There are some freewheeling folks out there who seem to think that when they're driving, everyone else just needs to stay out of their way.
And for every hundred of those are a handful of public safety officials striving to minimize the damage they cause. But with every new policing measure comes the criticism.
Car crashes are routine occurrences on Prince George streets - as they are in most parts of the world. And the resulting injuries and deaths are too often caused by idiotic behaviour.
As any number of emergency first responders will tell you, there's a bizarre psychological effect that happens when certain people get behind the wheel - we're talking normal citizens who would otherwise never dream of hurting someone.
These people will nevertheless tear around without regard for others and put the pedal to the floor when arriving at a traffic light that's just turned red.
These people are also completely shattered when their disregard causes devastation. So why do they do it?
One prevailing theory is they do it because they think no one's watching.
So the Ministry of Transportation, ICBC and policing services are trying to fix that by putting cameras up at intersections. Here in Prince George, a red light camera will soon patrol 15th and Ospika, the authorities announced this week.
Expanding on an already existing program, this eye in the sky will photograph cars blowing red lights and automatically send the vehicle owner a fine.
The government news release claims such measures result in a six per cent reduction of crashes. ICBC says "we know" cameras reduce crashes.
It's unlikely many people have done their own research into these statistics, yet plenty of criticism remains.
When speed cameras were adopted over a decade ago, there was talk of them being just a money grab, and intersection cameras are facing the same condemnation.
(Is the government trying to undermine that by imposing a camera-captured fine of $167 rather than $187 if caught by an actual police officer?)
It's fairly weak criticism considering the province is footing the bill to put the strategy in place and ticket "revenue" goes to the municipalities in which the offence occurred - unless by "money grab," critics are referring taxpayer savings in hospitalization costs for accident victims.
Other detractors feel intersection cameras are an attack on privacy. However since the first traffic cameras started snapping, the public seems to have accepted declining anonymity with the booming increase in CCTVs, and the introduction of Google Streetview and iLookabout - which admittedly creepily roamed Prince George streets just a few weeks ago capturing images to map the city for an unnamed client... not to mention regular citizens with phone cameras at the ready everywhere we turn.
Will photos of red light runners be used for something other than imposing a fine for the actual offence?
There's always a striking irony in accusing a government of being inept on the one hand, while suspecting it of elaborate surveillance on the other. We doubt the province has an underground bunker full of pasty-faced civil servants inspecting traffic photos for suspicious behaviour. Isn't it more likely they just want a reduction in intersection crashes?
But to all the conspiracy theorists and angry motorists out there we have the answer - a surefire way to stay under the accursed authoritarian radar -obey the rules of the road.
-- Prince George Citizen
