South Jersey red-light cameras used for traffic flow instead of tickets

Don’t be so paranoid. Some of those cameras you see at busy intersections aren’t meant to trap you into a ticket. They’re being used to keep traffic moving, and at a far less expensive rate than those wire signals.

Of the 3,000 intersections controlled by the New Jersey Department of Transportation, about 300 have cameras, as the Press of Atlantic City reports. But there’s an easy way for drivers to tell if the camera they’re seeing is tracking their stopping or going.

Cameras posted on poles behind the intersection are for red-light monitoring. Cameras mounted above intersections are motion detectors.

It costs about $15,000 to $20,000 to install a camera. That’s about half what it takes to lay a wire in the ground to set off a similar signal, and wires must be replaced during road repairs.