Traffic Cameras Failing to Prevent Accidents: D.C. drivers may hate them, but may also grudgingly accept their use in preventing serious accidents cause by red light running and speeding through city streets. But according to the Post, the city’s 45 traffic enforcement cameras may not even be doing that all that well. While generating over 500,000 tickets and $32 million in revenue over the last six years of their use, the cameras have thus far failed to prevent serious accidents, and in some cases, have seen increases at the intersections at which they are placed — from 365 collisions in 1998 to 755 last year. Similarly, injury and fatal crashes have increased 81 percent, while broadside crashes have risen from 81 to 106 during the same time. Overall, total crashes in the city rose 61 percent from 1998 to 2004, raising the possibility that area drivers will start to view the cameras more as revenue producers than legitimate tools for public safety. Similar findings in Virginia provoked the state legislature to cancel their red light traffic camera program in early July.

Dulles Cab Drivers Strike: In the fifth strike in the last three months, various cab drivers serving Dulles International Airport went on strike yesterday, reports the Post. The cab drivers — part of the Washington Flyer cabs — held picket signs demanding higher fares, an additional surcharge to offset rising gas prices, and complaining of favoritism and corruption between dispatchers and cab drivers from competing services. In related news, 20 District cabs will be employing meters over the next eight months, part of an ongoing test to help determine whether or not to do away with the love it or hate it zone system.

New D.C. AIDS Chief Proposes Controversial Measures: Dr. Marsha Martin, the new director of the District’s troubled HIV/AIDS Administration, yesterday claimed that the city’s fight against the disease will require controversial measures, including condoms in high schools and needle exchange programs for drug users, writes the Examiner. The District suffers from one of the country’s highest rates of HIV/AIDS infection, with 1 in 20 residents and 1 in 7 black men living with the disease. Any of these controversial measures could be stymied by Congress, who in the past refused to fund a public needle exchange program.

Briefly Noted: Agreement signed on dedicated funding for Metro … Condo conversions in Montgomery County could further tighten rental market … Unexplained double digit jump in gas prices since last Friday … Georgetown University guards petition for higher wages.

Picture of jersey barrier snapped by katmere.