Red Light Cameras... Raising a Red Flag

Let me put this out there... I don't like red light cameras. In fact, I doubt there are many who do. Well there is one group who does, local governments who love the revenue they generate.

I have many reasons for my opposition to these cameras. Mainly, I have a problem with a computer convicting me. If I get an actual ticket written by an actual police officer, I can challenge it in court. If the police officer doesn't show up (which half the time they don't) the charge and fine get thrown out. If I challenge a red light camera... who represents the camera? The government doesn't trust me when I say I'm innocent but YOU want ME to trust that your camera is calibrated correctly?

To my delight, there was a report on ABC World News last night proving my point. As it turns out, some traffic cameras in Baltimore are not set properly. There are reports that people going 10 miles under the speed limit are getting tickets for going 10 miles OVER. And in one case, a car got photographed sitting properly at a red light not moving!

Then there is the issue of whether or not local governments are intentionally rigging the system to catch more people. In a some US cities, local governments have been found guilty of speeding up the light cycle. In other words, the time it takes a signal to go from Green to Yellow to Red and back to Green again has been sped up slightly. Thus, clouding drivers judgement as to how much time they have to safely make it through a changing intersection.

The argument when putting in these cameras is that they reduce collisions. Although head on and T-Bone collisions may be down, the evidence has clearly shown that the number of overall collisions are up. Why? In fear of getting photographed, people slam on the breaks resulting in being hit from behind. This is exactly what happened to me a couple weeks ago. No real damage to either of our vehicles. The icy, slippery conditions certainly contributed to the incident, but had it not been a red light camera, I wouldn't have second guessed my decision to safely continue through the intersection. If the original purpose for these cameras is not being met,then they must go. Otherwise, it's simply a tax grab.

The REAL Reason Behind The Light Bulb Ban

I really should put Reason Magazine on my browser bookmarks. I almost missed this article about the controversial Light bulb ban.

On January 1st, the Canadian and US governments put into place a ban on 75 and 100 watt traditional light bulbs (the 40 and 60 watt bulbs will be phased out at the end of this year). At first it looked like this was a push by environmental groups to ban traditional light bulbs which were less energy efficient. But now, the secret is out. This light bulb ban has nothing to do with Environmentalism. It was crony Capitalism.

We are now finding out that some of the biggest light bulb manufactures like Philips, Sylvania and General Electric lobbied the government for this. In particular, Phillips paid environmental groups (like the national resources defence council) to pressure the government into banning traditional light bulbs.

Now, why would Philips, Sylvania and GE be in favour of a Light Bulb ban? Because traditional light bulbs don’t have very big profit margins. The Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL’s) are more expensive and most of the time, are made in china. They can make a bigger profit off the CFL’s.

Libertarians are pro business. There is nothing wrong with starting a business, becoming successful and maybe opening up a bunch of locations.  However, when these companies become so large that they have an influence over government policy, that’s when it becomes a problem. Contrary to popular belief, large companies often lobby the government to change regulations to give them an advantage. Regulations that their competitors won’t be able to keep up with or will prevent a new competitor from even starting up in the first place. This is not capitalism, this is crony capitalism. In the case of this bulb ban, Philips and GE were worried about an upstart competitor getting a huge contract with Wal-mart.

This was not about saving energy, saving the planet or sensible environmental policy winning out. Philips and GE knew that people wouldn’t buy the more expensive bulbs so they successfully got them banned. The CFL’s aren’t really that environmentally friendly either. It’s too bad we aren’t free to buy the light bulbs that we want. One of my basic fundamental beliefs is: You should be able to buy whatever you want from whoever wants to sell it to you. Now excuse me… I have to update my browser bookmarks.

Gift Card Fiasco A Lesson For Other Government Areas

Is anybody really surprised that the Ontario Government’s “Free” food gift card program turned into a fiasco? Of course, nothing from the government is every truly “Free”, I wish more people would realize that.

After the Ontario ice storm a couple weeks ago, many people were left without power for days or even over a week for some. I was pretty lucky, my power was only out for about 7 hours. To assist those who had food spoil in their fridge because the long power outage, The Ontario government is distributing $50 and $100 grocery gift cards to those affected 

Maybe I’m insensitive for asking this question: Why didn’t these people put their food outside?? The whole country is a giant freezer right now. As I’m writing this, the wind chill temperature is -36 outside my door. The counter argument to putting food outside is the wild animals are going to get at it. These people could take measures to protect their food like putting it in a cooler or maybe some sealable Tupperware containers. Or even put your recycling box upside down over your food. Plus, how many wild animals are really out at this time of year anyway?

Enter stage right… the Wynne Liberal government who’s plan to assist these people backfired last week. First Kathleen Wynne was filmed personally delivering boxes of food to affected residents. Kathleen Wynne never turns down the opportunity for a photo op does she? And what a coindence, this was in a Toronto riding which is expected to be a very close contest in the provincial election which we all know is right around the corner. Unless she hand delivered packages to everybody in the neighborhood (and you can guarantee she didn't), then this was clearly a photo op.

Then, there weren’t enough gift cards… or so it seemed. How many of the people lining up for these cards were truly in need? There were stories of people getting more than one gift card. And CTV news filmed two women in Toronto getting out of a $50,000 BMW SUV who tried to get cards... luckily they were too late. When things are given away for free, the opportunity is bound to be taken advantage of.

We can apply this gift card fiasco to other areas as well. What about healthcare? Yes, it’s nice going to the emergency room and not worrying about how much the bill is but how many of those people are truly in an emergency situation? Some people go to the emergency room for minor ailments. No wonder the waiting times are so long, there are people who shouldn’t really be there… just like this gift card situation.

Now the government is rolling out the gift card program for other areas of the province. No word yet on exactly how this is going to work. But a news story yesterday suggested that residents will have to have been without power for 48 hours and are in financial need of assistance. I’m not sure how they are going to prove that second point. We’ll have to wait and see I guess.

The Liberal government was really in a "No Wynne" situation. People would have been upset if nothing was done too... damned if you do and damned if you don't. Call Wynne's efforts distasteful, shameless, pandering for votes whatever you want. But the unfortunate reality is any of the big main political party leaders would have done the exact same thing.