Your City Needs You to Blow Through Red Lights

Some towns promote good citizenship even though it doesn’t pay off.

Dallas discovered this when the traffic light cameras monitoring its busiest intersections worked so well that the city had to decommission more than one-fourth of them.

Dallas had anticipated an annual $14.8 million for red-light-running fines, money essential to keeping the cameras running — before people stopped running lights and reduced violations more than 50 percent at some locations.

Due to sudden lack of funding, the city council is considering scaling back its camera expansion program or idling certain cameras on a rotating basis.

Maybe Dallas should look into Taiwan’s traffic solution — it’s probably cheaper, though not as safe.

(Hat tip: James Comstock.)