20 July 2006

traffic cameras in ball

click picture to enlarge
la highway 165 north at paradise catfish kitchen

yesterday (wednesday 19 july 2006) evening we had a hella thunderstorm blow in it knocked out as lisa douglas would say our "electricial" so we thought that was a good time to go and get some gas and pick up this weeks issue of the northside journal. normally the northside journal is already sold out by the time we make our weekly run to the gas station but luckily this week there were a few copies still available.

anyway, their lead story this week is about traffic cameras the town of ball has recently installed at an intersection of highway 165 north where paradise catfish kitchen is located - paradise catfish kitchen has excellent catfish by the way and also their slaw bar is great too.

so, the northside journal interviewed ball mayor roy hebron and louisiana department of transportation and development traffic engineer chris roussell who both assure the reader that the cameras are there only to measure traffic density and to regulate the cycle of the stop lights. the northside journal goes on to quote mayor hebron "first the image isnt recorded. second the picture isnt clear enough for evidence we couldnt write a ticket from that picture if we wanted to" mr. roussell from dotd had this to say: "the cameras actually take a local video stream and use the traffic count to set the cycle of the lights they read the number of cars waiting in the left turn lane and can extend the signal time so all the cars can clear the intersection before another cycle begins."

a local 'motorist' teresa miller says that "it seems like the light stays green longer in the mornings and lets more cars through."

we thank the northside journal for covering this important story. we dont have a problem with speeding tickets, or tickets for running stop signs or red lights we just feel that such infractions should be observed by a flesh and blood police officer. we hope that these cameras are truly being used for what the 'authorities' claim and not as as a pretense to condition the public to accept traffic cameras.

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Posted by wst... at 07:24

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