Posted on 12/09/2004 12:31:56 PM PST by weegee
Texans are generally gung-ho for law and order. They support the death penalty for capital crimes and tough prison sentences meted out to drug users and multiple offenders. That enthusiasm doesn't seem to extend to automated traffic enforcement systems that can videotape cars zooming through red lights and then mail tickets to the vehicle owner later.
It's the rare Houston motorist who hasn't narrowly escaped being struck by an impatient driver trying to beat a red light. Police officers joke that Houstonians believe a red light means only three more cars can go through the intersection.
Places of business as well as government buildings, Metro light rail cars, and county toll road booths are routinely scanned by video monitors. Given the obvious hazard, one would think the public's elected representatives would welcome additional measures to curb reckless driving.
Not so, as state Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, found when he introduced a bill two years ago to allow Texas cities to place cameras at intersections to document the license plates of violators. It went down to defeat, 103-34, with his colleagues cheering its demise. King had argued that 20,000 Texans are killed or maimed each year by drivers running red lights. The bill's opponents saw those cameras, in the words of Rep. David Swinford, R-Amarillo, as "government run amok," and an affront to individual rights. The political heat generated was so intense, the issue could have been socialized medicine or abortion rather than traffic enforcement.
Now Mayor Bill White's administration is taking up King's fallen banner and will ask City Council to approve a video crackdown on red light runners. As the Chronicle's Ron Nissimov reported last week, the move was made possible by a little noticed amendment on a transportation bill passed in 2003 that granted Texas cities the right to regulate transportation matters.
Supporters of camera enforcement point to decreases in red light violations and increases in ticket revenue following their installation. Officials of the first city to establish such a system in Texas, the Dallas suburb of Garland, report a 21 percent drop in red light infractions and $700,000 in ticket revenues after the first year of operation. Houston's new police chief, Phoenix import Harold Hurtt, is strongly backing the plan, which would be operated by a private vendor who would receive a percentage of the revenue generated by the system. It's hardly groundbreaking on the national level, since Chicago, New York City and Los Angeles all use such systems.
Although an official in the Houston chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union criticized the use of video cameras as a violation of privacy, Mayor White had a quick riposte: "I respect people's privacy, but nobody has the right to run a red light."
State Rep. Gary Elkins, R-Houston, warns that Houston would be wasting its money because he and others will move to outlaw camera enforcement in the next Legislature. It may be the first time Elkins and the ACLU, often criticized by conservatives as ultraliberal, have seen eye to eye on anything.
In the interest of public safety in Houston, opponents of all political stripes should hold their fire and let city officials call the shots that could make our drivers more careful and law-abiding, and lower traffic-related deaths and injuries on our streets.
We put cameras on the "security" detail that looks through your luggage for bombs. They were caught stealing items.
The Comical is an advocate for bad ideas.
I was interested in any FReepers who have had personal experience with photo traffic citations. Especially in CA and for supposedly running a red light. I received a citation in the mail. They claim I ran the red light while making a "right-on-red."
Michael Dukakis tried to outlaw right-on-red. Here in Houston, there are some roads that no longer permit it because the turning radius of some the modified roads don't allow it (the left most lane is supposed to stop 1-2 car lengths back at these lights so that there is turning room when the right-turn driver has a green light; most of the drivers ignore the white stripe and make it difficult for drivers to turn - this is all a side note).
For two years, Smith has been getting notices that he owes the authority money for illegally driving through the EZ Pass lane. As proof, the authority includes automated camera photos of a 2002 Ford Mustang speeding past the toll booth.The only trouble is, Smith drives a Ford Explorer. Which doesn't look a whole lot like a Mustang.
And so he goes on hold and gets more demand letters in the mail. "What pisses me off is this kind of threatening legal language toward me when I've already had 20 to 30 of these dismissed for incorrect identification," he says.
There are reasons why you are entitled to face your accuser.
HOUSTON PING
the average life expectancy of a traffic cam in Texas is probably about as short as that of a Denver Boot in Pittsburgh (where the population includes huge numbers of welders and machinists)
And therein lies the rub:
If there aren't enough violators to pay the private operator and still fill the city's coffers, well then, what can you do?
What most cities do, that find themselves in this situation, is to progressively reduce the length of a "yellow" light until it's not possible to make it through without catching someone.
This has been done throughout the country, cities reducing the length of a yellow light from the normal 4 - 6 seconds down to one second or less.
Yep...the Lee P. Brown Trolley of Death comes to mind immediately - another bottomless money-pit.
Is it common to cut those boots off?
I always thought if I was "booted," I'd much rather spend my money renting a torch than paying the ticket!
This isn't about traffic safety: it's about raising revenue.
Anytime a private vendor cuts a deal to get a percentage of government revenues, the taxpayer should be instructed to bend over immediately and grab both ankles... because a thorough screwin' is about to occur.
Houston's lights all have them in some regions. They could observe you down the block dismantaling another camera. They are affixed atop the traffic lights.
The National Motorists' Association has a $10,000 red-light-camera challenge - they are offering any municipality $10,000 if traffic engineering adjustments fail to reduce red-light violations at camera-enforced interesections. To date, not one city has taken them up on the challenge.
http://www.motorists.com/
Exactly.
I agree that running red lights is a problem in this town (and so are drivers who deadlock intersections by blocking them).
Put police officers on it instead of having them right selective traffic tickets.
"Aw but that's too much work."
We used to have problems in NYC with cars running red lights.
After Guiliani was elected mayor, the problem went away. He told the police to enforce the law, and they did. After a period of transition, drivers started obeying the rules.
This is an outrageous thing to say! The correct number is seven.
Same applies to traffic tickets. You can pay the fine, pay a reduced court cost and pay a mandated minimum amount for defensive driving, or you can pay an attorney. Costs about the same.
Ha! Shows what you know.
The "rule" is that if you witness the car ahead of you go through the light, YOU can go through the light.
I've witnessed this for upwards of 30 seconds before. I've even seen a car start up from a dead stop and run it because other cars were speeding through.
I've debunked this myth quite a few times here on FreeRepublic over the years. I don't doubt that yellow intervals have been reduced at some of these locations, but the length of the yellow interval at a signalized intersection is based on sound engineering principles. Your assertion that yellow intervals have been reduced to "one second or less" is ludicrous.
I am an engineer by trade, and I have an open offer here on FreeRepublic to represent (free of charge) any Freeper who believes they have been cited for a red-light violation at an intersection where the yellow interval has been deliberately reduced in order to generate more revenue from violations. I will get a lot of pleasure out of seeing to it that the engineer responsible for the approval of that signal never works in my industry again.
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