Free Republic

DOT received $6 billion to issue grants to "help cities and towns" with road safety as part of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that Congress passed. The U.S. Department of Transportation's "National Roadway Safety Strategy" includes promoting the use of speed cameras in cities and towns as a "proven safety countermeasure." DOT received $6 billion to issue grants to "help cities and towns" with road safety, which was part of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that Congress passed. "That law creates a new Safe Streets and Roads for All program, providing $6 billion to help cities and towns deliver new,...

US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's plan to 'promote speed safety cameras' is raising the troubling specter of ubiquitous automated traffic enforcement in the style of the UK, where the cameras are widely despised. Buttigieg's 42-page plan road safety plan unveiled on Thursday and backed by $14 billion in funding from the new infrastructure bill, contained only brief mention of the speed camera plan, but it was enough to set alarm bells ringing for worried motorists. Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson slammed the plan as a misuse of the funds in the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Bill, fuming that 'you're about to...

Think back, you may remember Joe Biden's infrastructure bill this fall. That bill emerged from Congress in November with a price tag of $1.2 trillion dollars. That so many zeros it's hard to imagine. How much is it? It's more than the entire GDP of the Nation of Mexico, one of the world's biggest oil producers, by the way. So that's a ton of money. So for a bill that size, you would expect, well, big results. You'd certainly want better roads than they've got in Mexico. So we're getting those what are we getting exactly from that bill? Well,...

Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who campaigned on a pledge to end Chicago’s “addiction” to fines and fees, is counting on a big increase in city collections from speeding tickets and other violations to balance her 2021 budget. And she wants part of the boost to the bottom line to come from speed cameras across Chicago issuing speeding tickets to drivers caught going as little as 6 miles per hour over the posted limit. Under the mayor’s proposal, as part of her 2021 budget package, anyone caught by a camera driving from 6 to 9 mph above the limit would get a...

Next-generation speed cameras are being destroyed faster than they can be deployed in France. French officials were convinced that mounting speed cameras high atop poles would keep them from being attacked. The government committed to replacing every existing photo radar installation with these next-generation "turret" speed cameras only to learn that the devices are being destroyed faster than they are deployed. According to the experts at Radars-Auto.com, twelve cameras have been installed in the Tarn department since January 1, but a total of thirteen turret cameras there have been knocked out of service during the same period. On Friday, vigilantes...

After years of concern about the number of traffic accidents that occur in road construction zones, Pennsylvania is doing something about it. Beginning Jan. 4, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and Pennsylvania Turnpike will begin a 60-day pilot program to formally test what’s called the Automated Work Zone Speed Enforcement program. The program is designed to cause drivers to slow down in construction areas by setting up speed monitoring equipment in work areas. After the pilot program is finished, the two state agencies expect to deploy private contractors in white Jeep Cherokee SUVs at various sites throughout the state to...

Dive Brief: Illinois State Sen. Martin Sandoval has resigned from his position as chair of the State Senate's Transportation Committee amid a federal fraud and corruption investigation related to state construction work, the Associated Press reported. The Democratic senator is still listed as a member of the committee, however, as of Oct. 15. The move came after the details of a federal search warrant revealed that the FBI last month combed Sandoval's offices and home for information related to architect Cesar Santoy; Santoy's architecture firm, Studio ARQ; red-light camera program company SafeSpeed; lobbyists; construction companies; and employees of the Illinois...

A New Orleans resident has received several speeding tickets over the past few years for racing through town at the blistering speed of ... 0 mph. Donald Schulz says he’s been issued at least 10 citations since 2011 for having his pickup truck legally parked along Canal Boulevard. The street has a 35 mph speed limit and a stationary traffic camera on the median. “It’s a nuisance; I've had to take time out of my day several times and go down there and correct the situation,” Schulz told Fox News. “It got so bad that years ago I even had...

Gannett paper, link only

Redflex red light cameras and speed camera deployments have dropped by half as municipalities reject automated enforcement. Only a few years ago, Redflex Traffic Systems was at the top of its game. Stock analysts saw unlimited growth potential in the Australian firm that once operated more red light cameras and speed cameras in the United States than anyone else. Redflex was so confident about its bright future that it rebuffed Macquarie Bank's 2011 buyout offer at $2.75 a share. Today, Redflex trades at 24 cents per share, a top executive has been found guilty on federal corruption charges and the...

