A year ago today Albuquerque imposed a ban on hand-held cell phones. One year. While there has been some reduction in the use of hand-held phones, seeing a driver with a phone held to their ear is still commonplace.
Albuquerque’s mayor has picked a fight with the governor this week by halting the red-light camera program in mid-flash because the legislature approved a bill taking all the proceeds of the program. The mayor believes, I guess, that by suspending the cameras, he can strong-arm the governor into vetoing the bill. Of course, the argument that the red-light cameras have improved safety and reduced accidents takes a back seat to the politics. Either the program improves safety and halting it for political infighting is grossly irresponsible or the mayor has been lying about the safety all along.
My suggestion is, if you want revenue, get rid of the horrible cameras and all their technological and administrative problems and enforce the hand-held cell phone prohibition instead.
On February 20th the mayor announced he was turning the cameras back on due to the increase in violations since his snit turning them off.
The governor still hasn’t taken action on the legislation that removes the profit from the city.