That sound Riverside elected and police officials heard the past week or so was the sound of a community questioning what appears to be village board support for the installation of red-light cameras at one or more locations in the village.
The decision hasn’t been finalized, but we are confident in saying that allowing the installation of red-light cameras will not be a popular one with voters. Anyone with future ambitions to maintain a seat on the board next year might want to keep that in mind.
We get that the money red-light cameras can provide is tough to turn down, but we also continue to believe that red-light cameras don’t appreciably improve safety but definitely punish drivers for turning right on red.
If you wanted to make the safety argument, you could instead install speed cameras along First Avenue near RBHS. You want to see traffic slow down immediately, just wait’ll people start getting tickets for speeding in that school zone – which is a genuine concern there.
