(Springfield) — Traffic cameras that snap a picture of your license plate when you run a red light may soon also send you a 100-dollar ticket when you break the speed limit.
Lawmakers are looking at adding traffic cameras to ticket speeding drivers in Chicago, the suburbs, and the Metro East.
Right now the cameras are attached to red lights,but the new cameras could be put anywhere to catch people driving too fast.
Cameras could only monitor speeding on surface streets, not expressways or interstates.
House Democrat Joe Lyons says people are driving too fast, and cameras sending out speeding tickets should slow them down. Waukegan State Senator Terry Link says more traffic cameras will stop people from speeding and save lives. Link says since Chicago put in red-light cameras, drivers running lights dropped by half.
He says he expects cameras could also be a deterrent to speeding.
Critics say traffic cameras send out too many bogus tickets and are just a way for cities to get more money from drivers. Link is also pushing a separate plan to expand red-light cameras to Bloomington-Normal, Rockford, DeKalb, and Decatur. Some lawmakers are fighting to keep red-light cameras out of their cities.
Link says that drivers who complain about getting tickets from cameras would be fine if they don’t run red lights or drive too fast.
WCIA3 News
