) that the light is stale and ready to change, and I'm easily able to prepare for stopping on time, or for giving my car just a bit more gas to make sure I get through the light in plenty of time.
This last method is what I wish the traffic gods would give us all. Add plenty of notification to stop lights to show drivers that are approaching them that the light is going to change. If that is done, then there is absolutely no excuse for running red lights. Show me a countdown timer of sorts, or make the green lights flash in some way (I think that is how it works in England, but can't recall for sure), so that I get plenty of warning that the light is about to change. If that is done, then by all means feel free to send very expensive tickets to the people that are ignoring the lights and running through late yellow and full on red. (Send warnings to those you see going through yellow, then going on through red, and full on expensive tickets to the ones you see running through definite red lights).
Without changing the stop lights to give more warning that the light is going to change, drivers that are approaching green lights have no idea if the light is due to change or not, and they are left trying to figure out if they should barrel on through, or slow way down. Yes, I know that drivers ed classes supposedly taught all drivers to approach all stop lights with caution, but how many people really look at green lights and think that they should be slowing down? I'd wager not very many.
