Seen at the Memphis Commercial Appeal:
In the weeks since state Atty. Gen. Jim Hood OK’d Tupelo’s request to implement the devices, other cities have followed suit from Biloxi to Oxford. All are in various stages of investigating a program similar to the one Tupelo leaders want.
Some, like Biloxi and Columbus, are still in the fact-finding phases. Others, like Southaven and Tupelo, have passed city ordinances to allow camera enforcement and plan to have the devices installed before summer.
“The main reason we’re doing it is a public safety issue,” said Southaven Mayor Greg Davis, whose city is meeting with two camera vendors this month. “We have some intersections with high fatality rates mainly due to failure to obey traffic signals, so we’re hoping with cameras that more people will pay more attention to intersection lights.”
I hope that those traffic light enforcement camera ordinances are accompanied by ones requiring yellow lights to be appropriate long given prevailing traffic conditions.