Following San Jose, California’s recent decision to reject red light cameras, the Los Angeles suburb of El Monte has decided to put an end to photo ticketing after five years. By a unanimous vote, the city council declined to renew its contract with Australian camera vendor Redflex. According to police, the cameras failed to produce any reduction in the number of intersection accidents. More importantly, however, the devices failed to produce revenue. “We’re spending a lot of staff time on this just to gain $2000 a month,” City Manager James W. Mussenden explained. “It doesn’t reduce accidents — that’s what our studies and results have come back.” Data obtained by highwayrobbery.net suggest the loss in revenue could be related to changes in intersection signal timing. On April 12, 2004 the city increased the yellow warning time to 3.5 seconds for the left turn movements at the intersection of Peck Road and Ramona Boulevard. The results were immediately felt. In March 2004, before the increase, Redflex mailed 665 tickets. In May, the first full month after the increase, citations dropped to 265. This small engineering improvement cut the photo enforcement system’s total profit by $1.4 million.
Category: Crime & Punishment
Virginia’s second-largest county yesterday fired the first shot in what is likely to be an ongoing war over a state plan to toll existing lanes on an interstate freeway. The Prince William County Board of Supervisors voted 7 – 0 (with one abstention) to approve an ordinance demanding that the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) answer a series of tough questions regarding its proposed transfer of the Interstate 95/395 High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes to Transurban. The ordinance reflected the board’s concern with the length of the contract (80 years) and the possibility that Virginia taxpayers may have to provide a financial “bailout” for the Australian tolling company– should the HOT lane concept not perform as promised. Chairman Stewart pointed to the warning of Fitch Ratings, which downgraded its assessment of the credit risks associated with tolling to “negative.” Stewart compared Transurban to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac…
So far, a total of $2m has been generated by a $1 fee assessed to Harris County motorists accused of not paying a toll. (The fee is part of the $34 fine levied for each alleged instance of toll skipping. Most pay the fine even if they have been wrongly accused due to faulty equipment.) State lawmakers intended the $1 fee to cover the administrative expenses of the county attorney for handling the fines. A KTRK investigation revealed that Harris County Attorney Mike Stafford used the fund to throw a Christmas party at Pizzinis, an Italian restaurant, at a cost of $5625. (His office spent a total of $17k in motorist fees on Italian food in a single year.) Another $100k paid for bonuses to employees who already make as much as $225k a year. Stafford also used $196k from the tolling fund to ensure his staff could always park in county lots for free. The toll road fund paid for $122,599 for office remodeling expenses under a no-bid contract with Hermes Commercial Contractors. (Leroy Hermes is Stafford’s campaign committee chairman.)
Reuters reports that Mercedes COO Rainer Schmueckle says his company is in a “full blown sales crisis.” In other words, he’s checking his pension plan and prepping his people for a big ass round of layoffs. “While it [Mercedes] has not yet discussed reduced working hours, it has already cut the number of temporary workers. As of the end of June, Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz Cars division that also includes its Smart badge of microcars employed a staff of 98,000 worldwide.” And as that’s about it for this one, how about a tidbit from the world of Mercedes onership, via Kenya’s The Standard? “Police have questioned High Court Judge GBM Kariuki over the stabbing of a motorist after a minor road accident in the city… Police said Justice Kariuki and Kamau were driving from opposite directions on Lower Kabete Road at about 8pm on Saturday when their vehicles were involved in a minor accident. The judge, who was driving his official Mercedes Benz car, was alone at the time of the incident, while Kamau had two passengers in his Toyota Corolla vehicle… The judge seemed disturbed when journalists arrived at the police stations to take his pictures. At one point, he shouted at them, saying they were free to ‘take even his buttocks.'” And do what with them, precisely?
Last week, vigilantes set fire to a Cumbria, UK speed camera. The was device located on the A590 near Witherslack in the seaside resort town of Grange-over-Sands. The attack “only” wreaked an estimated £3000 ($5200) in damage on the revenue collection safety device. Meanwhile, back In Montgomery County, Maryland, vigilantes continue to protest the use of speed cameras by writing “SCAM” in large white lettering on the street just ahead of the lucrative devices. The cameras themselves are unaffected and continue to generate revenue. At least three sites have now been targeted, with the messages “GOV. SCAM” and “GREEDY SCAM.” Photos come courtesy a local activist website that does not endorse the protest tactic. “StopBigBrotherMD believes that those who feel that speed cameras are a scam should instead use legal means of expressing their frustration,” the site’s editor wrote. “That would include writing letters to the editor, writing to your state legislature, or challenging citations in court.”
