Motorists in 19 Jersey towns where red light cameras have been operational are waiting to see if the municipalities will re-certify the timing of yellow lights by the end of the month.

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If they don’t, the entire red light camera program could be shelved.

Bill Dressel, the Executive Director of the New Jersey League of Municipalities says, “I believe the sponsors of the legislation and the state agencies gave a lot of thought and due diligence, but you can’t basically forecast at the time you’re writing a law – as to what could be the potential problems down the road.”

He says, “With anything new there are problems which emerge, and this is a new wrinkle…I see it quite frankly as a growing pain- and it’s important to remember the red light camera program was a pilot program, so no one knew what the problems would be down the road. No one knew exactly how this was going to be received…We’re understanding now that there might be some calibration issues – there may very well be some legal issues…But I think this is an example of when you’re trying to make the best decisions to protect the citizens and motorists- and you think this technology will help reduce costs as far as manpower is concerned – at a time when we’re trying to reduce our over-reliance on the property tax – this is a new technology, and with new technologies there are going to be growing pains.”

Dressel adds, “It’s difficult to forecast what the courts are going to do or not do…It’s hard to determine what’s going to happen down the road, particularly as it relates to the courts…I guess we have to take a wait and see attitude…I would like to see them make the necessary refinements to the system to allow the towns to be able to use this – keep in mind that this was intended to reduce personnel costs, to reduce our reliance on the property tax, take advantage of technologies and think outside the box.”

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