Rochester’s City Council voted Tuesday night to overwhelmingly approve the installation of red light cameras at 50 intersections. I’ve written before about why these camera systems are disingenuous at best. Usually they are touted as safety measures while the credible evidence suggests they are actually road hazards.

Curiously, local coverage of the council’s decision didn’t even attempt to position this as an effort to make the roads any safer this time. It was all about the money. Nonetheless, they cited Mayor Duffy as downplaying the projected windfall for the city, and also left the math as an exercise for the reader. However, they did provide the raw numbers in various paragraphs of the article. The city is projecting $3.5m in revenue and will pay $3,750/mo/camera. Crunch that up, and we are looking at about $1.25m to the city’s bottom line as a result of this program.

It’s understandable why these programs are financially attractive to local governments. I just wish they’d be honest with us and maybe with themselves about why they are doing this. Especially when you consider the additional incremental cost to citizens in terms of life, health, property damage, and insurance rates due to the increased accidents at monitored intersections.