Cameras can’t judge
when to run red light

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I watched somebody run a red light recently, and I couldn't approve more.

I was in one of a dozen or so cars at a red light when an ambulance approached from behind. Most of us were able to jockey our vehicles aside to clear a path, but one car at the stop line of the middle lane had nowhere to go.

The driver did the only practical thing -- he pulled through the red light and turned right onto the cross street, leaving room for the ambulance.

Any police officer would have understood. But to an automated traffic camera, the driver would have been just another scofflaw.

Sure, the driver could pay the court fees and tell it to the judge -- but producing any evidence of the ambulance would be difficult.

Automated systems can work wonders, but when human judgment is taken out of the loop they can be worse than no system at all.

--Ken Andrade

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