Traffic Cameras Could Be Banned From Multiple U.S. Cities

Drivers in the U.S. are becoming more and more irritated with speed and red light cameras, as these “punish” even the slightest mistake.

But before being considered motorists, these people are American citizens, a fact which means that they can use a democratic way of fighting the eye in the sky: petitions.

Inhabitants of certain cities from Maryland, Ohio and Texas are fed up with receiving automatic tickets based on traffic cameras and have decided to create petitions which would ban the use the devices, as thenewspaper.com reports. Local residents will be asked to vote on the surveillance system’s survival, with the initiators hoping that the vote will be included in the next elections.

"The city of Houston shall not use photographic traffic signal enforcement systems to civilly, criminally, or administratively enforce any state law or city ordinance against the owner or operator of a vehicle operated in violation of a traffic control signal, specified by Section 544.007(d) of the Texas Transportation Code, nor shall it collect any money from any recipient of a Notice of Violation issued, in whole or in part, in connection with the use of a photographic traffic signal enforcement system," the Citizens Against Red Light Cameras petition (one of the projects) states.

The citizens need to get enough votes on their petition in order to generate a referendum to ban the cameras. The initiatives might just be successful, as similar actions have already banned traffic cameras from cities in Louisiana, Ohio, Texas, Arizona, Illinois and Alaska.