Eye in the Sky

Last Thursday when I was driving home I noticed something had been added up at the corner of the road we live on and the highway. The county had erected cameras next to the stop lights at the intersection. Now it took years before they decided to put traffic lights at the corner and a number of people were seriously injured or died because there wasn't a signal for way too long.

I must admit, the light is not a bad idea, but the cameras are something else. It seems like more and more we're being observed, watched, spied upon wherever we go. It's standard in stores, the ferry dock is under observation, you can check out the traffic on all of the surrounding highways on line. After they finished the new Narrows bridge they announced that the cameras at the toll plaza would keep your image for something like a year or two, just in case they needed to prove something against you in court.

We seem to take this erosion of our privacy in stride and of course it's all for our own good. After all, we might catch a terrorist! Except that when y0u receive the ticket in the mail showing you running a red light, or speeding through the intersection, terrorism seems like it may not be the top priority.

So I resolved I would warn Joyce as soon as she got home in case she hadn't noticed the cameras, which had not been there in the morning. Imagine my surprise when the first thing she said when she got out of the car was , "I think I just ran the red light up at the corner. I was looking at the oncoming cars and the left turn arrow was flashing yellow when it suddenly changed to red when I entered the intersection." "I guess it's too late to warn you about the camera, then." I said.

I thought I would try to put a good spin on it however and said "Well at least they aren't supposed to put it on your driving record even if they give you a ticket. They can't prove who was driving the car since they take a picture of the back of the car and not the front."

'It seems there were a lot of complaints when they took pictures of the the front of the car and mailed the photo to the driver's address. I guess someone's wife opened the letter and discovered their husband with another woman. Bet it was some politician who got caught and changed the policy!
So, now, we're watching the mail for the ticket. I suppose the cameras are an in-expensive way to try to close the county's budget deficit. They aren't doing a whole lot to help our budget though.