Thumbs up: Going after (deep red) light runners

A couple letters have come in recently that have touched a nerve with readers - and us. They concern what appears to be a growing number of people running red lights in Sonoma County. Is there something about this time of year? This isn’t about drivers just skating through on a yellow about to turn red. These are people who are so late in running the light that traffic on the green-light side is already moving through the intersection when these drivers fly through.

What are these people thinking - if they are thinking at all?

As one letter writer notes today, “Ticketing and fining the offenders requires a prioritizing of this problem by the Santa Rosa Police Department.”

That’s why we’re pleased to see that Santa Rosa police already have stepped up patrols for these scofflaws. They have set up a “special enforcement zone” in the area of Dutton Avenue and Sebastopol Road for all this week. Officers will be looking for red-light runners as well as those who make lane violations. People who speed, use their cellphones and don’t use their seatbelts also will be targeted.

The only problem is there are at least a dozen other intersections that deserve similar treatment. We’ll leave it to letter writers to point out which ones those are.