St. Louis Mayor Krewson is considering bringing back the red light cameras which were eliminated in 2015. She has statistics which show that since the cameras were removed 171 people were killed in roadway accidents. The number of pedestrians killed by cars rose by 54 percent.
We've noticed an uptick in cars running red lights recently. In our area we see this on Clayton road and Big Bend every day. You have to wait after your light turns green to make sure there isn't a car in the other lane direction whose driver stepped on the gas well before the intersection to speed through a light which was turning red. It is totally red before the car completes the intersection. We've seen this enough that waiting a second or two when our light turns green is best for safety.
It's hard to say why so many are zooming through lights that are turning red. It may be that our area and many other St. Louis streets have too many lights. Many streets have stoplights block after block after block and it does become frustrating when the sync is off and you find yourself never getting a string of green lights. I do believe the timing sync should be looked at in many places. For instance, at Clayton Road and Bellevue and Clayton and Demun (our exits from campus) have terrible timing. Clayton Road green lights go on a long time but the exit streets are lucky to get 5 seconds. Seriously. In many parts of the day getting onto Clayton Road across from St. Mary's means sitting through at least 2 series of long red lights as lots of traffic from the hospital stream through.
In any event, there is much more red light running right now and if bringing back those cameras will help, I'm all for it.
Ironically, in the Chicago area many Red-Light cameras are being removed. It just leaves most people scratching their heads.
Posted by: Pam | November 21, 2019 at 09:19 AM
They were removed here a few years ago, but there is a big movement to bring them back. Too many running red lights.
Posted by: Diane Meyer | November 22, 2019 at 08:22 AM