Red Light Camera Programs

[Brandon]

I posted this here since other cities (Baltimore for one) have had similar issues.

This just came out today from the Chicago Tribune:

Inspector general blasts red light ticket program

Some excerpts:

Inspector General Joseph Ferguson also questioned why cameras remain at intersections with no recent side-impact crashes, which the $100 ticket-issuing cops in a box are designed to prevent.

"We found a lack of basic record keeping and an alarming lack of analysis for an ongoing program that costs tens of millions of dollars a year and generates tens of millions more in revenue,"  Ferguson wrote in a letter addressed to Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other city officials.

Ferguson also faults Emanuel, noting the mayor has continued the program during his first two years in office despite the Chicago Department of Transportation's inability to demonstrate "how each camera location was chosen, or why cameras in locations with no recent angle crashes have not been relocated."

Emanuel is in the process of ending the current red light camera contract with Redlfex after the Tribune exposed a potential $2 million bribery scheme involving the company's deal with the city. The mayor is seeking bids for a new vendor even as he looks to install new speed cameras near schools and parks across the city, in part to generate at least $20 million.

The troubling part is the lack of record keeping and reasons for why these cameras even exist in the first place.  It seems as though the goal were revenue, not safety.

[cpzilliacus]

I posted this here since other cities (Baltimore for one) have had similar issues.

Baltimore's is strictly about raising cash.  Thank goodness that speed and red light cameras in Baltimore can be challenged in a real court in front of a real judge.

The troubling part is the lack of record keeping and reasons for why these cameras even exist in the first place.  It seems as though the goal were revenue, not safety.

I think that is the goal of some other jurisdictions as well.

[jeffandnicole]

Documentation that can be found easily on the NJDOT website shows that, overall, accidents have increased at intersections with red light cameras.  The state is in the middle of a 5 year test period for the cameras, and recently accounced they won't add more intersections into the program for the remainder of the test period. 

Various stories regarding the cameras tend to be pretty clear that municipal officials want the revenue the cameras make.  Sometimes they'll remember to claim it's about safety, even though their arguments tend to be opposite of what the actual statistics prove out.

[cpzilliacus]

Various stories regarding the cameras tend to be pretty clear that municipal officials want the revenue the cameras make.

Easy solution to that problem.  State legislatures should mandate that all revenue from automated enforcement programs go to a statewide pot of money under control of the legislature.  Preferably a pot of money that has nothing to do with law enforcement or transportation.

Virginia has the right idea with the Literacy Fund, which is where the fines paid on most state traffic summonses go (exception for overweight truck tickets - those dollars go directly to VDOT). 

But curiously, Virginia allows its local governments to establish traffic ordinances in some cases, and as a result, if a motorist gets a ticket for violating the local ordinance, then the money goes to the local government and not to the Literacy Fund.

[jeffandnicole]

Various stories regarding the cameras tend to be pretty clear that municipal officials want the revenue the cameras make.

Easy solution to that problem.  State legislatures should mandate that all revenue from automated enforcement programs go to a statewide pot of money under control of the legislature.  Preferably a pot of money that has nothing to do with law enforcement or transportation.

Virginia has the right idea with the Literacy Fund, which is where the fines paid on most state traffic summonses go (exception for overweight truck tickets - those dollars go directly to VDOT). 

But curiously, Virginia allows its local governments to establish traffic ordinances in some cases, and as a result, if a motorist gets a ticket for violating the local ordinance, then the money goes to the local government and not to the Literacy Fund.

Of the many bills that have been created by elected officials that are against the red light cameras, this has been one of the ideas presented.  None of the bills have gotten out of committee though.

[mrsman]

I wanted to reopen the conversation on this because I read something egregiously bad regarding automated enforcement.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LosAngeles/comments/mb0kg9/beware_of_franklin_canyon_reservoir_stop_sign/

Red light cameras are relatively common.  Speed cameras are relatively common.  School bus cameras and bus lane enforcement cameras are also in existence.  Stop light cameras are more rare, but they do exist in other places (e.g. there are some that are specifically allowed by law in D.C. and some other places).

What bothers me about this so much is that stop sign cameras are not (yet) legal in CA, yet this MRCA (a parks dept. that oversees the road that Franklin Canyon runs through) is able to issue tickets.  Not as a vehicle code violation, but as a violation of parks rules.  If a state doesn't feel that stop sign cameras serve a legitimate safety function (which is why only red light cameras are legal in CA - not stop sign cameras), how can some other agency put in their own.  Totally bogus.

Here's another article on it:

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/los-angeles-franklin-canyon-stop-sign-fine-tickets-citations/24638/

[Plutonic Panda]

An article about 9 different states considering changes to red light/speed cameras:

https://landline.media/action-on-ticket-cameras-pursued-in-nine-states/

Personally I just wish we'd have a national law banning all automated traffic enforcement with the exception of ACTIVE work zones and school zones.

[jeffandnicole]

An article about 9 different states considering changes to red light/speed cameras:

https://landline.media/action-on-ticket-cameras-pursued-in-nine-states/

Personally I just wish we'd have a national law banning all automated traffic enforcement with the exception of ACTIVE work zones and school zones.

So, you're really for automated traffic enforcement.    

[Plutonic Panda]

An article about 9 different states considering changes to red light/speed cameras:

https://landline.media/action-on-ticket-cameras-pursued-in-nine-states/

Personally I just wish we'd have a national law banning all automated traffic enforcement with the exception of ACTIVE work zones and school zones.

So, you're really for automated traffic enforcement.    

Lol. The work zones would need to be improved and not used in rural work zones that span for dozens of miles where no one is working. There should be language used in the bill that allows for people to fight that when they're accused and precedents set.

[andrepoiy]

I feel like red light camera enforcement is... rather useless. I honestly see very few people that are dumb enough to actually run a red light. But maybe that's because I live somewhere where there's always traffic that there's no actual opportunity to be able to run a red without crashing.