Defense attorneys challenging red light cameras win three cases before the Missouri Supreme Court. The highest court in Missouri on Monday struck down red light camera and speed camera programs. In three separate cases, the high court judges found that the cameras unconstitutionally shifted the burden of proof by forcing ticket recipients to prove their own innocence. The judges also found that the creation of "civil" citations and administrative hearings for moving traffic violations violated state law. The decisions were a major blow to American Traffic Solutions (ATS), the Arizona-based vendor .. Earlier this year, the firm settled a class...

Thousands of E-ZPass users have been clocked speeding through Maryland toll facilities in recent years, prompting warnings — but not repercussions — from the Maryland Transportation Authority. lRelated Ex-mayoral aide accused of trying to help firm get camera contract The agency began recording the speed of E-ZPass drivers in 2002, though there are no signs at toll facilities indicating that speeds are being monitored. Drivers are informed in the terms and conditions of their E-ZPass contracts. Maryland law empowers the MdTA to revoke a driver's E-ZPass transponder for 60 days after a second speeding violation within a six-month period —...

Drivers in Chicago have gotten wise to speed cameras, budget figures show, and now the city needs to come up with $50 million in revenue. Chicagoans are costing the city tens of millions of dollars -– through good behavior. Mayor Rahm Emanuel underestimated the intelligence of Chicago drivers, and the city paid for it big time. On a smooth, wide, well-travelled stretch of Irving Park Road, running between two cemeteries — no homes, no stores, no parking — the city of Chicago is trying to balance its budget. Each flash means a photo; each photo, a violation. Each violation: a...

France’s army of roadside speed cameras may be more numerous than ever, but the revenue they pulled in through fines was almost €70 million less than the government expected last year. […] French newspaper Les Echos reported that the 4,150 speed cameras that litter the country’s roads yielded €579,300 last year. While that sounds a healthy amount to be taking out of the pockets of speeding motorists, it was less than in 2012, when rogue drivers boosted state coffers to the tune of €620 million. […] What makes it worse for the government, whose finances seem to be Europe’s biggest...

The new law makes South Dakota the sixteenth state to stamp out red light cameras and speed cameras by statute or state court ruling ... the cameras violate due process, don’t make intersections safer and generate revenue more for the red light vendor than the community. ... Brekford, based in Maryland, reported last week that it is losing money. .. Redflex Traffic Systems in Phoenix has even bigger headaches. The firm has been the subject of a federal bribery investigation in Chicago for the past year.

Dread. Usually not a word one associates with the New Year… well, provided one is not a glass half-empty sort. Hopeful, encouraged, positive… that sort of rot is what travels the aural circuit in the week or so following clean-slate day. But ‘round these parts – and near the nether regions of other state capitals – the newly-birthed year is greeted with a level of enthusiasm rivaled only by the anticipatory feeling derived from the possibility of a TSA cavity search. And that point of comparison is frighteningly accurate; given said cavity is the only place our local legislators have...

The Baltimore City speed camera ticket alleged that the four-door Mazda wagon was going 38 miles per hour in a 25-mph zone — and that owner Daniel Doty owed $40 for the infraction. But the Mazda wasn't speeding. It wasn't even moving. The two photos printed on the citation as evidence of speeding show the car was idling at a red light with its brake lights illuminated. A three-second video clip also offered as evidence shows the car motionless, as traffic flows by on a cross street.

Speeding tickets generate revenue for the city or county in which they’re issued. If the police department is low on revenue, they’ll set up a speed trap on a busy road and lie in wait for the non-violent speed violators. If the city is really desperate, they’ll invest in a speed camera system that will be distributed around the city and send citations to the registered owners of the alleged speeding vehicles. And if they’re still not happy with the money they’re making, they’ll start issuing speeding tickets to people who aren’t even speeding. In Baltimore, Maryland, they’ve generated over...

The D.C. Council is poised to lower the cost of speed camera tickets from a maximum of $250 to just $50. The plan unveiled on Tuesday is meant to create the impression that the District has seen the light and has finally decided to go easier on motorists. Considering the source of the latest plan, that’s hardly likely. The District and the for-profit vendor in charge of the robotic cameras dish out more tickets in a year than the city has residents. This has created a pile of loot so lofty that it’s only a matter of time before it...

Maryland speed camera crashes into a bridge. France, Germany paint cameras. Saudi Arabia stones them. Vigilantes in Dortmund, Germany painted a traffic camera entirely gold on Thursday, according to Ruhr Nachrichten. Locals have called the automated ticketing machine on the B54 the "Golden Blitzer," as other cameras in the area have been painted red and bright pink. Officials quickly re-painted the camera olive green so that it would be harder to spot from the road. In Auvergne, France vigilantes chose favored a darker look for their January 20 operation. The automated ticketing machine on the RN102 in Salzuit was sprayed...