Skip to content

Smile, Brick

You’re NOT on Candid Camera anymore!

 

From nj.com:

Controversial red-light cameras going dark in Brick on Feb. 18

In a rare move, the mayor of Brick said he is pulling the plug this month on the controversial but lucrative red-light cameras in his town.

Mayor John Ducey has concerns about the fairness of the automated traffic cops on busy Route 70 and elsewhere. He is not renewing the red-light camera contract with American Traffic Solutions, and the cameras will go dark on Feb. 18.

“I’m not convinced that our intersections are safer and, therefore, come Feb. 18, 2014, there will no longer be red-light cameras here in Brick Township,” said Ducey, who today joined outspoken red-light camera opponent Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth) at a news conference at the Brick Township municipal building. “Also as of Feb. 23, 2014, the equipment will be removed, or else we will consider it as abandoned property and have the township remove it.”

They are the only red-light cameras in the Shore region, where a trip for a tourist can be soured by an $85 ticket for a rolling right turn on red.

“When I was running for mayor, I met countless residents going door to door and one of the most common sources of the frustration around the town was the red-light cameras here,” Ducey said. “And it didn’t matter whether or not they got tickets or they didn’t get tickets, either way they weren’t happy that they had red-light cameras in town.”

The three cameras are at Route 70 and Chambers Bridge Road (Route 549), Route 70 and Brick Boulevard (Route 631) and Brick Boulevard and Chambers Bridge Road.

Ducey said at two of the three intersections, rear-end crashes and right-angle accidents have increased since the cameras were installed – double the accidents in the case of Brick Boulevard and Chambers Bridge Road.

Brick took in $830,000 in ticket revenue in 2013.

“This is really a historic moment in the fight against what I and the motorists of New Jersey call the scourge of red-light cameras in New Jersey,” O’Scanlon said. “This is the first mayor with cameras in his town to reject the devices. It is a shame that in the pursuit of the almighty dollar, officials in other towns have gone out of their way to avoid facing the truth – that these devices exist exclusively to enrich the companies that operate them.”

Some of you may recall being told what a huge success Brick was having when ATS was trying to sell us here in Belmar on these monstrosities.

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared.