Actually, Brandon Perkins wasn't the only reader who alluded to George Orwell while speaking IN FAVOR of red-light cameras (see today's Road Worrier column, with reader comments).

I also heard from Matthew David Stephens, formerly of Durham, now living in Weisbaden, Germany:

And we have LOTS of traffic control cameras here. I've gotten many tickets in the mail with my sheepish mug on it grinning blissfully through a school zone at 50kmh. Intersection/speed control cameras (or as they're known here "Blitzer") are a very effective way to get people to drive a little more reasonably.

Like Perkins, Stephens thinks traffic-control cameras are a smart use of technology and a good way to economize on law enforcement. Big Brother? Sure, he said. ... [MORE]

Lots of people gripe about those cameras installed at  intersections to take your picture and mail you a ticket if you run a red light.

But if you take a broad survey of drivers, you'll find that about two-thirds of them support red-light cameras and credit them with making streets safer.  That's what the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found in a survey of 14 cities with red-light camera programs.

What do you think about Raleigh's red-light cameras?  I'm writing about the survey today, and I'd like to speak with local drivers.  Please call me 919-829-4527 or email me with contact info, so I can call you back. Or add your thoughts below.

If you have a learner’s permit now and you aim to get your provisional license this fall, you’d better plan to spend a lot of your summer driving around with Mom or Dad in the front seat.

Meanwhile, drivers old and young should get ready for a 2.5-cent tax increase, starting July 1, on every gallon of gas and diesel fuel.

Record-high gas taxes and tougher rules for the graduated driver’s license program are the biggest changes that North Carolina drivers will see as a result of action – and inaction – in the Republican-led General Assembly session that adjourned last week. [6/21/11 update: See today's Road Worrier column with reader comments.]

For now ... [MORE]

In a 36-14 vote, the Senate gave preliminary approval today to a bill that would kill red-light cameras in the last remaining North Carolina cities that use them: Wilmington, Knightdale, Cary and Raleigh. [4/8/11 update: see today's story with reader comments.]

The bill sponsor, Republican Sen. Don East of Pilot Mountain, is a former Winston-Salem police officer who argues that drivers should be able to cross-examine the officer to gives them a traffic ticket.

“You ought to be able to say, ‘Officer, are you right sure that light was red?’” East said during floor debate. His Senate Bill 187 will move to the House if it passes a final Senate vote next week.

Sen. Josh Stein, a Raleigh Democrat, argued that local officials should be allowed to decide whether to use the cameras. He cited crash statistics that credit red-light cameras with reducing right-angle collisions, caused when a driver runs a red light, at two busy corners in downtown Raleigh. ... [MORE]

State Sen. Don East, who says he wrote lots of traffic tickets during nearly 20 years as a police officer in Winston-Salem, wants to outlaw red-light cameras.

He does not propose merely that Raleigh, Cary and a few other towns stop ticketing drivers whose cars are photographed running red lights.  A bill he filed Wednesday would make it a misdemeanor "for any person to operate a traffic control photographic system in this State."

"I'm a retired cop, and I believe if you're charged with running a red light, you ought to be able to cross-examine somebody," East said. "You can't cross-examine a camera." ... [MORE]

Brian Ceccarelli of Apex has published a 33-page illustrated treatise, filed a 16-page class-action lawsuit (see today's story with reader comments), and created a website stuffed with documentation -- all devoted to his crusade for longer yellow lights at Cary's red-light camera intersections.

He explained his campaign in an e-mail message, with an unusual appeal to a higher law: ... [MORE]

It was about a year ago that Helen Joostema got her red-light camera ticket in the mail from the town of Cary. A candid camera had snapped her as she turned left from Kildaire Farm Road onto Cary Parkway.

"I'm still fuming," she said on the phone today after she read this week's Road Worrier. "I thought I had gotten over it until I read your article."

Joostema didn't think the fleeting yellow light had given her enough time to stop safely before the light turned red, especially with another car right on her tail.

"If I just jammed on the brakes, I would have been hit from the back," she said.

She dialed the phone number on her ticket. She talked to a rude guy who insisted that the yellow light lasted 4 seconds. . . .

OK, maybe the Road Worrier's crude method of counting time won't hold up in traffic court ("Yellow is fleeting on Cary traffic light").

If the Road Worrier wants to do a more credible job of counting traffic signal times, reader Paul Ferguson points out that even cheap digital watches have timer options. Agreed.

But you get the idea: When you only get a brief yellow-light warning that you'll have to stop soon, it's easy to get caught running a red light.

How brief is the yellow light warning at some intersections in Cary's red-light camera program?

Cary says 3 or 4 seconds. I'm skeptical. And some readers are skeptical, too.

I really believe that the yellow traffic light at Kildaire Farm and Maynard goes off within 1 or 2 seconds - Trupti Desai . . .