I choose not to argue the technical points - I'd like the reports of increased accidents etc to be true, but ultimately I believe the cameras probably do increase compliance and raise money doing it.

My argument against the cameras is about personal rights and freedom from electronic surveillance.
The speed cameras will come next, followed by general purpose cameras to watch for 'crime', followed by audio nets to listen for gunshots etc. I'm not sure what the next level is after that - but I'm sure there will be one. This may sound like tinfoil-hat talk - but it's already happened in England. London is covered in cameras constantly monitoring everything. I'm supremely confident that it will happen here, too.

It's not about wanting carte blanche to ignore the laws, it's about keeping the government's eyes and fingers out of my life wherever possible.

BTW - they've already decided that in Washington people can no longer go to court to contest parking tickets because it is too time consuming and expensive - the only recourse is email or snail mail now - which makes it soooo easy for them to deny appeals en masse. How long before this happens with the red light cameras.

Oh - another tidbit - one of the major concessions that got people to vote for this in Texas was that 1/2 of the money would go to hospitals.... they've already screwed that up with the lack of an appropriations bill (the money is collecting in an account - but nobody is authorized to withdraw money from it). I'm sure they'll find another way to screw it up in the future, too (remember how the lottery money was supposed to go to education? It didn't.).

I'll stop now before I get on too big a rant...