Today is July 1st, and traffic cameras are officially dead in Virginia. The state legislature let the law permitting red-light (s)cameras expire, but not all cities are taking them down. Falls Church plans to leave them on, and use them in an innovative way.

State lawmakers failed to renew the pilot program, meaning the cameras have to stop clicking as of July 1. But the City of Falls Church plans to keep its video red-light system on in the name of safety. While still cameras only snap a picture of the offending vehicle's license plate, the video system has a unique feature.

"It automatically sort of gauges the speed and distance of a vehicle before it runs into the intersection, and then adjusts the lights accordingly," said Councilman David Snyder.

All the lights at the intersection remain red until the offending car passes. This reduces the risk of a T-bone style crash, in which a red-light runner hits a car proceeding with a green light.

"Our objective all along with this was public safety," said Snyder, who was the city's mayor when the cameras were first installed in 2001.

I look forward to running red lights all weekend long. Don't stop me now, I'm having such a good time, I'm having a ball.