Mon
Aug 6 2007
09:35 am
Map the Redlight Cameras
By: djuggler

PhotoEnforced is using GoogleMaps to document all the redlight cameras. Right now Knoxville only shows 6. Help by going to PhotoEnforced and adding the others. Send the admins a note encouraging them to list Knoxville so that we can see the cameras on the map rather than just a list.

Topics:
Carole Borges's picture

Thanks

Submitted by Carole Borges on Mon, 2007/08/06 - 9:48am.

That's a really good site to know about. I thought there were many, many more.

R. Neal's picture

This might help. I believe

Submitted by R. Neal on Mon, 2007/08/06 - 11:38am.

This might help. I believe it's all of them.

(link...)

captainkona's picture

Nice work, gang...

Submitted by captainkona on Mon, 2007/08/06 - 12:20pm.

Makes a Leftist proud to see some defiance in relation to these fascist cameras.
Now that they're located, I trust a black op to destroy them will be undertaken?
Once they've had to replace enough of them at considerable expense, they should get the message.


"The mind is like a parachute, it only works when it's open."

Bill Lyons's picture

Thanks for providing the locations of the cameras.

Submitted by Bill Lyons on Mon, 2007/08/06 - 1:22pm.

Thanks for providing the locations of the cameras. It makes sense to put them in a GPS to complement that signs that announce to drivers that they are approaching such an intersection. There is still apparent confusion regarding the driving behaviors that will result in a violation: (1) ENTERING the intersection when the light is red and (2 Failing to come to a COMPLETE STOP before turning right on red. A light's turning red while the car is in the intersection does NOT produce a violation. As long as one enters on yellow there is not a problem.

If the installation of these cameras leads folks to develop sensitivities to the importance of observing the laws at all intersections (camera notwithstanding) that would be a good thing. Evidence to this point is that these cameras are having their intended effect. There are fewer accidents, especially serious ones that occur when someone runs a red light and plows into the side of another car.

When weighing this as a good policy I would think decreased danger for pedestrians and for drivers vs. the lack of any cost required for anyone other than complying with existing laws would lead most to come to a positive conclusion.

Privacy issues are always a concern when technology is applied to law enforcement. However there is no expectation of privacy in the middle of a public intersection. To me a good test of whether a "privacy line" is crossed is to substitute an officer in the area for the camera. Would a reasonable person consider a police officer's being stationed at an intersection observing traffic to be a violation of his or her privacy? I personally don't think so.

R. Neal's picture

Well, the cop at the

Submitted by R. Neal on Mon, 2007/08/06 - 1:17pm.

Well, the cop at the intersection is just going to write you a ticket, not send a photo of you and your girlfriend to your house where your wife might open the mail before you get home...

...or a photo of your wife leaving her old boyfriend's neighborhood on the day she said she was out shopping with friends...

(Not that I condone such behavior, of course.)

SammySkull's picture

Lots of things could

Submitted by SammySkull on Mon, 2007/08/06 - 1:26pm.

Lots of things could possibly keep us safer, but I wonder at what point have we gone too far? The idea of cameras watching our every move is frightening to me. It's as frightening as the current president who has built his house on protecting us citizens from the made up danger of turrists.

Were those intersections so dangerous before the cameras showed up? Have they really saved so many lives? And if they have made our lives better, how much better and safer would we be if we were all to wear cameras that were connected to the police station and watched our every move? What if we hired enough police officers so that we could all be chaperoned 24/7? If we all had a cop traveling with us daily, then we would likely never get hurt or commit a crime.

Personally I think the cameras are a plot by the people who make automobile brake parts as we all stomp the wide pedal to the floor because the light turned yellow and we really don't feel like taking that chance. The cameras haven't made me more law abiding, just more scared. But hey, what's more American than being scared of cops lurking in bushes and cameras watching us constantly?

Rachel's picture

As someone who's alarmed by

Submitted by Rachel on Mon, 2007/08/06 - 2:35pm.

