The New Jersey Department of Transportation has announced no additional red light cameras will be added to the state's red light camera program.

Red light camera at Route 1 and Bakers Basin in Lawrence
Red light camera at Route 1 and Bakers Basin in Lawrence (Dan Alexander, Townsquare Media NJ)
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The Garden State lawmaker leading the charge against red light cameras believes it's welcome news.

"Halleluiah. Before you can back up a bus, you've got to stop it, so this out-of-control careening bus is stopped," says Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon.

Nevertheless, he argues the program should be stopped immediately - and not continue until December of 2014.

"We have 15 years of data from other municipalities throughout this country - throughout the world - that have experimented with this equipment. It does not improve safety. If anything, there's a marginal safety deficit making our roads less safe."

O'Scanlon says the only reason to argue the program should continue even one day longer is revenue for the towns participating in it.

He stresses any objective study shows there is no safety benefit to red light cameras.

"We don't need one more month," he says. "We should shut this program down now. I would pull the plug tomorrow if I had that plug in my hand. I think there's enough data to decide to end the program right now."

He also points out a lot of these cameras are in municipalities with folks at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum.

The people who can least afford it are being victimized by this equipment, so he says we ought to pull the plug, or at the very least go to the next step in a reform effort to treat people more fairly - and stop red light camera right on red tickets, and increase yellow light times.

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