Get rid of these things. They are a safety fraud and nothing but a revenue generating scam. St. Petersburg deserves better.

It's almost election time and the mayor still thinks they are good so he will wait until after the election to put them back in. He and others are making too much money on this. Maybe that AriOna company will hire his law firm after we vote him out.

The city of Naples dumped the cameras and increased the "yellow" light cycle by a matter of seconds.

A simple way to improve safety is to add a couple of seconds to the yellow cycle and add a couple of seconds of "all red." it is similar to the advance warning provided at railroad crossings, giving everyone time to "stop, look and listen."
Of course there's no cost and no added revenue, so that would not be the way a city would want to improve safety. And some (many?) people would complain that they are held up unneccessarily because they need to get to work or wherever and those
extra seconds are very inconvenient.

It is good news that the city would stop issuing some of the Uniform Traffic Citations that almost double the penalties under some limited circumstances. That will help a small percentage of the people getting the money-grab tickets.

But the real answer is for people to call their state Representatives and Senators to demand that all red light cameras be banned statewide by supporting Rep. Campbell's bill #4011 to end the use of the predatory red light camera cash registers forever.

James C. Walker, National Motorists Association (recent visitor to Florida in January)

HB 4011, Traffic Infraction Detectors, banning red light cameras in Florida is now moving to the Appropriations Committee.
14 of the 26 members of the Appropriations Committee have received contributions from American Traffic Solutions (ATS), the primary red light camera contractor in Florida.
See the list here and call ALL of them to express your opinion of red light cameras. This is a very interesting site with a lot of info:
http://libertytampabay.com/action-alert-florida-red-light-camera-ban-bill-moves-to-appropriations-committee/

Cities need to strongly consider whether having red light cameras that send about 75% or more of the total fines collected to Tallahasee and camera vendors that are mostly located in other states is wise. The thousands or hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars shipped away from a local community really damages the local economy. These monies are no longer spent in local stores, malls, restaurants, service businesses, entertainment businesses, churches, charities, etc. This loss of economic activity in a city reduces the need for more employees, puts pressure on wage rates, provides less capital to start new businesses, etc.

The roughly one-fourth of the fine monies retained by the city do NOT compensate for the roughly 75% permanent loss of those monies. WHY do city councils want to damage their cities so severely? It is not logical, and it is not wise.

Call your local officials to tell them you are opposed to the cameras and want any existing cameras to be removed. Keep track of who supports or opposes the cameras and let it influence your future votes.

James C. Walker, National Motorists Association (recent visitor to Florida in January)

hip hip hera!!!

I just came from the county cleark to pay a ticket and the clerk told me: The ticket is not on the system" you have to wait 30 days, I question the answerd and told him: " yes but then I have to paid the fine of $100.00 for paid late" "Well that how it is". WE the people need to raise this to higth level because this is happeneing every were. I send a payment for the Hines, city, the payment never was received, the payment was send from my bank bill payments send on time, I complain to the county and at the end I have to payd with the $100.00 late fee.