#redlight camera

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[generalinjusticeblog]

Some yellow lights are too short in Chicago, Illinois, according to an administrative law judge who said he has thrown out "60 to 70 percent" of the red light camera tickets he has come across. The city says it meets the bare minimum federal standard of having yellow warning signal illuminate for three seconds at intersections. A judge who hears appeals from motorists ticketed by red-light cameras said during a hearing this week that he has seen evidence that yellow times are below the legal minimum at some Chicago intersections with red-light cameras.    The hearing lasted three hours Monday after the city sent three attorneys, a law department supervisor, a public information officer and a Chicago Department of Transportation deputy director overseeing the city's traffic camera programs to defend five tickets challenged by Barnet Fagel, a video forensic specialist who helps drivers fight red light and speed camera tickets. This normally would be a brief, attorney-free affair in which drivers present photos and other evidence in the hopes of persuading the administrative law judge that their ticket ought to be thrown out.

[generalinjusticeblog]

Officials in Riverside, California have lost faith in red light cameras after eight years of use. On Tuesday, Councilman Chris MacArthur moved to have staff draft a proposal that cancel the city's contract with Redflex Traffic Systems of Australia and bring down all fourteen cameras -- to applause in the council chambers. The motion passed six to one. MacArthur made his case by listing each photo enforced intersection in his ward along with the number of accidents before and after camera installation. There was no reduction in collisions. MacArthur pointed out that the devices are so unpopular that more than 50 cities in California have dropped photo enforcement, including Corona, Loma Linda, Murrieta, Poway, San Bernardino and Yucaipa. MacArthur surveyed his constituents, and of the 125 who responded, 78 percent opposed cameras, with one resident calling it "a parasitic source of city income." Councilman Mike Soubirous, a former police officer, went out and photographed one of the camera-monitored intersections to point out that the red signal is turned in such a way that it is only half-visible from the far right-hand lane. This makes the signal much less visible to traffic turning right, and drivers who do not see it are hit with a $500 fine. Soubirous asked Caltrans to add an additional signal light. Soubirous also pointed out that the city was one of the few to have photo radar back in 1993 and the public is reacting to red light cameras in the same way.

[generalinjusticeblog]

The Supreme Court of Illinois on Wednesday heard oral arguments in a case that will decide whether Chicago's red light camera program has been illegally operating for more than a decade. Redflex Traffic Systems of Australia began issuing tickets in the Windy City three years before the state legislature granted select jurisdictions permission to use automated ticketing machines. This makes the city's photo ticketing ordinance illegal, say Michael Reagan and Patrick J. Keating, lawyers who filed a class-action lawsuit to shut the program down.    "This case draws upon the power and the duty of this court to declare governmental action to have been improper when it has found to have been taken without the power to act and to declare law void when it is found unconstitutional," Reagan told the justices. "Chicago did not have municipal authority to enact its red light camera ordinance in 2003."    Like many jurisdictions that jump head first into automated ticketing, Chicago was not interested more than a decade ago in waiting for the state legislature to enact an authorization statute for the lucrative program that now issues 700,000 tickets per year. Reagan argued that Chicago's implementation of automated ticketing violated a statute requiring uniformity of traffic laws across the state.

 This means, Reagan argued, that the city would have to "enact an ordinance" under the new law to take advantage of its legal protection. Chicago has not done so. The statute only applies to cities within Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, Madison, McHenry, St. Clair, and Will Counties. That means some of the smallest towns can have automated ticketing, but many large cities such as Rockford and Peoria are excluded. Certain lawmakers insisted on the restrictions because they did not want cameras in their personal districts.

Reagan argues that if red light cameras are truly safety devices as Chicago insists they are, there is no legitimate reason for the legislature to permit them in some counties but not others. 

[generalinjusticeblog]

Red light camera vendor uses a spreadsheet to calculate profit based on engineering deficiencies such as short yellow time.

