According to King5, cameras set up to catch "red-light runners" in Puyallup, WA, are working quite well. "Perhaps a little too well," says city manager Gary McLean. Even though each camera-equipped intersection has warning signs, McLean says the number of drivers caught by the cameras has been a revelation. "I think everyone's been surprised at the number of people getting the warning notices." After the cameras went into operation on March 1st, more than 2.5k "red light runners" were caught; an average of more than 100 per day. However, no drivers have received the $124 ticket slated to go along with the offense. City leaders are extending the ticket-free "warning period" through the end of April so drivers "can get used to where the cameras are." And it's not about the money: "It's about correcting behavior and public safety," says McLean. "It's not about revenue. Because, trust me, plenty of people are still going to violate the law and those fines will be imposed, but for the public listening to us now, we hope they hear this and correct it." Meanwhile, the city of Bellevue, WA will soon be adding cameras at six intersections, along with three new speed cameras, The expected annual take? $827k.

Just before 8 A.M. yesterday a Concord, CA police officer responding to an emergency call was driving on the 3600 block Willow Pass road with lights flashing and siren blaring. A box truck yielded to the right. In doing so, the truck driver "clipped the bottom of a wooden PG&E power pole" at the intersection of Ashdale and Willow Pass roads, shearing it off near ground level. The pole, replete with streetlight and attached electrical cables fell across the top of the truck. The wires ended-up draped across both lanes of the roadway. The Contra Costa Times reports that a motorcyclist then drove into the low-hanging wires, which knocked him clean off his bike. Thankfully, he wasn't electrocuted on the spot (or, as far as we know, later). Oh, and the name of the company that's boldly printed in large black letters on the side of the pole-clipping white box truck? "Clean & Sober Hauling" of course!

Unique Performance was known for replicating the quasi-classic "Eleanor" Mustang movie car from retro-remake of Gone in 60 Seconds blockbuster, with Carrol Shelby and Chip Foose as partners in crime. Literally (well almost, they both bailed when the bailing was good). Unique got busted for tampering with the VIN numbers of Detroit's finest, and selling "futures" on Mustangs they had no intention of resto-modding and, worst of all, building cars with buckets of Bondo. As the criminal trials proceed, the company's assets are now on the block. It's a Strip 'N Flip job that'd bring a tear to Cerberus' eye, offering everything from $20 refrigerators to an "I'm an upstanding citizen" bulletproof AMG Benz for $8200. Unique's remaining not-ready-for primer-time vehicles will be sold "as is, where is, without warranties." 

UK policy makers are pulled in two directions. On one hand, they want to provide affordable "working class" housing in a country where development is neither cheap nor easy. On the other hand, they can't be seen to hurt a single leaf on a single tree, or warm the planet by a billionth of a degree (either Fahrenheit or Celsius). The answer: "eco-towns." The government is championing 10 new developments of 5k – 20k homes per town and no, I repeat no, traffic within their center. The speed limits on "key roads" leading into the new towns' [I'm guessing here] pay-and-display car parks (owner garages? fuhgeddaboutit) would be set at 15mph. The Daily Express reports that "driver pressure groups fear the proposals could herald reduced speed limits across the country, branding them 'an excuse to bully motorists.'" The UK's Housing Minister is unapologetic, to say the least. "“These developments will be exemplars for the rest of the world, not just the rest of the country," Caroline Flint asserted. "It’s critical that we get it right and I make no apology for setting the bar as high [or in this case low] as possible.” 

Jessica Morgan enjoys riding the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART) to work in San Francisco, and she wants to take her mind and her car off the road. Problem: she can't find parking at the BART station. On weekdays, more than half of BART's 46k-plus parking spaces are filled by 8 A.M.. Some 45 minutes later, some 73 percent of the spaces are taken, according to data analyzed by the Contra Costa Times. "Lately, there are times when I've just given up and got on the freeway," says Morgan. Yet building parking lots is a costly and planning permission intensive proposition. The Dublin-Pleasanton station is finally unveiling a 1.2k car garage that cost the city $42m. (That's $28k per parking space.) Meanwhile and elsewhere, aspiring mass transit users are– gasp!–  parking illegally. So BART's Board of Supervisors voted to raise fines for permit violations from $25 to $40. "We're hoping the higher fines will eliminate some parking poachers." But, for revenue sake, not all. 

