I am writing about my concerns about the recent installation of red light cameras in Redmond. I am not in favor of them primarily for safety reasons.  After having read several articles on them, it appears that they have created many rear-end collisions, primarily on higher-speed roads — like Northeast 85th Street, Redmond Way and 148th Avenue Northeast, for example.

A great many motorists break abruptly, almost without warning, thus creating a situation where it could cause many rear-end collisions. In addition, the blinking light is very distracting and could be unsafe as well. Many of the yellow lights in the city seem to be very short in duration in comparison with other jurisdictions, making it very easy to committing an infraction of running a red light.

Residents of other cities and jurisdictions have viewed ordinances such as this as a revenue producer and nothing more. The statistics of reducing accidents have been minimal, if not increasing accidents. Citizens have created backlogs in the courts in their efforts to object to the tickets.

Red light cameras are a bad idea and the city council, when voting in 10 months to make the red light cameras a permanent fixture, should reconsider this practice and review other more proactive practices for public safety, such as better coordination of the traffic lights throughout the city, longer yellow lights in 40-mile-an-hour roads, and shorter waits at some of the lights where the secondary road at the intersection doesn’t have to wait five minutes for that motorist to finally proceed.

Ron Tutt, Redmond