Red Light Cameras in L.A. Could Become Extinct After City Council Declines to Save Them

dullhunk

The city's much-hated red light cameras have been quagmired out of existence after the L.A. Police Commission said they must go and their defenders on the L.A. City Council couldn't muster enough votes the keep them in action.

If the council doesn't come back with enough votes, which we doubt, the cameras are gone by ...

... July 31.

The illest thing about the 32-intersection program was that if you ignored a ticket sent to you in the male for a red-light violation based on these robotic paparazzi you were in the clear: There was no follow-up enforcement.

And those who paid the $446 tickets (why were they so much more than other $200-and-something moving violations?) were essentially suckers.

On top of all that, City Controller Wendy Greuel said last year that the cameras did little to decrease accidents because they weren't placed at the worst intersections. (Some even claimed they increased accidents because people would hit the brakes and get rear-ended. LAPD brass, which supported the cameras, disputed this).

Gruel also found that the system didn't even pay for itself or create a profit for the city: It cost us $2.6 million since 2006.

In the City Council today a motion by Bernard Parks and Tony Cardenas to keep the program running for another year while -- ugh -- more studies are done.

Interestingly, the shut down of L.A.'s red-light cameras (yay!) means that their contractor, American Traffic Solutions of Arizona, is out of that gig.

And that means that for the first time to our recollection the council will actually cut ties with an Arizona based company after vowing to boycott that state's businesses following its controversial immigration law.

So, in an unprecedented move, the council actually two things -- kill off our loathed red-light cameras and finally honor its own Arizona boycott -- by doing what it usually does: Nothing. (Congrats).

-With reporting from City News Service. Got news? Email us. Follow us on Twitter, too: @dennisjromero.