"Tear These Red-Light Cameras Down!"

[Disclosure: This blog is written from my perspective as both a candidate for a seat on Gloucester Township Council and as a concerned citizen of Gloucester Township with questions and concerns about reckless spending and business as usual in Gloucester Township.]

Seventy-two tickets per day with the largest percentage issued to Blackwood residents. “The township issued nearly 39,000 traffic tickets in the first 18 months of the cameras’ use, resulting in $2.5 million in fines.” (Gloucester Township Patch – Red Light Cameras in Township to Get Certification)

Gloucester Township pays Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions, Inc., the equipment contractor, an annual fee of $570,000.00. (Gloucester Township Patch – Township Rakes in Red-Light Camera Revenue)

American Traffic Solutions, Inc., red-light camera contractor, has agreed to pay out a “$4.2 million settlement…to more than 400,000 drivers who have claimed to be wrongly ticketed by red-light cameras.” (NJ.com – Judge approves $4.2M red-light camera settlement)

Why are there 10 red-light cameras in just over a mile stretch of Blackwood-Clementon Road in a township that is over 22 square miles?

Mayor Dave Mayer continues to stand by his comments that "We had to try to slow traffic down. And we had to do that for a number of reasons. One is safety. The other is economic development. Traffic just flowed too quickly through there. As you can see, that corridor is not thriving." (Township Rakes in Red-Light Cameras Revenue)

Maybe you were unaware but this past Saturday, 28 September 2013, was the last occasion of the Blackwood Farmers’ Market this season. Low and behold, Mayor Dave Mayer was the “so-called” resident expert scheduled to be in the “Meet the Experts” booth to field your questions. I, therefore, took the occasion to ask Mr. Mayer about the red-light cameras since I have had no luck in getting him to respond to my emails. Here, all along, I thought that maybe it was me.

I made my way to the Mayor and he was cordial enough, so we exchanged “hellos”. I then reminded the mayor that I was disappointed that he could not find time to answer my emails. Formalities over, I asked the mayor why he wouldn’t consider calling a town meeting for the local residents of Blackwood and the business owners of Blackwood-Clementon Road to clarify his comments about the red-light cameras and explain exactly how they were benefitting us. I explained to him that, try as I may, I could not put the pieces together and see where the cameras were helping. Essentially, I couldn’t do the math. Mr. Mayer fell back on a little bit of sarcasm and chided me that, as an engineer, I should be able to figure it out. I countered with my own bit of sarcasm and insisted that I was baffled and asked if he would agree to explain it to us or was he going to continue to hoodwink the public. BOOM! Lights out, the mayor shut me down and turned away. And therein lies the crux of my problem with our mayor, he refuses to answer the hard questions.

Shortly thereafter the mayor vacated the premises. I inquired at the Market Management tent if the mayor was going to return and make himself accessible to the residents and was informed that he was pulling double-duty and left to go to the Veteran’s Parade in Glendora/Runnemede. Actually, the parade had ended at Triton more than an hour before he departed so my guess is that there was something else going on there. But there’s another problem. Just like Mr. Mayer’s assistant, Assemblywoman-mayoral assistant Gabby Mosquera, informed me regarding the failure of the mayor to respond to my emails that “Dave is a busy man,” so, the mayor seemed to plan poorly again for the Farmers’ Market. If the mayor was going to occupy the expert’s booth to address his constituents, maybe he should have scheduled it on a different Saturday when he didn’t have to skip out at 10:30 for another appointment.

The mayor’s behavior aside, here’s the bottom line to the red-light cameras, “…New Jersey's controversial red-light cameras have actually seen an increase in collisions, according to a new state report…accidents — particularly rear-end crashes — have increased, and the collisions are more costly… Rear-end collisions at the intersections were up by 20 percent…” (NJ.com – Accident rate rises at intersections with red-light cameras, N.J. study shows)

Let me say this again and let me say it more loudly in case it is not being heard…

Mayor Mayer…TEAR THESE RED-LIGHT CAMERAS DOWN!

VOTE Gloucester Township FIRST – Brown, DiBartolo, Kline and Pauli.

Visit us at: http://www.gloucestertownshipfirst.com