Arizona’s Department of Public Safety frequently issues press releases with the boast that it’s running the “first ever” freeway speed camera program in the United States. This, of course, is not true. The state of Illinois began allowing a private company to deploy speed camera vans on freeways in May 2006. The true claim to the title, however, goes to the state of Hawaii. The Aloha state’s speed camera program lasted five months—before intense public pressure sent the camera vans packing.
Arizona’s program shares a great deal in common with the Hawaii experiment. On December 20, 2000 Redflex Traffic Systems announced to its Australian shareholders that it had landed a new contract with Hawaii’s state government that would allow the company to deploy vans on every freeway and state-owned highway on the main islands. As the contract promised $30 million in profit for the private company by 2003, a competitor challenged the bidding process.
Unlike a similar challenge in Arizona, the Redflex bid was overturned and the deal handed over to another Australian company, Poltech (now bankrupt) with back-end processing handled by the company that is now Affiliated Computer Services (ACS). As in Arizona, the Hawaiian press rarely mentioned that the cameras were run by an Australian company.
Hawaii’s legislature authorized the statewide program with no public notice or opportunity to comment. The first public announcement about photo ticketing outside Australia was made on November 21, 2001 kicking off a firestorm of bipartisan opposition on talk radio. As workers began testing and installing equipment through December, they were pelted with garbage, yelled at and greeted with obscene gestures. After the first 4,962 warning citations were issued at the end of the month, the mobile speed camera vehicles became commonly known as “Talivans.”
Tickets were worth $27, plus $5 per MPH over the limit. If the fine was not paid within two weeks, an extra $25 fee was added. Poltech set up cameras on roads with artificially low speed limits to maximize the $29.75 reward payment it received for every ticket the company issued. At first, the cameras only operated on weekdays between 7am and 11pm. Soon, the company put in place a third shift for nearly 24 hour operation. By March, over 10,000 tickets were being issued each month.
Republican state lawmakers were first to break. Some called for “reform” while others called for stopping the program entirely. Judges began dismissing tickets issued for alleged violations of less than 10 MPH over the limit. Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris (D) told state officials he did not want speed cameras on city streets. Fearing a political backlash, the state Senate voted unanimously to pull the plug on the cameras.
Initially, the state House and Governor Ben Cayetano (D) clung to the idea of saving the program. Relentless public pressure drove Cayetano on April 10 to drop his threat to veto legislation and instruct the state department of transportation to cancel the speed camera contract.
“The traffic van cam law is the creation of the legislature, and if they want to now cancel the program it will be canceled,” Cayetano said in a statement.
With that, the first statewide US freeway speed camera program met its end. Despite seeing similar opposition to an identical program, Arizona lawmakers are clinging to the lucrative program. The group Camerafraud.com continues to channel public outrage into a legislative referendum that will permanently ban automated ticketing machines in the state.
Poltech initially claimed the state owed $4.5 million in compensation for early termination of the Hawaii contract. The company reduced its claim to $2.4 million by December 2002 after an independent audit found the company only incurred $1.5 million in actual costs.
Tickets were worth $27, plus $5 per MPH over the limit. If the fine was not paid within two weeks, an extra $25 fee was added. Poltech set up cameras on roads with artificially low speed limits to maximize the $29.75 reward payment it received for every ticket the company issued. At first, the cameras only operated on weekdays between 7am and 11pm. Soon, the company put in place a third shift for nearly 24 hour operation. By March, over 10,000 tickets were being issued each month.
Wow! Goes to show that it is not public safety, but revenue generation. Shocking!
On my route to work, I also drive on a road with a ‘artificially low’ speed limit as traffic flows at 12 to 15 mph higher, right where the city likes to write tickets for.
One of the things these camera COULD do, if people left them in place long enough, is do something about artificially low speed limits.
Today, speed traps are exercises in catching the people who clearly aren’t local. For instance, a colleague of mine got a ticket for 36 in a (underposted) 35 in Westlake Hills, his offense being “Driving While Clearly Being One Of Those Hippies From Austin”. The camera doesn’t make such distinctions.
Arizona has looked at getting out of the Speed Camera contract but has decided that the penalties assessed make it more sensible to let the contract play out (at least that’s the story in the local paper).
There is a big yellow sign a good distance before the camera is deployed as well as another big yellow sign fairly close in front of the camera announcing the presence of said camera. Really, if people can’t see these signs and slow down below 11 mph above the limit then maybe they have an issue.
Psycho-spatial Tricks
The classic under posted speed limit is a wide multi-lane roadway with spacious green areas on both sides and housing set far back.
These expansive settings are innately understood by experienced drivers to be safely traveled at about 40 mph which is how most similar situated roads are regulated.
But alas, these under posted roads are posted at a silly 25 or 30 mph often with a sucker sign of 35 mph a quarter mile before the bait and switch section with cameras.
See, that’s the thing about the Republicans. While they are out of power (like in the Democrat strangehold of HI), they are all for the good governance and are very commendable. But once they get into poower like in Arizona, well, you get the picture. 1994 revolution all over again.
I can also tell you as a resident of Hawaii is that the HiDOT official who was running the program –and was surprisingly sanctimonious and thin-skinned– disappeared along with the photo radar scam.
HiDOT is staffed by a bunch of navel-gazing wusses. Then-Gov. Cayetano had to bully them into raising the speed limit for a stretch of freeway. By a whopping 5 mph!!! They grudgingly obliged, only to reinstate the double-nickel once that short stretch ended.