As the recession continues, more and more motorists have decided to ignore red light camera and speed camera tickets issued by private companies like Redflex Traffic Systems. According to a report issued earlier today by the Australian photo enforcement giant, such non-payment contributed to a significant drop in expected profit for the first half of the fiscal year. Previously reported problems, such as the “expensive failure” of freeway photo radar in Arizona, led to a shareholder revolt last month.

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A number of Texas cities are exploiting short yellow timing at intersections, generating significant additional revenue, according to a review of Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) data by TheNewspaper. The citation issuance rate at the nine intersections with the shortest yellow timing in the state was four times greater than the ticket issuance rate at locations that offered yellow times exceeding statewide averages.
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At least eighty-two motorists in Colorado Springs, Colorado may have been falsely accused of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) based on unreliable blood test results. After double-checking its own work, the city’s Metro Crime Lab on Friday admitted that out of 1000 tests conducted since January, no fewer than eighty-two results were inflated above the driver’s true blood alcohol content. More incorrect readings could be discovered as re-testing continues.
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The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) last month issued an official ruling that found red light camera “violation lines” illegal. A number of jurisdictions across the country paint four-inch wide white lines on the pavement at what is known as the “prolongation” of the cross street’s curb line in order to facilitate the use of automated ticketing machines. These are not the “stop bar” or crosswalk lines that most motorists expect, but a third set of lines that appear at the very edge of the intersection.

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A number of local jurisdictions in California have quietly turned to administrative citations for speeding tickets as a means of circumventing state law. The legislature had set down a very specific set of procedures for issuing and adjudicating traffic violations, including a split of the revenue for each ticket between the state, county, municipality and the court system. Cities like Newman now believe they can cut the state government out of the process.
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Motorists who receive minor parking or traffic tickets in Indianapolis, Indiana are being threatened with fines of up to $2500 if they attempt to take the ticket to court. A local attorney with the firm Roberts and Bishop was so outraged by what he saw in Marion County traffic court that he filed a class action suit yesterday seeking to have the practice banned as unconstitutional.

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Beginning around 4am Friday morning, about 250 speed cameras throughout The Netherlands were gift-wrapped in festive boxes that prevented the devices from issuing automated tickets. The cameras were thus decorated as part of a publicity stunt for the “Go Fast” energy drink with the help of about seventy company employees. Many of those involved dressed either as Saint Nicholas or Zwarte Piet as they went about their work, costumes appropriate for the eve of the feast of St. Nicholas. In a previous stunt, several speed cameras had “Go Fast” advertising stickers placed on them — most of which are still in place. This time, however, police were quickly dispatched to remove the cardboard gift boxes so that ticketing could resume.

In England, vigilantes on Tuesday used a gasoline-soaked tire to burn a speed camera in Leigh at around 11pm. The automated ticketing machine was located on London Road near the Elms pub, The Echo reported. Police have no suspects.

[courtesy:thenewspaper.com]

Red light cameras are shutting down temporarily and permanently in a pair of California cities. Santa Maria’s program has ended for good, thanks to camera vendor American Traffic Solutions (ATS). ATS inherited the Santa Maria account from bankrupt vendor Nestor Traffic Systems in September and has now decided to pull out of the city because it was not earning enough revenue.
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Earlier this year the South Carolina General Assembly enacted a law that will make it even more difficult for red light camera and speed camera vendors to attempt to do business in the state. Under a provision that took effect on April 9, police are authorized to replace traditional handwritten citations with “electronic traffic tickets” designed to speed the roadside ticketing process. These electronic citations, however, cannot be used as part of a photo enforcement system.
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The left-wing activist group known as ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is behind a nationwide effort to hinder motorists with speed bumps, speed traps and other forms of “traffic calming.” According to a strategy memo obtained by Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.Com, the group took up smaller community issues such as traffic as a “quick hit campaign” to harass local government until it conceded to the group’s demands.

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Accidents rose after the installation of a red light camera at one major intersection in Baytown, Texas. The private company American Traffic Solutions began issuing automated tickets at the intersection of Garth and Baker Roads on March 21, 2008. Since then, safety has not improved at the controversial camera location.

According to a brochure published by the city, “red light safety cameras” were installed because, “There have been more than 1,000,000 accidents and more than 1000 deaths attributed to red light runners that occur each year in the United States.” Presumably, the cameras are meant to reduce the number of collisions and deaths at Baytown intersections.

This has not happened according to accident reports from all three monitored approaches of the Garth and Baker intersection from eighteen months before the installation of cameras compared to the same period afterward. Instead, the total number of collisions grew by 11 percent. Although proponents of cameras frequently suggest that the increase in rear end collisions (31 percent in this case) is offset by the reduction in “more serious” collisions, the data show, to the contrary, that there was no reduction at all in the number of serious injury accidents.

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Traffic camera companies operating in Arizona may be committing a crime by operating without a private investigator’s license, a newly released memorandum to the state legislature explained. The non-partisan Arizona Legislative Council, the legislature’s official source for drafting and reviewing legislation, looked at the licensing question on behalf of state Representative Sam Crump (R-Anthem).

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A judge yesterday forced the settlement of a traffic camera company-backed lawsuit with the city of College Station, Texas over the public’s November 3 vote to ban red light cameras. Although terms of the deal have not been released, the city council voted 4-0 on November 11 to abide by the results of the election, leaving American Traffic Solutions (ATS) with no hope of continuing its ticketing program without a costly legal battle.
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Angry shareholders yesterday ousted the chairman of the board of a major traffic camera company and two of his closest allies. Redflex Chairman Chris Cooper and Directors Peter Lewinsky and Roger Sawley resigned to avoid an embarrassing vote after learning that a majority of shareholder proxies expressed no confidence in their continued leadership. The internal revolt followed closely upon the revolt of Ohio voters in the cities of Chillicothe and Heath.

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Vigilantes set fire to a speed camera in Dorset, UK at around 2am on Thursday. The automated ticketing machine had been operating in the Longham area of Ringwood Road until a burning tire put the device out of commission. This is the fourth attack in the area since August when vigilantes also eliminated cameras on Magna Road in Bearwood, Ringwood Road in Verwood and Horton Road in Three Legged Cross. Cameras were also destroyed in 2006. “The cameras also cost a lot,” Ferndown Mayor Queenie Comfort told the Bournemouth Echo newspaper. “When you set tires on fire they make a most ghastly smell and they are toxic.”

Source: Longham speed camera torched by vandals (Bournemouth Echo (UK), 11/13/2009)

[courtesy thenewspaper.com]