The city of Ventura, California escaped paying an Australian red light camera contractor more than $1.7 million as of last June by exercising a questionable contract provision. Under state law, municipalities are required to pay a single flat-rate fee to the private companies that own and operate automated ticketing machines. Ventura claims that it does not owe any money at all because, on May 22, 2006, it signed a contract with Redflex with a “cost-neutrality” clause. “In order to ensure cost neutrality to the customer, customer will only be obligated to pay Redflex from the gross cash receipts received from Ventura County after first deducting customer operating costs,” the contract states. “Cost neutrality is assured to the customer using this methodology as the customer will never pay Redflex more than the actual cash received from Ventura County after deducting customer operating costs.”
Category: Crime & Punishment
A Rocky Mountain News investigation reveals that Denver city officials and police made no effort whatsoever to track the performance of their public safety program (a.k.a. red light cameras) beyond counting the 11,200 tickets worth $840,000 that had been issued between June and November. Redflex Traffic Systems, the Australian company that operates the automated ticketing machines at four intersections in return for a cut of the profits, did not submit a single report to the city regarding maintenance or calibration of the cameras, despite being required to do so by contract. The city only requested these documents after the Rocky Mountain News made an inquiry to follow up on the program’s performance. Doh! Another interesting discovery: increasing the duration of the yellow signals has had a greater safety impact than the use of red light cameras in Denver, Colorado. That’s the conclusion of a
Yes, it’s that time again. Time for the Paris – Dakar Rally (a.k.a. “the most dangerous race in the world”), where large trucks, cars and motorcycles drive as fast they possibly can across the African continent. Oops. Sorry. It’s the Dakar rally now, ’cause it’s taking place in South America, even though Dakar (Senegal) is, you know, in Africa. Last year, the race was cancelled due to “terrorist threats.” The fact that the race features a bunch of Europeans tear-assing across open territory– occasionally mowing down innocent bystanders (called “spectators” by race organizers)– might have a little something to do with it. About.com glibly reports that “A total of 48 deaths among competitors have been recorded since the rally began. Spectators have also been injured and killed either by competitors or their support vehicles.” In any case, the South American version has claimed its first victim: French motorcyclist Pascal Terry. The Canberra Times reports: “”Officially the result of the autopsy revealed that the French pilot Terry died of pulmonary edema… which produced cardio-respiratory failure,” Julio Acosta, chief of the department of operations of the La Pampa province police, said.” No word– yet– on any “spectator” ksi’s.
As the city of Fairfax prepares next week to become the first in Virginia to resume the use of red light cameras, the history of a county intersection offers an important lesson regarding the area’s first experiment with photo ticketing. Of the thirteen intersections where red light cameras were used in Fairfax County, only the intersection Route 50/Lee-Jackson Highway and Fair Ridge Drive reported a significant accident reduction, according to figures provided in a 2007 report by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) (see page 75). It is also a location where the length of the yellow signal was both shortened and lengthened, providing a rare glimpse into the real world effects of each change.
I’ve been watching the Hispanic-flavored “Operation Repo” series on truTV. All I can say is, man, obesity sucks. And if you need proof that carmakers have been selling too much car to too little brain, here it is. (Sweet G37 BTW.) For months, I’ve been telling my MSM contacts that repos are so bad that the collection agencies can’t keep up. In some cases, banks are not calling the repo man– to avoid the cost of recycling the cars and taking the hit to their bottom line. In other words, the headline figure above– representing a mere 12 percent rise of repos over 2007’s stat– could well be the tip of the iceberg. Tom Webb disagrees. Speaking with Automotive News [sub], the economist for auction giant Manheim says the worst is over. “[Repos] will certainly be up in first half of this year, and with the labor market deteriorating so substantially, it might be up quite a bit and might offset the decline I expect in the second half of the year. We won’t have a 12 percent increase, but I would expect something in terms of less than a 5 percent increase.” So “only” 1,753,500 repos for ’09, then. Even if that’s true, with new vehicles flooding the market, and used vehicles flooding the market, and repo vehicles flooding the market, prices are headed down. And if prices are headed down, residuals are in the crapper. And if everyone’s backwards on their existing loans, they’re not going to trade in for a new vehicle. You see where this is going? Nowhere.
