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I disagree with red light cameras for one simple reason:
It shifts responsibility from the driver of the car to the owner of the car. At least with none of the systems I've seen is any attempt made to validate who is driving, and unlike with a smoggy car (which is the liability of the owner and not necessarily the driver) it is important. The camera only system involves a presumption of guilt (you have to go to court and prove you are innocent, even in the face of no actual claim you were driving the car) as opposed to a presumption of innocence (you have to go to court and force the prosecution to prove you were driving the car). In the bit I read last night, it was this presumption of guilt element that the court had trouble with.
A similar issue applies to speeding cameras that automatically generate tickets. I think speeding cameras and red light cameras are fine if used in conjunction with an actual intervention of issuance of the ticket on the spot. Let the intersection picture immediately show up on the computer in the police car (or traffic enforcement car) near the intersection who then pulls you over and issues a ticket to the driver.
If we're going to automate it, why not just require that all cars come with equipment that automatically issues you a ticket anytime you speed (easy enough for a car to determine in conjunction with speed-limit sensors embedded in the road) and a GPS-intersection light tie-in that allows the car to know if you were in the intersection after the light turned and then issue a ticket.
If these traffic violations are going to attach to the owner rather than the driver, and the obligation is on the owner to prove they didn't commit the violation rather than on the government to prove they did then we need to completely reevaluating how people interact with their cars (and who gets the points on their license if a car is owned by two people or a corporate entity?).
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