NMA LAUNCHES $10,000 TICKET CAMERA CHALLENGE

National Motorists Association ^ | unknown | James J. Baxter

[CFW]

NMA LAUNCHES $10,000 TICKET CAMERA CHALLENGE

(An open letter to all communities in Virginia and Maryland and Washington DC that employ red light ticket cameras)

The National Motorists Association is wagering $10,000 to prove that our engineering approach can cut red light violations better than any ticket camera installation.

We have spent more than a year exposing the unethical exploitation associated with the use of red light ticket cameras. For example, we know that counterproductive government policies and government actions have largely created the increase in red light violations. This is not speculation, vague suspicion, or an educated guess. This is fact.

The use of ticket cameras to reward incompetent (if not outright devious) public agencies for failing to meet their professional responsibilities is a travesty that demands correction. Proper signal timing, better signal design, and improved intersections are the real answers to the red-light-violation problem.

The apparent increase in red light violations is largely the result of a 20-year pattern of deliberately changing the standards for the timing of yellow lights. This is an engineering problem, not an enforcement issue. There is ample and convincing evidence, right in Northern Virginia, that increasing the yellow light duration dramatically and permanently reduces red light violations. Despite this evidence, these ticket camera cities are permitting unsafe and dangerous conditions to persist, while profiting from preventable red-light violations.

A more cynical perspective might suggest that this two-decade process of shortening yellow lights was done deliberately to create a "red light running crisis" and thereby foster public acceptance of ticket cameras.

Our claims have been met with feeble excuses that try to ignore the hard evidence that proves the "epidemic of red light running" is the product of poor traffic engineering policies. This is not a law enforcement problem.

Today we say to the communities that employ ticket cameras, "Let's put traffic engineering solutions to the test." Here's our challenge.

Show us any red light ticket camera intersection that still has high numbers of red light violations (there are plenty to choose from) and we will guarantee a MINIMUM of a 50 percent reduction in red light violations through the application of engineering solutions.

If our recommendations fail to meet our minimum goal of a 50 percent reduction in red light violations, we will pay the community $10,000 to be used on any traffic safety program or project it chooses. But, if we prove the validity of our contentions, the community will employ our engineering based recommendations at other troublesome intersections, and scrap its ticket camera program. What do you have to lose, other than your ticket camera revenue?

James J. Baxter President National Motorists Association

[CFW]

Thought you might find this interesting.

[lelio]

Should also mention that the companies that bring in the red light cameras get a cut of the ticket fee imposed.
Quick search on google turned up this group of lawyers (gee there's a surprise) offering to fight your ticket for you.

[Fizzie]

Interesting! It makes total sense too. It couldn't be possible that lights are timed and synchronized to produce revenue generating violations. Nah, no way. Too cynical a thought.

In the past week or so, camera tickets have been suspended in Colorado, and the unpaid ones "amnestied". (Pity the poor guy who paid his 2 weeks ago.) It seems somebody figured out that only law enforcement had the right to issue tickets, not some commercial enterprise.

[mykdsmom]

Bump FYI!

MKM

[Darth Sidious]

Thanks for the heads-up! Although I won my case, I'm heavily considering another FReep of that same camera... this time much BIGGER! Since this ticket incident I've been finding out all kinds of ways to foil the cameras.

One thing I'm considering - and there's no law on the books against doing this - would be to do a "blind Big Brother" thing: when the light begins turning yellow, hold up a HUGE sign in front of the camera, effectively blinding it :-)

[mykdsmom]

Won't work........They have them set up to take pictures of rear plates too. We here in NC don't have front plates but we have plenty of red light cameras with more on the way.

MKM

[Focault's Pendulum]

The simplest solution, at the individual level, is this: Don't put a front license plate on your car.

In New Jersey the best way to beat EZ Pass is to wake up earlier than your neighbor and attach his plate with rubber bands over yours. It works well until the photos start coming back to him with the summonses.

At least that's what I heard.

[Newbomb Turk]

We have a technique here. We actually stop at the lights.

[Jhoffa_]

Interesting! It makes total sense too. It couldn't be possible that lights are timed and synchronized to produce revenue generating violations. Nah, no way. Too cynical a thought.

Dick Armey must be cynical also.. cause he's been saying the same thing for months.

[backhoe]

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[mykdsmom]

Faces we don't need no stinking faces.

They don't care who was driving, it was your car, you are guilty until you can prove yourself innocent.

Darth Sidious a fellow NC FReeper has successfully fought a red light ticket though. He has a lot more experience with what is going on, maybe he can help explain it.

MKM