Dear Editor

March 20, 2014

Culver City should soon decide to end the use of red light cameras, for many different reasons.

Red light camera tickets send about two thirds to three quarters of the total fine revenue out of the local economy with the camera company fees plus the state and county fine surcharges. This does serious economic harm to the community.

Red light cameras issue most tickets to safe drivers for small technical fouls that endanger no one. At many intersections the yellow intervals are too short for the actual approach speeds of vehicles, and federal research shows that slow rolling right on red turns almost never cause crashes.

Culver City should join these 61 California communities who have ended red light cameras or banned them before any were used: Anaheim, Bell Gardens, Belmont, Berkeley, Burlingame, City of Orange, Compton, Corona, Costa Mesa, Cupertino, East LA, El Cajon, El Monte, Emeryville, Escondido, Fairfield, Fresno, Fullerton, Gardena, Glendale, Grand Terrace, Hayward, Indian Wells, Inglewood, Irvine, LA County, Laguna Niguel, Lancaster, Loma Linda, Long Beach, City of Los Angeles, Maywood, Montclair, Moreno Valley, Murrieta, Newport Beach, Paramount, Pasadena, Poway, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, Redwood City, Rocklin, Roseville, Rowland Heights, San Bernardino, San Carlos, San Diego, San Juan Capistrano, San Rafael, Santa Fe Springs, Santa Maria, Santa Rosa, South Gate, South Whittier, Union City, Upland, Westminster, Whittier, Yuba City, Yucaipa.

Culver City could do a real service for its residents and visitors, plus improve the economic health of the community by ending the use of red light cameras.