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Dallas' red light cameras may face changes as revenue estimate drops
Dallas Morning News ^ | March 15,2008 | Dave Levanthal

Posted on 03/15/2008 6:24:15 PM PDT by justkillingtime

Dallas City Hall has idled more than one-fourth of the 62 cameras that monitor busy intersections because many of them are failing to generate enough red-light-running fines to justify their operational costs, according to city documents.

Initial gross revenue estimates for the red light camera system during Dallas' 2007-08 fiscal year were $14.8 million, according to city records. The latest estimate? About $6.2 million. City Manager Mary Suhm on Friday estimated net revenue will fall $4.1 million under initial estimates.

That leaves Dallas government with a conundrum

(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: roxanne
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Hmmm..and I thought it was all about safety.
1 posted on 03/15/2008 6:24:17 PM PDT by justkillingtime
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To: justkillingtime
< thread hijack>

Nahhh, it's all about revenue, but the ilegal aliens weren't coughing up the dinero when they were caught...

< /thread hijack>

2 posted on 03/15/2008 6:29:16 PM PDT by null and void (It's 3 AM, do you know where Hillary is? Does she know where Bill is? Does Bill know what 'is' is?)
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To: justkillingtime

Just shorten up the yellow; that will get revenues back up to projections.


3 posted on 03/15/2008 6:29:27 PM PDT by Glenmore
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To: justkillingtime

Yep, they claim they put them in to stop red light runners and then when it works(or at least they don’t generate the revenue that was hoped for) they are going to remove them. What hypocrites.


4 posted on 03/15/2008 6:29:50 PM PDT by calex59
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To: justkillingtime

Good News. That in addition the news that they cause more Accidents, then prevent.


5 posted on 03/15/2008 6:31:11 PM PDT by modican
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To: justkillingtime
Hmmm..and I thought it was all about safety.

My first thoughts were along the same lines: So, it really is about money, after all.

6 posted on 03/15/2008 6:32:18 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand (A moderate Muslim is one who acts like a Christian.)
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To: the invisib1e hand

Well, actually, my first-first thought was that it was another Elliot Spitzer story.


7 posted on 03/15/2008 6:33:44 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand (A moderate Muslim is one who acts like a Christian.)
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To: justkillingtime

So $100,000+ a year per camera in revenue and they can’t afford to maintain them... That’s nuts.


8 posted on 03/15/2008 6:34:26 PM PDT by DB
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To: justkillingtime

Just wait until we get the speeding cams operational too. Fifth Gear (BBS show, one of their best ever) keeps pointing out that while raking in millions of Pounds, they haven’t lowered the accident or fatalities rates one bit.


9 posted on 03/15/2008 6:36:09 PM PDT by TWohlford
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To: the invisib1e hand

“Well, actually, my first-first thought was that it was another Elliot Spitzer story.”

(rimshot) (/rimshot)


10 posted on 03/15/2008 6:37:59 PM PDT by TWohlford
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To: justkillingtime

Oh, my. Only about $6.2 million? That’s terrible. They should double the fines! Dallas needs dough!


11 posted on 03/15/2008 6:49:02 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: DB

“So $100,000+ a year per camera in revenue and they can’t afford to maintain them... That’s nuts.”

No, too many friends and family with their hands in the deal for the cameras. I think we should write a book “How to use the law for fun and profit.” Subtitle would be “Truth and Justice be damned.”


12 posted on 03/15/2008 6:49:44 PM PDT by A Strict Constructionist (We have become an oligarchy not a Republic.)
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To: TWohlford

Speeding cameras are illegal in the State of Texas.


13 posted on 03/15/2008 6:50:05 PM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: justkillingtime

Back in 6th grade, we had a sound-measuring stoplight in our lunchroom. If the talking got really loud, it would go from green to yellow and if we didn’t quiet down fast, then the light would go to red and we’d lose our recess.

I wanted to smash it with a baseball bat, but never did.


14 posted on 03/15/2008 6:54:21 PM PDT by jdm (Relax, it's just the internet.)
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To: justkillingtime
Next thing you know they'll ticket us for actually driving the speed limit... because it is ALWAYS about the money (a freeway... time to put up another toll road to support some politician's pet projectS).

Trajan88... a resident of the Lone Star State (Plano to be exact).

15 posted on 03/15/2008 6:59:41 PM PDT by Trajan88 (www.bullittclub.com)
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To: justkillingtime
"We did not anticipate having such success so early with the number of people not running red lights," said Zaida Basora, Dallas' assistant director of public works and transportation. "If you have success in safety, you don't have a lot of success in revenue.

Yep...it was always about the money.

Montgomery County, Maryland, does the same thing in and around Rockville. They've installed gotcha cameras on all the arteries into the town, with only a two or three-second yellow lights. I got zapped yesterday going through a fairly wide intersection (at the bottom of a hill) that NO ONE could pass through in the yellow-light time allotted unless they was the Roadrunner.

16 posted on 03/15/2008 7:04:08 PM PDT by Virginia Ridgerunner ("We must not forget that there is a war on and our troops are in the thick of it!"--Duncan Hunter)
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To: justkillingtime

Just so I understand..City of Dallas says they are putting these cameras in for “safety”. Of course, there is some monetary (nod..wink)gain to these cameras. So, people quit running red lights and killing each other. Revenue goes down. The tax payer expense of installing these cameras is down the tube and folks may now resume crashing into one another.

Makes perfect sense to me.


17 posted on 03/15/2008 7:14:31 PM PDT by berdie
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To: Trajan88

Next thing you know they’ll ticket us for actually driving the speed limit...
****************************************************
Driving the speed limit during the day in extreme circumstances could get you a ticket for impeding traffic especially if you aren’t in the rightmost lane... at night it will get you pulled over for suspicion of DUI and the nice policeman will try to browbeat you into allowing him to search your car.... if you don’t give permission they will “smell alcohol on your breath” , cuff you and then search the car anyway.


18 posted on 03/15/2008 7:33:56 PM PDT by Neidermeyer
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To: justkillingtime
FR thread from last month -

Report: Red Light Cameras Increase Injuries and Insurance Rates

19 posted on 03/15/2008 7:37:19 PM PDT by Ken H
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To: jdm

I wanted to smash it with a baseball bat, but never did.
***************************************************
If you were a bit more discrete you might have discovered the opening for the microphone and taped over it...

At the local BP gas stations they have a speaker attached to each pump blasting adverts at you while you fill up... saw someone silence his with a mcdonalds burger mashed into the speaker grill...


20 posted on 03/15/2008 7:37:59 PM PDT by Neidermeyer
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