Drivers may have been grousing about traffic tickets since the first Tin Lizzie was pulled over for doing 20 in a 15 zone, assuming there was such a thing way back then. But technology has opened up new frontiers in traffic enforcement.
And former Mayor Richard Daley and now Mayor Rahm Emanuel have pushed to make Chicago a leading pioneer—or guinea pig, depending on your point of view.
And that’s one reason why the Tribune focused coverage so heavily on the arrival of Red Light cameras to the city and the suburbs and now, after getting a green light from Gov. Patrick Quinn on on Monday, the impending addition of speed cameras in Chicago.
Emanuel has framed his push for speed cameras as solely a child safety issue. Children are getting mowed down on city streets, he claims, and the cameras give the city another important trick in the enforcement tool bag to help make it safer for kids. Critics, and there are many, say that’s just a cynical cover for a money grab by the mayor.
This is an issue that generates a lot of emotion and fire, not to mention an avalanche of conflicting and sometimes shallow and self-serving research on both sides of the argument. Another key goal of our coverage is to push beyond the spin and help readers understand what the cameras mean for them.
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