Spokane City neighborhood councils will no longer have to come up with ‘match’ money in order to use revenue the city collects from red light camera tickets. Money raised from the red light cameras goes into a fund to be used for ‘traffic calming’ measures by the City’s neighborhood councils. Last night, City Council voted to get rid of the match money required to use those funds. Here are the details.
There are a lot of people out there who don’t like the red light cameras because they say they are simply a money maker. City officials disagree though, saying it is aimed at improving traffic safety. Now that there is no match required, more safety projects will probably move forward across the city. Does that make you feel better about this program?
I'd love to see more traffic calming measures here, but I think many of them would interfere with snow removal.
– Ventura
You're right Ventura, I know that plow drivers HATE things like bumpouts because they make it a major pain to do their jobs. There's a lot of pressure to add these kind of items lately though so that may trump the preference of jurisdiction staff.
There are a few traffic calming measures that can be installed that don't affect snow removal, such as radar speed signs, textured pavement, properly-designed chicanes, and realigning intersections.
I'm curious to see how neighborhoods will choose to use this money.