The left-leaning US Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG) has issued a report entitled “Private Roads, Public Costs” that questions the benefits of using private tolls to construct or maintain roads. The report examined all fifteen completed road privatization projects in the US along with 79 known proposals nationwide. “Though these privatization deals seem to offer state officials a ‘quick fix,’ they often pose long-term threats to the public interest,” the report found. “The economics of these deals are such that the upfront concession payments are unlikely to match the long-term value of the higher tolls that will be paid by future generations and not collected for public uses.”
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.
The mayor of Duncanville, Texas had a member of the city council arrested last Tuesday for speaking out against the use of red light cameras during an official meeting. The incident took place during the discussion of whether the city should spend $59,000 to make street repairs. Mayor David Green recognized Councilman Paul Ford to speak on the contract item. “Thank you,” Ford said. “I want to let you know that earlier this evening during briefing, Mayor Green threatened me that if he told me to stop talking and I didn’t, he’d have me arrested, and I want to let you know what I told Mayor Green.” Green became outraged and shouted, “Mr Ford, you are out of order. You are not recognized Mr Ford. You need to cease right now.” While Green yelled, Ford continued his brief statement without stopping. . .
The Maryland General Assembly yesterday gave final approval to a measure that will expand the use of speed cameras to every part of the state, allowing cameras on high-volume freeways for the first time. Lawmakers in Annapolis, at the urging of Governor Martin O’Malley (D), saw the measure as an essential means of reining in the state’s run-away budget deficit. Traffic camera vendors also helped promote the effort with lavish gifts, parties and campaign donations. The new legislation specifically authorizes the use of speed cameras anywhere in the state up to one-half a mile away from a school zone. School zone cameras can operate as late as 8pm and ticket motorists regardless of whether school is in session.
A review of preliminary collision data supplied by the city of Corpus Christi, Texas shows that the installation of red light cameras has done nothing to improve safety. Overall, the accident situation worsened at photo-enforced intersections at a time when decreased traffic levels have brought accident rates nationwide to an all-time low. The total number of accidents in Corpus Christi increased 14 percent, from 310 incidents to 353, at nine locations where automated ticketing machines were stationed. Contrary to the claim that red light cameras reduce the severity of collisions, the number of accidents involving injuries increased 28 percent from 140 to 179. Rear end collisions also increased by nearly a third from 160 to 208.
As budget deficits continue to soar at all levels of New York government, the state legislature on Tuesday approved a package of bills to provide relief through the use of red light cameras. The package of six bills extends new authority to use red light cameras to Buffalo, Nassau County, Rochester, Suffolk County and Yonkers. The legislature also gave the nod to New York City’s long-held desire to increase by half the number of automated ticketing machines already installed.
Following a ruling by the Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia, a 27-year-old will have a chance to shut down the A$4.8 billion Airport Link toll road next Tuesday. The BrisConnections toll project, built upon highly leveraged shareholder debt, fell apart as the credit crisis hit and the share price plunged to just A$.001. This allowed a young Internet entrepreneur, Nicholas Bolton, to snap up 73,100,993 shares representing eighteen percent of the company with an initial investment of just A$47,923. That cheap initial purchase price, however, came with a catch. The BrisConnections stock is a “partly paid security” that requires a A$1 per-share payment on April 29, 2009, and a second A$1 payment on January 29, 2010, for the shares to become fully paid.
Another Georgia red light camera program has fallen thanks to a state-mandated extension in the duration of the yellow warning period at monitored intersections. Members of the Dalton City Council yesterday voted unanimously to cancel its contract with the UK-owned photo ticketing firm LaserCraft Inc. which has been operating the traffic cameras on a month-to-month basis since May. “Thus far it appears the increase in yellow time has resulted in a significant decrease in violations,” Dalton Police Chief Jason Parker told the city council yesterday.
