God I love that guy over at The Newspaper. Not only did he somehow score one of the world’s best urls, but he’s also dedicated his site to revealing the government scams, deceit and constitutional affronts plaguing American motorists. Today, we get a special blog, for those of us who want to believe in divine justice (retribution?). “An Australian red light camera operator lost the ability to issue tickets in Knoxville, Tennessee because it failed to send the required documents to the city on time… Redflex blamed FedEx for delivering the package on August 1… ‘Unfortunately, the FedEx vehicle transporting the shipment from our facility to our Los Angeles sort facility arrived later than scheduled and missed the outbound flight,’ a FedEx customer relations employee wrote to Redflex. ‘Regrettably, efforts to expedite the shipment have been unsuccessful.’ FedEx will refund the shipping cost of just over $30, which is scant consolation to the Australian company that lost the opportunity to take $5 million from Tennessee drivers.” I wonder if the FedEx driver ran any lights…
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Kizmet. (For Buddhists, read “Karma”).
Hilarious!
See? There is a God.
So does this mean it’s safe to run a light in Knoxville right now?
Wouldn’t you assume that the city would keep the cameras running somehow? Like say allowing the company to refile and approving the tickets retroactively?
I still can’t believe the companies that make the cameras get a cut of the revenue they generate.
Seriously…why is it not that the municipality just purchases the cameras and they make money off what they sell?
Who/what companies get a cut of the money whatever they sell generate? And beyond that, why would any municipality wanna do it this way?
And beyond that, how does such a conflict of interest ever get approved…and then expanded?
So does this mean it’s safe to run a light in Knoxville right now?
The contract expires November 8. So after that date, yes, it will be safe to enter an intersection a split-second after the light turns red. Please note that the vast majority of tickets are not for “red light running” but technical violations that happen in the blink of an eye or right turns on red. Ka-ching.
Apparently, the FedEx truck missed the flight because it was the only one in the history of the company to obey all parking, speed and signal rules.
menno :
Kizmet. (For Buddhists, read “Karma”).
Hilarious!
See? There is a God.
I’d like Karma to be more painful. Losing future revenue isn’t as good as having to refund all collected fees to date to the poor citizens who got caught in that unholy alliance of private enteprise and corrupt government.
(Alright, I have to admit it…I’d like it to be more painful than that – and I mean literally painful for the company owners, but that’s between me and my psychiatrist…)
This just means that Redflex won’t be the company fleecing motorists in Tennessee. Other companies will make sure that the motorists still get robbed. The last line in the article is:
Georgia-based Lasercraft and Germany’s Traffipax both succeeded in ensuring their bids arrived on time and the city will choose which of the two it prefers to take over the program.
Here is the local coverage which has further details
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/sep/04/late-delivery-stops-redflex/
Under the terms of Redflex’s current contract, the company – not the city – still owns all of the cameras and related equipment installed among 15 city intersections. The firm also collects 85 percent of monthly revenues generated, up to $4,500 per camera. Any monthly per-camera revenues beyond that are split 50-50 with the city.
Last year, Redflex earned $1,644,718.90 in Knoxville, and another $955,013.70 was generated for the city’s general fund.
there is much more in the article but here is one more small tidbit
There could, however, be more cameras to install. While Redflex’s contract is limited to 15 intersections, the new RFP contemplates camera enforcement at 20 to 25 locations.
Red Light cams are just a warm up for speed cams. Keep that in mind when YOUR town thinks this is a great idea.