I give up. There are so many top ten car lists, and they’re arriving at such a frentic pace, that I couldn’t even assemble a top ten top ten car list. Of course, TTAC’s “Ten Worst” awards– coming to a monitor near you soon– would make the grade. As would Wreckedexotics.com’s “10 Most Expensive Crashes Ever.” I love wreckedexotics (WE) in general, especially now that they’ve eliminated some of the most ridiculous pop-up ads since Lexus’ 3D RX RX. As the former owner of a fully restored XK150 that wiped out a small English village, and a Ferrari F355 that punted a Honda CBR1000 into the middle of a roundabout, I believe that any website that shows that there’s a downside to owning expensive cars should be encouraged and supported. And then, of course, there’s the whole schaudenfrade thing. (You know, class warfare for pistonheads.) Anyway, while I think the title of this hit parade is slightly misleading– it’s more accurately described as the “10 Most Expensive Cars That Have Crashed”– please click over to wreckedexotics for ALL the pics and the proprietor’s comments. Meanwhile, here’s my take.
Vigilantes painted “SCAM” on the pavement in large, white letters near a speed camera in Potomac, Maryland. The sign serves as a warning to approaching drivers that the automated ticketing machine on the side of River Road is active. WUSA television used a helicopter to capture a unique perspective on the warning. Montgomery County jurisdictions are notorious for issuing as many speed citations as possible using ticket quotas, even though the practice is banned under state law. The county program generated $7.2m worth of tickets last year. The village of Chevy Chase used cameras to nearly double its entire budget, spending a significant amount that was promised for “public safety” instead on “beautification improvements.” The latest incident marks an increase in the number of anti-camera incidents in the US. Just two months ago, vigilantes struck four speed cameras in Gaithersburg.
On April 21, Keith Jones, a driver living in Epsom, Surrey watched a BBC News clip intended to showcase the terrible consequences of speeding. The video included footage taken from a safety camera van on a bridge overpass in Norfolk. “The first part contained the usual dire warnings about the danger of speeding,” Jones recalled. “Later in the sequence actual videos made by the speed camera van were shown. This included one video of a driver braking so hard on seeing the speed trap that he lost control and spun out all over the three lanes of the road. After some violent fishtailing the car eventually collided with the central reservation and lost a wheel.” Jones petitioned the BBC to release it. Auntie Beeb refused. Jones then asked the Norfolk Safety Camera Partnership for a copy of the raw camera footage. It refused. Jones petitioned the UK Information Commissioner to force the video’s release. The government quango ruled that “journalistic content” is exempt from freedom of information laws. The Association of British Drivers (ABD) joined Jones’ crusade, calling on the BBC to provide license payers with the video. “It would seem that the BBC is not interested in presenting facts… unless they have first been approved by the powers that be,” ABD Chairman Brian Gregory complained. “This is the kind of censorship that the BBC reports to exist in Russia, yet here we have indications of the same censorship in Britain. We call upon the BBC to re-instate this video without delay.” Meanwhile, Jones decided to recreate the incident in a humorous animation, presented here.
In March 2007, Florida firefighter Christopher M. Baird started getting traffic citations, after the E-PASS toll transponder in his wife’s SUV failed. Although Baird had kept his address properly updated with the Department of Motor Vehicles, officials mailed a stack of sixteen tickets to the wrong location. Baird first learned of the problem while trying to renew his car registration. Despite the lack of proper notice, he was given no chance to be heard on the matter. Instead, Baird was forced to pay $1448 in fines to renew his vehicle registration and was hit with 48 points against his driving license, resulting in an immediate suspension. In April, Circuit Judge John Galluzzo found the actions of toll road officials “outrageous.” He ordered Baird’s money refunded and license reinstated, and extended his ruling to all toll violation tickets issued to motorists in Seminole and Brevard counties– as long as they held a valid toll transponder account. And then…
The Columbus Dispatch reports that Madison Township, Ohio police have issued officer Ken Braden a written reprimanded for failing to write enough traffic tickets. Officer Braden only wrote 85 tickets last year. His most prolific fellow officer wrote 388. And here’s the kicker: Braden’s tied the record for the most criminal arrests. Police Chief Greg Ryan couldn’t give a shit [paraphrasing]. “He gets paid as much as the other officers,” Ryan told the Dispatch. “He should do as much work as the other officers.” According to Chief Ryan, in 2006, his twelve patrol officers wrote 1935 tickets and seized 194 cars (selling 41 of them for profit). And no small part of that “success” is due to Chief Ryan’s 2005 written mandate: “Effective immediately, all uniformed patrol officers are expected, as a minimum level of self-initiated activity, to issue one traffic citation, one traffic warning, and complete five park & walk business checks/residential vacation checks each shift worked,” Ryan’s memorandum stated. The local Fraternal Order of Police union is defending Braden in a complaint against the department. [click here for the full report from thenewspaper.com]