Judy Smongesky has been driving around San Diego for nearly four decades in her Silver-Blue 1965 Mustang. It has over 300k miles on the clock and she's rebuilt the engine twice. Only problem is, it's not her car. Turns out back in 1970 Eugene Brakke reported his 'Stang as stolen. Last week, when Smongesky was preparing to sell the car, the police notified her that it was hot. She sure was surprised, as her father had bought her the car when she was a teenager (some things never change). Even though MSNBC reports that Smongesky's had the car 9.5 times longer than Mr. Brakke, she's giving it back to him. And he has the nerve to be angry about the paint job (the car was originally gold). The whole ordeal proves conclusively that even though possession is 9/10s the law, it's not.

News of someone stealing a car and leading police on a wild-ass chase is fairly common. However, KPRC in Houston, TX reports that just such an incident in southeast Texas has an unusual twist: reporter Mariza Reyesthe says the driver of this stolen car was "barely old enough to see a PG-13 movie, much less have a drivers' license."  Montgomery County sheriff's deputies say a 13-year-old boy stole a car from his girlfriend's parents' home in Willis, TX, at about 2 A.M. Police chased him on the North Freeway southbound, with Harris County deputies joining the chase at about 3:45 A.M. The Houston police joined the fray when the chase entered that city. The pursuit ended on I-45 (Gulf Freeway) when the teen sideswiped another vehicle and crashed into a concrete barrier. The driver of the other vehicle was not injured. The teenager was arrested and could face charges of reckless driving, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and driving without a license. I wonder what Caitlin Flanagan would say about this young man's "dangerous night" out?

Yesterday, we told you about the U.K.’s fleets of unmarked, speed camera-equipped vans (a.k.a. Talivans); including one they’ve pimped-out in the name of "youth education." Concurrent with our news, Britain’s Motorcycle News (MCN) reports that the North Wales police have installed a speed camera in a horse trailer. The heddlu are refusing to deny reports it has converted said horse box into a Welsh speeder's most recent worst nightmare “We never comment on speculation about police enforcement,” says a police spokesperson, commenting on speculation about police enforcement. “That’s all the comment we’re making.” The silence and stealth should come as no surprise. We've heard of speed cameras hidden in rubbish bins (trash containers). The U.K.s anti-speeding (pro-revenue collection?) jihad continues.

WTLV reports that Georgia state inspectors discovered that all three gas stations at the Camden County Cisco Travel Plazas (off of I-95) have been shortchanging their customers for the last eight years. A superior court judge ordered an attorney (yes, a lawyer) to take over the stations' management and seize any profits. District Attorney Stephen Kelley says the dramatic steps were taken "without warning- so no one could spend it away or hide it." While Kelley admits that "juries might have to decide who's innocent and who's not," he points out that one of the former station owners has a history of rolling back odometers. Another former owner, yet to be located, "missed a court appearance in Missouri this week." If the state finds that the stations cheated customers, Kelley hopes the seized assets can be converted into "massive" refunds. And if not?

Back in the day, if you needed to *ahem* "borrow" a bit of gas from a neighbor, you stuck a rubber hose down the filler neck, sucked on it until you got a mouthful of gas, spat out the gas and siphoned whatever you needed into whatever container you had. Now that gas is on its way to $4/gallon, gas thefts are becoming more common. But what's an enterprising thief to do with locking gas caps or fuel doors? 9News out of Denver reports scrotes are drilling holes in the gas tanks to siphon out the liquid gold. They're targeting SUVs and other vehicles with a lot of ground clearance (and usually, huge gas tanks), leaving behind about $500 in damages above the cost of the gas they steal. Denver police are recommending owners put their cars inside garages if possible. And if not possible, the owners may want to take out additional fire insurance; it's only a matter of time before one of these mental midgets starts a fire and burns the vehicle (and possibly themselves) to the ground.