Redflex Traffic Systems uses a special spreadsheet to calculate precisely how much profit a city can expect from red light cameras on an intersection-by-intersection basis. WTKR-TV reported about the "violation calculator" that Redflex used to provide the city of Chesapeake, Virginia with the dollar figure it could expect after signing a contract with the Australian firm. The violation calculator is a more refined version of the criteria red light camera companies have always used. In 2001, a team of attorneys in San Diego, California used a court subpoena to obtain a copy of the confidential site evaluation performed by vendor Lockheed Martin (which now operates as Xerox). The decisions on where cameras were installed were based on finding high volume, downhill approaches where the yellow time was less than 4 seconds (view document). Redflex promised that within ten days of signing the contract, the firm would send the city a list of the most profitable intersections based on an eight-hour video assessment of each prime location. "Completing a detailed video analysis will ensure that Redflex and the city truly develop and implement a comprehensive 'approach strategy' that will provide the city with detailed information for accurate fact-based decisions on possible program expansion efforts," the 2009 Redflex proposal explained. The video survey is an old fashioned method of calculating profit, however. Redflex found that it could achieve 85 percent more accurate results with its violation calculator.  "Redflex has also developed an additional analysis approach that is truly unique to Redflex," the proposal explained. "Redflex sought the guidance of a renowned professor from Texas A&M University and the development of a 'Violation Calculator' that factors in not only the quantitative violation analysis, but the engineering factors at an approach level that would also influence driver behavior."

The factors measured include the yellow duration, traffic volume, the speed limit and 85th percentile approach speed, the percentage of heavy vehicles, whether the signals have backing plates and the average duration of the green signal. The shorter the yellow time, the less visible the signal and the more deficient the engineering, the greater number of tickets will be issued, and the greater the profit for the city. 

[generalinjusticeblog]

Voters in Conroe, Texas flocked to the polls Saturday to become the sixth town in the Lone Star state to outlaw red light cameras. The automated ticketing machines owned and operated by American Traffic Solutions (ATS) lost by 59 percent of the vote.    The Arizona-based firm did its best in the final hours of the race to sway the vote. Using a front group directly controlled by ATS executives, the firm paid $50,000 to Jamestown Associates, the direct mail firm used by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and $5000 to Thomas Graphics of Austin to come up with a compelling message. Full color flyers began hitting residents Friday that showed a pair of white children standing on a curb.    "Red light runners keep your family at risk," the flyer said. "Vote NO to keep Conroe safe. Sixty three percent fewer collisions with red light safety cameras."    Beneficiaries of the camera program also arranged to have two individual standing on the street corner near the polls with signs reading, "Vote NO 4 safer Conroe." Photo ticketing opponents complained that the ballot was confusingly worded in requiring a "yes" vote to be against cameras. 

[generalinjusticeblog]

Lobbyists for municipalities and the photo enforcement industry won a big victory by killing a bill in the Colorado General Assembly that would have prohibited the use of red light cameras and speed cameras. The bill had passed the state Senate by a 21 to 14 vote last month only to hit a roadblock in the lower chamber last week. The House Committee on Appropriations voted 8 to 5 to postpone consideration of the bill indefinitely, a move that ended the measure's prospect for passage as lawmakers will adjourn for the year on Wednesday. The Appropriations Committee is firmly controlled by state House Speaker Mark Ferrandino (D-Denver) who was a primary sponsor of the bill, but the other primary House sponsor, state Representative Steve Humphrey (R-Severance) blames Governor John Hickenlooper (D) for ensuring the bill never made it to his desk.  "It was no secret the governor did not want to make a decision on this bill, and sadly for the citizens of Colorado, he convinced enough House Democrats to kill a bill that places raising revenue above public safety," Humphrey said in a statement. "I want to thank Speaker Ferrandino and share his disappointment that his caucus refused to save thousands of Coloradans the burden of paying millions in fines that do nothing to make our roads safer."

"There is no compelling evidence that red light cameras or photo radar vans improve public safety, but there are plenty of figures showing they generate millions of dollars in revenue to grow government at the expense of citizens," Gardner said in a statement. "It's disappointing the governor chose to protect the cities' revenue streams over the objection of a majority of Coloradans."