Yellow times may shorten as the city of Billings, Montana, rushes to install red light cameras before the state legislature has a chance to ban them. The Billings City Council voted 8–3 Monday to empower Redflex Traffic Systems, a private company based in Melbourne, Australia, to issue automated traffic citations in return for a cut of the revenue collected. Billings needs to act quickly because the state legislature last Thursday entered into final negotiations on legislation that would ban red light cameras.
After the House had passed legislation banning red light cameras without conditions, state Senator John Brueggeman (R-Polson) added a grandfather clause to the bill that would allow Billings, Bozeman and any other city that enters into a contract before the bill is signed to issue photo tickets without limitation. House members voted 58–42 against this loophole and insisted on convening a conference committee with the Senate to negotiate the final language.
In a memorandum to the city council, Billings Police Chief Rich St. John (above) foresees the prospect of increased revenue from shortened yellow warning phases at intersections equipped with red light cameras.
“Changes in the yellow times after red light camera systems are in place and operational will affect the number of photographed violations, increasing the number of violations when yellow times are shortened and reducing the number of violations when yellow times are lengthened,” St. John explained in a memo dated April 8. “Where changes in the yellow times at intersections with red light camera systems are required as the result of updated speed surveys or other factors, the changes should be clearly described in public information announcements. Providing warning notices for a reasonable amount of time after the change is particularly important for violations recorded at intersections where the yellow interval has been shortened.”
The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) in a 2004 study documented the effect of reducing the amount of warning given to motorists before an intersection signal changes from green to red (view study). Cutting one second from the yellow time formula endorsed by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) in 1989 boosts violation income by 110 percent. Adding one extra second to the 1989 ITE formula slashed violations by 53 percent.
Lawmakers in the state of Georgia recognized the value of longer yellows with a law mandating one extra second. Since it took effect in January, violations plunged 80 percent and profit dropped to a level that has forced seven cities to cancel their photo enforcement contracts.
The TTI also recognized a 40 percent reduction in collisions from longer yellows and an increase in crashes of between 125 and 225 percent from shorter yellows. St. John foresees the possibility of increased crashes in Billings after the installation of cameras.
“There was some concern about an increase in motor vehicle accidents as a result of motorists slamming on their brakes to stop for a changing light and getting rear ended by the motorist following them,” St. John wrote. “There have been conflicting studies over the increase or decrease of rear end accidents after a photo red light enforcement system is put into use.”
All my experience of Montanans says those red light cameras will succumb to .30 caliber fire within days of installation.
Having spent some time in Bozeman, I’ll totally agree with jet_silver.
Contrary to popular opinion, tho, there are some places in Billings which look almost citified.
If you don’t have a gun, though, a pickup truck (Montanans use big pickups-they need them, they are not for fashion) and a chain can do wonders as well for the scamera.
One thing that bugs me about these red light/traffic cameras is that there seem to be so many outsourced to foreign companies. I understand a city’s lack of either manpower, ability, or just desire to run these programs, but at the very least they should go as local as possible. These programs run by foreign companies mean that if we get a ticket, a foreign company is profiting, and I just have a huge problem with that. There are definitely bigger problems with these programs than that, but it does kind of make me crazy.
The bottom line to the whole thing, IMO, is that if they want to make things safe they should stretch the yellow light. If they still have unsafe intersections, maybe they should take a cop out of Dunkin’ and put his ass on the corner to observe.
Scratch these cities off the must see list.
“Changes in the yellow times after red light camera systems are in place and operational will affect the number of photographed violations, increasing the number of violations when yellow times are shortened and reducing the number of violations when yellow times are lengthened,”
And to think I have been wanting to move to Montana for the last few years(I have a crazy desire to be out in the middle of no where, plus it’s so beautiful out there). I’m seriously going to have to reconsider that now with cops like that.
superbadd75 I totally agree with you and have said the same thing a few times about these red light cameras being farmed out to foreign countries. What is the deal ithlocl and stat governments outsourcing jobs especially during this economy. They could at least keep the scam eeding jobs and profits to Americans. I think we should start outsoucing politicians.
The latest (March 2009) Traffic Signal Timing Handbook is available here:
http://www.ite.org/emodules/scriptcontent/Orders/ProductDetail.cfm?pc=TB-020
1) The published numbers, beginning in 1978, have consistently been shortened to promote increased violations, revenue, and accidents at the expense of safety. The 1978 numbers are the safest and should never have been reduced at the hands of political pressure.
2) Adding one second to the currently published yellow times AND providing a proper-length green time slashes the number of violations to a point ticket revenue falls below the breakeven point. If the camera is providing an income, the citizenry is being exposed to needless costs, personal injury, and property damage. It is really that black-and-white.
3) The book is $62.50, which is far less than a phototicket will cost you. Get one, measure your favorite red light camera against the published numbers, and determine if it is there to make money for the city while trying to get you killed or what.
For our friends in the legislature, here is a comprehensive resource to assist in understanding traffic signal timing:
http://www.ite.org/signal/general.asp
I’m actually surprised about this. I grew up in Idaho, and as gov free as that state’s residents desire to be, Montana is on an entirely different level.
Guess when budgets are tight enough, ideals can just be thrown out the window, eh?
I wouldn’t be surprised if Billings rush to enact this gets thwarted by the state legislature. Wouldn’t be too hard to amend the state law that says no grandfathering allowed, yeah? Boom. Billings has no move and must remove any cameras already installed.
I do recommend these states think long and hard about this. As the other 40 states continue to come up with ways to take their citizens money by any means possible, while continuing to increase the size of their governments, states like Montana, Idaho, Texas, Wyoming, and a few others have a big big big selling point to citizens and businesses fed up with what is going on elsewhere and stand to gain big time. If they start going the same route as everyone else, they lose that distinction.
Redflex is not a private company, it is quoted on the Australian share market, RDF.AX
So, buy their shares and then vote to make them stop doing this.
Then sell your shares.
Good luck with that.
jet_silver :
All my experience of Montanans says those red light cameras will succumb to .30 caliber fire within days of installation.
speedlaw :
Having spent some time in Bozeman, I’ll totally agree with jet_silver…
…If you don’t have a gun, though, a pickup truck (Montanans use big pickups-they need them, they are not for fashion) and a chain can do wonders as well for the scamera.
I suspect that some of the speed/red light cameras may have a second “camera for the camera” installed in a discreet location. Smile, you’re on candid camera!
Breaking the law or busting up city or county property is not the answer.
Term limits are the answer. Maybe we’re just not asking the right question. Or maybe we like our government intrusion just fine thank you. It could go either way here.
I have an idea.
Why doesn’t Bozeman police dept ask the city to make it illegal to interfere with police bullets, and also establish a quota, where each trooper has to shoot one citizen a day at random; old folks, women and children alike, and then the unlucky citizen, dead or alive, has to pay a $1,000 fine for interfering with the bullet?
Just think, $1,000 a day per cop probably pays for the trooper and all his salary and benefits and retirement and healthcare and training and equipment and other overhead and leaves a nice little profit for the city.
Thats what the city is there for, right? To collect revenue and ensure continued employment for those working for the city?
The parts of this that are bad ideas are not stopping them with these cameras and time settings.
I thought of feeding birds at the red light camera near my house in North Texas. Just throw some bird seed out on the ground near it. Doesn’t take much to train a flock of Great-tailed Grackles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great-tailed_Grackle to hang out near the camera and crap all over it.
No need to resort to firearms for red light cameras. Paint ball guns or a raw egg or two are just as effective and no chance of getting busted.
Twotone