According to KHOU, police in Colleyville have printed up "Stop Thief!" signs to battle car thieves. The signs, designed to hang from a cars' rear view mirror, tell would-be thieves there are no "valuables, money, computers, purses or briefcases in this vehicle." (Ah, but are there?) Chief Tommy Ingram admits the signs won't actually discourage thieves; they'll remind drivers to hide their valuables. KHOU also reports that back in Washington D.C., Transportation Secretary Mary Peters is urging Congress to allow Mexican trucks to continue driving into the U.S., 'cause halting the trucks would hurt agribusiness. (Opponents fear U.S. job losses and safety issues.) And good news if you're a Texas car dealer. The state's Vehicle Repair Assistance, Retrofit, and Accelerated Vehicle Retirement Program (VRARAVRP) is a hit! The Star-Telegram reports that The North Central Texas Council of Governments, which administers the program locally, is adding extra phone lines and personnel to deal with the flood of interest since the state kicked-in additional money (up to $3500 towards a new car). Texas taxes hard at work.

If you're looking for the U.K.'s most fanatical speed enforcement acolytes, head on down to Wales. (Or not.) The country has been waging a jihad against speeders for over a decade, including fleets of unmarked, speed camera-equipped vans (a.k.a. Talivans) parked on highway overpasses, around corners, etc. Now that the heddlu (police) have alienated hundreds of thousands of drivers both old and young, they've decided to launch a charm offensive– of sorts. At the taxpayer's expense, they've pimped out a van for "youth education." Pistonheads reports the cunning plan: "The idea is to infiltrate cruises and car park gatherings, and when the young drivers come over to have a look at the van – which is fitted with a pumping sound system – they are hit with information on how to stop being a nuisance." One wonders about local residents' take on noise nuisance, and how glad the Max Power crowd is to see Officer Plod, no matter how fly his whip.

According to The New York Times, San Franciscans have been shocked (shocked I tell you) by vicious assaults "related to finding places to park, including an attack in which a young man was killed trying to defend a spot he had found." Victims (other than the English language) include SF parking control officers (PCO). The don't call them meter maids say the public abuse is insoportable.For example, a motorist [allegedly] punched a parking control officer straight through the window of his Geo Metro. "Just driving down the street, you get yelled at," claims Lawanna Preston. The staff director for the union representing the PCOs says her co-workers "can't even eat lunch with that uniform on, because people approach them and curse at them." Blogger John Van Horn reports that paranoia strikes deep in the heart of the city. "I've noticed lately watching some of the citation writers; they don't get very far away from their vehicles. They want to be able to get away." Rather than mounting some kind of charm offensive, SF officials are looking at mounting cameras on parking officers' vehicles to catch and prosecute anyone who dares challenge the PCO's authority commits an assault.

As if Ford wasn't losing enough money, AP reports [via Forbes ] the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals today ordered Ford to pay a California woman $82.6m for injuries sustained when her Ford Explorer rolled over in 2002. A jury had originally awarded the plaintiff $369m. Like street cocaine, that number has been cut several times in course of the case. Ford had appealed the verdict all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the Explorer met all federal safety standards. The Supreme Court sent the case back to the 4th Circuit to determine whether or not their ruling was in line with a previous determination which overturned nearly $80m in damages awarded in a tobacco lawsuit. Today's decision blesses the plaintiff with $55m in punitive damages. The legal point: federal safety standards are not enough to shield automakers from legal liability. The scary bit: class action lawsuits will now fall like rain upon Ford's head. The Blue Oval Boyz have yet to publicly comment on the case, probably as they're busy talking to their insurance agent and trying to figure out what they're going to sell next.

The New York Times reports that biodiesel producers are dumping vegetable oil byproducts into local streams and rivers, harming wildlife.The National Biodiesel Board claims that their members' industrial byproducts are "nontoxic, biodegradable and suitable for sensitive environments." Yes, well, Bruce P. Hollebone, researcher with Environment Canada, says the result is some bad shit for birds and fish. "As with most organic materials, oil and glycerin deplete the oxygen content of water very quickly, and that will suffocate fish and other organisms. And for birds, a vegetable oil spill is just as deadly as a crude oil spill.”  The problem is, of course, money. "Glycerin, an alcohol that is normally nontoxic, can be sold for secondary uses, but it must be cleaned first, a process that is expensive and complicated. Expanded production of biodiesel has flooded the market with excess glycerin, making it less cost-effective to clean and sell." And more cost effective to dump in untreated form. The National Biodiesel Board dismissed a litany of violations as "growing pains" for an industry that's doubled in the last year (to 160 plants). Oh, that's OK then.