Mercedes failed to meet US-market CAFE standards in 2008 and paid a $28.9m fine in December for it, reports the Freep. VW also paid the NHTSA a fine of $4.5m in August for light truck violations, while Porsche paid $1.2m and Ferrari coughed up a $1.1m to flout CAFE through 2008. But the Mercedes fine, which came to light in a recently-released NHTSA document, is the second largest in CAFE history. DaimlerChrysler AG remains the king of CAFE failure, having paid a record $30.3m in eco-indulgences for its 2006 imported product line. Which consisted primarily of of Mercedes models. Is it any wonder then that, as Bertel noted just a few days ago, Daimler is catching the hybrid fever?
When is buying a used car from an established new car dealer actually the receipt of stolen property? When the dealer didn’t pay off the previous owner’s loan. The New York Times has tales of the woe car buyers are facing thanks to now-shuttered houses of ill-repute. Vacaville Ford, for example, sold Diana Foley a used 2006 Lincoln Town Car taken in on trade. Ms. Foley was probably feeling smart for saving herself the massive initial depreciation on a Town Car. Lttle did she know that Vacaville Ford never paid off the prior owner’s loan balance and didn’t own the car it sold her. Now Diana has a car in her driveway she can’t register and doesn’t really own; the prior owner of the Town Car still owes money on a car they don’t have anymore and Vacaville Ford is boarded-up. “David Paulson, the Solano County district attorney, is prosecuting Vacaville Ford-Mercury for similar fraud involving an as-yet-undetermined number of consumers.” Thousands of miles away, the attorney general’s office in Arkansas has sued McKay Hyundai of Pine Bluff on “charges that the dealership violated consumer protection laws by not paying off loans or by selling nonexistent extended warranties to at least 40 people.”
If it sounds too good to be true, it’s on the internet. While there may be some benefit to the services offered by parkingticket.com, imaking paying/fighting a New York City parking ticket easier (and charging a fee for it) is a far cry from saying that you’re going to pay people to stick it to The Man. Why in God’s name would anyone do that– unless they were told by their neighbor’s dog that traffic wardens are the anti-Christ? (And we all know how that turned out.) Needless to say, the press release making this bold claim is utterly silent on this issue, saying only that “‘The City has hired 793 new ticket agents but the public doesn’t have the time to fight every unfair ticket. Because we want them to fight every unfair ticket and to make sure it’s worth people’s time we are going to pay them,’ says Glen Bolofsky, President of parkingticket.com.” So, over to the website and on to the fine print. “Parkingticket.com agrees to guarantee that Customer’s parking ticket will be dismissed or reduced and Customer agrees to pay a fee to parkingticket.com, hereinafter known as the Guaranteed Dismissal Fee, equal to half the price of the savings, which is equal to the original parking ticket base fine plus any accrued penalties, fines, interest or related charges.” So I’m thinking that, in this case, “getting paid” means a discount on the standard fee. [Subject to more fine print after the jump.] Memo to Glen: plenty of people were born on a Tuesday, but the ones that were born last Tuesday aren’t old enough to get a New York City parking ticket. Yet.
The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit yesterday issued a ruling in defense of the lucrative red light camera program in Chicago, Illinois. Mayor Richard Daley (D) has made it clear that expansion of the existing 136 cameras, which so far have generated $110 million, is designed to increase the number of citations issued and close a gap in the 2009 budget. The three-judge federal court panel found this to be a good reason to install cameras. “A system of photographic evidence reduces the costs of law enforcement and increases the proportion of all traffic offenses detected; these benefits can be achieved only if the owner is held responsible,” Chief Judge Frank H. Easterbrook wrote for the unanimous panel. “That the city’s system raises revenue does not condemn it.”
Unintentionally, obviously. As in the Ford employees are on the clock and off gallivanting around at the same time. Anyway, watching this Rescue4 (WDIV) TV investigation, you can almost hear the station’s Program Director. “Jesus Christ! Jesus H. Christ! You can’t air that! Union bosses getting paid for working while they’re, what, getting haircuts and shopping for booze? Oh wait. This IS good. Hmmm. OK. Kiss their ass. Ford, I mean. A lot. Talk about the turnaround. What’s that electronic thing called? Stink? Slinky? Whatever. And make sure you say that most Ford workers don’t do this. Get the Harbour report guy. THEN screw ’em. Hehehehe.” The screwees in question: “six-figure” union chairman Jim Modzalewski and “union security rep” Ron Seroka. If you think this is an isolated incident, chances are you’re too good for this world.