As someone who's alarmed by the Bush administration's policy wrt survellience issues, I'm pretty sensitive to the idea of "cameras watching our every move." I'd almost certainly be opposed to cameras being installed all over the place, like reportedly exists in England.

But cameras that only goes off to take a pic of a single car if its driver runs a red light? Maybe I'm not paying enough attention to the slippery slope, but I just can't get worked up about that.

And some of these intersections were so bad that if cameras didn't go up they would literally need cops sitting there fulltime to really make a difference. I'm thinking of Cedar Bluff/Peters Road in particular, where on many occasions I've seen 6 or 7 folks in a row run the light.

michael kaplan's picture

"I'm thinking of Cedar

Submitted by michael kaplan on Mon, 2007/08/06 - 3:06pm.

"I'm thinking of Cedar Bluff/Peters Road in particular, where on many occasions I've seen 6 or 7 folks in a row run the light."

that could be because the design of the intersections and the light sequences are poorly designed, not to mention the huge traffic generated by that shopping complex which, since its opening, has added lowe's, best buy and a multi-screen movie theater that occupies the suburbs of the suburbs.

i should add that the new exit off the interstate at west town is a disaster; traffic backs up from kingston pike all the way to the I-40 exit. how about some leadership from the city/county on the sprawl issue and the continued profileration of big-box retail, or are we just about widening roads and installing cameras at the way-too-wide intersections?

Rachel's picture

that could be because the

Submitted by Rachel on Mon, 2007/08/06 - 3:18pm.

that could be because the design of the intersections and the light sequences are poorly designed, not to mention the huge traffic generated by that shopping complex which, since its opening, has added lowe's, best buy and a multi-screen movie theater that occupies the suburbs of the suburbs.

Umm, yeah. But it doesn't excuse all the red-light running that goes on, or at least did before the camera.

Carole Borges's picture

Poor designing and light timing add to problems

Submitted by Carole Borges on Mon, 2007/08/06 - 4:22pm.

I have never lived anywhere that had longer lights. It's hard sometimes to tell if they are broken. Many times I've seen people wait and wait and then finally go through. I just bring reading material to keep me busy while I wait. The long lights aren't even in places that would expect a lot of traffic. It seems crazy to me.

Then there are streets around the highways with double intersections with traffic lights only a few hundred feet apart. Some are strung overhead others are on the side of the road.

It takes a lot of focus to be a good driver here. And now there's the added thing about the possibility of cameras.

I guess I'm just down on mechanical devices being placed everywhere. It makes me beg the question--who am I safe from? Other drivers or BIG Brother government?

When I was 16, there was a bathroom near the marina where we lived in St. Pete FL. One night my Dad accompanied my sister and I there, but then he got bored so he walked around to the back of the building. He saw an open door. When he peeked in, he saw an iron scaffolding, and there were two guys up there watching the woman's bathroom (my sister and I) through a peep hole that looked down on the stalls. When Dad got mad, they said they detectives and that he shouldn't be mad because they were "protecting his daughters from perverts"--oh, yeah!

I suppose they might have been preventing crime, but that wasn't the point. It made us young girls feel scared and dirty.

Nelle's picture

Points of agreement

Submitted by Nelle on Mon, 2007/08/06 - 9:36pm.

Yes, I agree that:

1. Fascism is bad.
2. So is adultery.
3. A police state, too.
4. Ditto for sprawl and the weak-willed and/or ignorant political leaders who allow it to run rampant.

What does any of that have to do with cameras that snap the pictures only of people who very likely have committed a serious traffic infraction? (All the pictures are, of course, reviewed by a real-life cop before anyone gets a ticket, and I'm sure drivers can challenge them if they had a very good reason for entering the intersection on red.)

The cameras haven't changed my driving one whit, because I wouldn't risk my life or another's by running a red light. I also drive the speed limit pretty religiously, so I rarely have to slam on the brakes to avoid running a red.

These are radical ideas around these parts, I realize, but sheesh ...

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