Activists in Scottsdale, Arizona trained their own telephoto lenses on a speed camera operator at around 5pm in the afternoon on Thursday. Members of the group Camerafraud.com wanted to give the public a rare glimpse inside an active speed trap– the same view that the photo radar van’s own photographic equipment has while peering through the windows of passing vehicles. “If only there were some sort of law preventing high-powered cameras from taking photographs of unsuspecting people inside their vehicles,” the group wrote on its website. Although Scottsdale’s speed camera vans bear the markings of police vehicles, they are owned and operated by American Traffic Solutions (ATS). A paid ATS employee, Daniel P. Coon in this case, is responsible for driving the vehicle to ticketing locations and ensuring the vehicle is not vandalized. The group’s photographs showed Coon at a laptop adjusting the Axsis software that powers the lucrative enforcement program. The screen also showed that drivers at the East Chaparral Boulevard location had slammed on their brakes while passing the van, slowing to an average of just 18 MPH to avoid receiving a citation. After noticing the photographer, Coon quickly blocked the van’s windows to protect his privacy.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reveals that the city issued thousands of red light tickets in error. A total of 4390 motorists will receive a refund, for a total of $439k. The error came to light in the case of Mike Kochkodin; the 59-year-old motorist received a ticket on March 17 for allegedly entering an intersection two-tenths of a second after the light turned red. Last month, a Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA) adjudicator summarily dismissed Kochkodin’s case, noting that the city had promised not to take photos until a third of a second had elapsed. “We did not know the magnitude of the problem, nor did the contractor report it,” PPA Executive Director Vince Fenerty told the Inquirer. “Should we have looked further? Most definitely. We didn’t.” Fenerty suggested the error was caused by the February switch from cameras that use 35mm film to fully digital camera technology. Philadelphia seems unaware of its own ordinance, which bans the use of digital technology. “Photographs collected as part of the automated red light enforcement system must be 35-millimeter film only, must only record traffic violations and may not be used for any other surveillance purposes,” Philadelphia Code 12-3012 states. The provision was initially authored by state lawmakers as a means of ensuring the lucrative contract landed with campaign donor Affiliated Computer Services (ACS). Once the provision was publicized, however, PPA selected a less controversial vendor. Between April 1, 2007 and March 31, 2008, the system issued 89,156 tickets worth $8,915,600 at just ten intersections. ATS banked $2,835,952, while ACS took $134,232 for collection services. [click here for the full story from thenewspaper.com]
Australia’s Redflex Traffic Systems announced today that they’ve been approached by unnamed buyers. The offers follow last month’s announcement that Goldman Sachs had acquired a minority stake in photo ticketing rival American Traffic Solutions (ATS). It also follows a 43 percent increase in traffic ticket revenue from the United States; the total number of ticket cameras soared from 877 to 1267. As home values continue to decline, property tax income likewise falls off; leaving cities and counties struggling to find money to fund expensive new social programs. Redflex offers “turnkey” red light camera and speed camera solutions (view a sample presentation). With no effort or cost exposure, many government officials see nothing to lose by signing up to allow either Redflex or ATS to issue tickets on its behalf. It’s afterwards, when the public objects, that common sense prevails. Meanwhile and in any case, Redflex’s suitors know it’s a growth industry. [click here for the full story from thenewspaper.com]
After a series of trials, the British Home Office is set to approve the SPECS3 “distance over time speed measuring device.” SPECS3 uses an ISDN connection to transmit data between any two cameras in the entire road network, without the need for the expensive dedicated connection. The system can also track drivers as they change lanes and as they switch between different roads and highways. The Transport and Climate Change commission estimated that new cameras could monitor every driver on 31,136 miles of principal rural and urban roads for £443,687,656 ($769,693,415). Chicken feed. The commission noted that “enforcing the 70 MPH limit using SPECS would pay for itself within around two years.” (Between 2000 and 2005, a single camera in Nottinghamshire generated 76k tickets worth £4.2m/$7.2m). Once established nationwide, a central government Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) server will store records on all vehicle movements for five years. Work on the data center in north London began in 2005; officials expect real-time, nationwide tracking capability by January. [click here for the full story from thenewspaper.com]
If there’s a product recall that illustrates a particularly important point– like the GM hot fluid windshield wiper story (I’m getting to it)– TTAC will cover it. Otherwise, no; if we didn’t cover all recalls, it would look like we were picking-on a particular manufacturer– and we can’t have that now can we? But this recall story from mylemon.com works for me because, well, it’s someone else’s blog. AND it fits into a genre that normally annoys the pee out of me, that helps lift TTAC’s numbers every year (i.e. our forthcoming Ten Worst awards). AND it makes me wonder how a lawyer who runs a site called mylemon.com can drive anything other than a lemon. AND the story lets me play around with this gallery thing, which is also annoying the pee out of me right now. So, here are David J. Gorberg & Associates’ rogue’s gallery, for which the Lord should make him truly grateful.
Recent Comments