From Auto Letters by Jim Mateja in the Chicago Tribune: Q I purchased a new 2009 Chrysler 300 SRT8 a few weeks ago from dealer stock. The rear license plate was on, but the front wasn’t. The plate bracket was in the trunk, but I was told that nobody was available to install the front plate. I was told not to worry because I wouldn’t get pulled over and it looks better without the plate. If I wanted, I could bring the car back to get the plate installed. When I got home, I looked at the bracket to see whether I could install it and found that Chrysler changed the grille on the 2009 300 SRT8. The directions show the bracket is made to attach to the old grille. The parts department said the bracket is the correct one for my vehicle. I took the car back to dealer, and they agreed it couldn’t be installed, but there was nothing they could do. They said I should display the license plate on my dashboard. How can Chrysler produce a car that doesn’t and can’t conform to the state law, which requires a front plate? A How could a dealer tell you not to worry and that you wouldn’t get stopped for driving without a front plate that’s required by law in Illinois? And how could a dealer tell you to display the plate on your dash when all it takes to attach the bracket is cutting it to fit the mesh grille that replaced the egg-crate grille for 2009? ‘It just takes a little initiative by the dealer,’ Al Wagener, a salesman at Knauz Chrysler in Lake Bluff, told us when we called to ask how Chrysler could have goofed.”
And here’s the kicker: the French Interior Ministry described the night as “rather calm and without major incident.” Dow Jones [via NASDAQ] gives us the exact stats: “The interior ministry had earlier said 445 vehicles were set on fire overnight, but later revised that figure to 1,147. The number of arrests and cars torched topped last year’s tally of 259 people detained and 372 vehicles burned.” So, uh how could that possibly be construed as a calm? It all depends whose car is set alight. “‘There were very few targetings of fire trucks and clashes with security forces, in particular in the suburbs,’ noted the interior ministry in a statement. When clashes occurred, they were ‘brief and sporadic,’ it added. There was no damage to buildings.” Oh, that’s alright then. And how did the Parisians authorities accomplish this little feat? “France mobilized 35,000 police and 50,000 firefighters to maintain order during the New Year fete.”
Accidents more than doubled at the Houston, Texas intersections where red light cameras are installed, according to a study released Monday by Rice University and the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI). This result posed a dilemma for TTI and the city of Houston which had requested the study. Houston Mayor Bill White was furious when he saw the report’s draft text in August. He banned the document from publication and ordered a re-writing of the text that would reflect a more positive result. To accomplish this task, White was able to turn to the study’s primary author, Rice University Urban Politics Professor Robert Stein. Stein’s wife, Marty, is employed by the city of Houston as a top aide to the mayor. Stein’s newly revised report now concludes that “red light cameras are mitigating a general, more severe increase in collisions.”
The Mercury News‘ police blotter reports that “Twenty-two new cars parked at a Honda dealership in Redwood City were keyed over the Christmas holiday.” The attack has the hallmarks of the previous assault on innocent Audis. “A similar case occurred earlier this month at an Audi dealership in Concord, where employees discovered Dec. 13 that nearly 100 cars had been keyed overnight, police said.” The anti-Ingolstadt vandalism racked-up a reported $800k worth of damage. The Honda assault will hit-up the Honda dealer’s insurance company for something between $20k and $30k. An anti-import backlash or just plain nasty? “Redwood City police Detective Cochran said he is not aware of any connection between the two cases.” [thanks to Herr Schmitt for the link]
The UK Department for Transport (DfT) is preparing to give police the authority to issue instant fines to motorists accused of making simple, careless mistakes while driving. Under the proposal, police would ticket the alleged crime at £60 (US $90), bypassing expensive court hearings for a majority of cases. The new on-the-spot penalty is designed to increase the number of annual convictions to 30,480, resulting in more than £1.8 million in additional revenue (US $2.7 million).
The extra fines are specifically targeted at drivers with a good record who may have been caught making a simple mistake. Under UK law, “careless driving” represents a non-specific, catch-all category of traffic crime as distinct from specific offenses such as driving while talking on a cell phone, neglecting to wear a seatbelt or speeding. The fixed penalty would apply to anyone “driving in a way that falls below what would be expected of a competent and careful driver.” Although this fine could be challenged in court, doing so risks the imposition of court costs of up to £2000 if the magistrate rejects the not guilty defense.
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