Posted on 03/11/2009 8:20:07 AM PDT by Ken H
Lilburn, Georgia suspends red light camera program after extended yellow time cut violations by 80 percent.
On January 1, a new Georgia law kicked in forcing a one-second increase in the duration of the yellow warning light at intersections with red light cameras.
The result has been devastating for red light camera makers as violations -- and revenue -- immediately plunged for the months of January, February and March. Last week, the city of Norcross dumped photo enforcement. Now the UK-owned red light camera maker Lasercraft is offering its customers a 90-day suspension of service to prevent cities from dropping their automated ticketing contracts. The cities of Lilburn and Snellville accepted this offer yesterday and suspended their red light camera programs.
"With the passage of House Bill 77, effective January 1, 2009, there has been a precipitous decline in the number of citations issued through the program," Lilburn Police Chief J.B. Davidson wrote in a memo to the city council.
The mandated increase in signal time created dramatic and instant results. In 2008, Lasercraft issued an average of 1,559 citations each month. In January, that number dropped 80 percent to just 313. Norcross also saw an 80 percent drop in violations.
According to a 2001 report by the Office of the U.S. House Majority Leader, the findings in Lilburn and Norcross are not coincidental. The report argued that changes in national signal timing guidelines systematically reduced the amount of warning time available to motorists. It argued further that those with a financial incentive in using enforcement to deal with the additional violations created may have played a role in the changes (view report).
"This strongly suggests that inadequate yellow time is the major cause of red-light entries," the Congressional report stated. "If the vast majority of red light entries occur in the first second after the yellow light expires, it is reasonable to assume an additional second of yellow time on that light will yield a nearly 80 percent decrease in red light entries."
To date, Lilburn's three red light camera intersections have issued 57,528 tickets worth $4,026,960. Thanks to the longer yellow, however, monthly income from the program dropped $80,000 forcing Lasercraft to pause to discover what more might be done.
"The program vendor has proposed a plan to suspend the program for a ninety-day period, and the vendor will waive all Lasercraft charges during the suspension period," Davidson wrote.
Lilburn voted to accept the suspension to give Lasercraft time to come up with a plan to increase the number of citations. In a letter to Davidson, Lasercraft officials hinted that deactivating some cameras and presumably moving them to higher volume intersections could be part of the solution.
"In ninety days, on or before June 7th, the city and Lasercraft will meet to review the most current citation counts and make a decision as to reactivation of approaches, continuation of the suspension period, or de-commission of the program," Lasercraft Regional Director Ty Sellers wrote.
Lasercraft's letter also implied that violations may increase as drivers adapt to the longer yellow. This has not proved true in places such as Fairfax County, Virginia where the benefit of an increased yellow time appeared permanent. A 1985 report by the Institute of Transportation Engineers summarized the best opinion of experts as confirming the permanence of the benefit view report in PDF, see page 8).
"Research has consistently shown that drivers do not, in fact, adapt to the length of the yellow," the ITE report stated.
Although it is too early to draw any conclusions, accident data for January and February appear positive for the intersections with longer yellow. A copy of the Lasercraft letter and the police chief's memo to city council are available in a 325k PDF file at the source link below.
Source: Details on Suspension of Red Light Camera Program (City of Lilburn, Georgia and Lasercraft, 3/10/2009)
With the way they stake out (3 or 4 patrol cars at a time in a lot to nab traffic violations) you’d think they don’t know where the crack houses are in this town (less than 5 minutes from the main police station) or where illegal aliens congregate to loiter while soliciting day labor jobs.
God invented Utube for such situations. Not the time it happened to you, but someone could have gone back with a camera.
You have to wade all the way to the bottom to get to this salient point. As long as there is no increase in accidents, the yellow time should be as long as possible. Anything else is just a confiscatory tax and an unnecessary burden on drivers.
I would also wager it's not "green" to slow traffic down in already-slow zones as a consequence of drivers trying not to get ticketed. It just dumps more of what the left considers terrifying emissions into the air.
That's a great suggestion. Major cities tend to have these at crosswalks -- I'm thinking Washington, DC, which has large red numerals, and Dublin, Ireland, which uses sound cues for pedestrians.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why the War on Drugs never stops drug trafficking. Too much money, cars and jewelry to be made/confiscated by local police stations.
I’m cryin’ a river here. (not)
Yes, it discriminates against the taxing authorities.
“The result has been devastating for red light camera makers as violations — and revenue —”
Boo freaking hoo.
“someone could have gone back with a camera.”
It happened about ten years ago. I don’t know if they’re still doin’ it. Even though I grew up in Brecksville, and later had a cordial relationship with my neighbor, who was the Police Chief at the time of the redlight stunt, I decided not to complain. I figured it was better to keep my mouth shut than to have a mad cop and his buddies watchin’ for me every time I drove through.
Now if there were some way to sue for the fraud committed by the local government and Lasercraft for INTENTIONALLY SHORTENING the yellow period before this law was in effect red light cameras would be gone forever.
I wish.
“Extended yellow lights may decrease violations, but if you want to decrease accidents, the best way is to delay the green lights.”
They did that here in Tucson. Three to five second delays on traffic in all directions in an already super congested city with it’s only freeway closed. But we get the cameras anyway.
The real safety improvement is an additional 1 to 2 second four-way red. That gives ample time for all traffic to clear the intersection. It also gives drivers waiting for the green time to check for a car that is really going to blow a red light.
The focus should be on safety, not revenue.
It’s a whole lot easier and safer for the cops to harass hard-working people on their way to work every morning. They might get hurt if they bothered the crack adicts and illegals.
There are set Federal standards for Yellow Clearance intervals.
Many lights aren’t set correctly and encourage red light running [by default, not the wish of the vehicle operator]
If you know what it should be, when you go to court and can prove a poorly timed light - your case is closed.
~Ask me how I know~
I detest government.
BUSTED !!
Great post exposing what a fraud red light cameras are.
Thanks !!
BTTT
In my neighborhood, less than a mile in either direction from the favorite speeding ticket location are large (>50) groups of illegals loitering on the sidewalk, in parking lots and on the railroad right-of-way.
Somehow I think the illegal parasites are more important...
The caution lights were indeed shortened when the cameras were installed. I travel that road daily.
BTW, there have been more accidents at these camera controlled intersections since being installed. Some have been deadly with the rear ended vehicle forced into the intersection resulting in T-bone collisions.
Safety my arse.
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