The city of Winnipeg, Canada, has shortened the duration of the yellow warning at intersections equipped with red light cameras. The length of the yellow is the single most important factor in determining the financial success of a photo enforcement program, according to documents obtained from a red light camera vendor in 2001. The city’s signal changes came to light after a 64-year-old grandmother named Judy received a ticket in the mail claiming her minivan had run a red light on August 31, 2008. She contacted Larry Stefanuik, a former police constable who now helps motorists fight traffic tickets who began looking into the ticket. Judy’s ticket shows the intersection had been set with a 3.9 second yellow and that she entered the intersection—slowly—just 0.1 seconds after the light turned red.
The Montana state Senate yesterday gave preliminary approval to House Bill 351: legislation that would ban the installation of red light cameras. The Senate voted 37 – 13 in support of the bill, which faces one more vote before the modified legislation heads back to the state House for consent. The state House originally approved a total ban on red light cameras by a 65-35 margin (view bill). State Senator John Brueggeman (R-Polson) changed the House text to water down the bill with a special exemption for Bozeman, Darby and any other city that inks a contract with a private contractor to run a ticketing program in return for a cut of the profit before the legislation becomes law.
A Georgia state lawmaker wants to know the best way to force local jurisdictions to obey a new law governing photo enforcement systems. House Resolution 774, sponsored by state Representative Barry Loudermilk (R-Cassville), would create the “House Study Committee on Compliance by Local Governments with the Red Light Camera Law” in response to evidence that cities are operating automated ticketing programs without complying with Georgia Code 40-14-22. This legal provision, which took effect January 1, mandates a one-second extension of the duration of the yellow warning phase at red light camera intersections. As TheNewspaper first reported earlier this month, several jurisdictions are openly flouting the law.
While officials in Europe and the United States insist that “the camera never lies,” motorists around the world are receiving automated tickets for crimes that they did not commit. In Liverpool, England, for example, a speed camera accused the Fiat Punto belonging to Emily Davies, 19, of hurtling down Edge Lane Drive at 37 MPH on March 10 at precisely 10:22pm, exceeding the road’s 30 MPH limit. Confused, Davies asked to see the photograph of her alleged offense. The Merseyside Speed Camera Partnership, hoping she would just pay the £60 (US $87) fine, insisted she would have to go to court to see it. Upon later review, the photograph showed the Ford parked outside the Davies family home, which is located in view of a speed camera. Although Merseyside officials eventually apologized, Davies first had to go through quite a bit of hassle.
A Fairfax County, Virginia General District Court judge earlier this month backed away from driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) charges filed against a motorist after a defense attorney cast doubt on the accuracy of the county’s breath testing machines. Police and courts often entrust machines like the ten-year-old Intoxilyzer 5000 with the authority to exonerate or convict a motorist of serious charges that carry significant monetary penalties, loss of license and jail time. Richmond DUI attorney Bob Battle found that this particular machine, which is being phased out in Virginia, has a significant weakness.
The Minnesota state trooper who rammed a slow-moving minivan on New Year’s Eve was given a slap on the wrist Wednesday. A written reprimand was placed in the personnel folder of Sergeant Carrie Rindal, mildly criticizing her for twice slamming her patrol car into the Toyota Sienna minivan belonging to Sam Salter, 40, who had been driving his two-, three- and six-year-old children home to Hudson, Wisconsin, just before midnight on Interstate 94 in St. Paul.
Facing increased budgetary pressure, the New Mexico state Legislature this week adopted legislation that will increase the cost of red light camera fines by a third, adding millions in extra revenue to state coffers. State Senator Michael S. Sanchez (D-Belen) introduced Senate Bill 519 to extend revenue sharing provisions that previously only applied to the city of Albuquerque to other New Mexico cities. The measure passed unanimously in the state Senate and by a vote of 64-1 in the House.
“Essentially, the increase in fees mostly offsets the new distribution formula in which Albuquerque retains 50 percent of the net receipts,” the Legislative Finance Committee’s fiscal analysis of Senate Bill 519 explained. “The increase of fees from $75 to $100 would yield an approximate annual increase in receipts of $2.3 million to $9.2 million, assuming a similar pattern of traffic violations.”
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