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)
I mean, its not like the red light camera scam was meant to lesson accidents and death, right? ...( so we were told )
they wanted the little darlings (15 -16- 17- 18yros) to be safe so...
first sign is "35mph"...
then they have the famed "child" profile ....okay, we know this....slow down to 20 when children are present ....fine....good idea....
then a few feet behind that is another sign...
it has 3 things that your must read inorder to follow the law.....
first, you can only drive 20 between these listed morning hours..
second you must drive 20 between these listed afternoon hours..
then you must drive this speed on school days.... it doesn't matter if there are kids present.
just tell me....how do people especially people unfamiliar with this street and sign, digest all this information in such a short time frame without gazing off reading those signs, thus imposing HIGHER risk of an accident...???
the more requirements....different speeds, at different times, on different days, and in different conditions....the easier it is to mess up....
but that's the point isn't it....
get the paying public to mess up on some specification and then you can scam us.
I read the article and did not see anything in it about what the original time was (nor the altered time) when compared with the time calculated by the traditional formula.
I have read several threads about Red Light cameras posted here and it seems like most of the posters are totally unaware that a formula exists and should be used with or without red light cameras.
So all these years it was the short yellow light times that caused most of the accidents and deaths?
Quit belly achin’ and start shooting! (the cams that is).
These people are modern day red coats.
I'm enraged that these scams just keep getting worse and nothing is done about it.
Yeah, putting these damn things up is about safety? It's a lie.
Far as I know, there’s absolutely nothing in either testament of the Bible about anybody going to hell for shooting an electronic device...
Likewise, the red light cameras should be described as a revenue-enhancement tool rather than a safety device.
I'm surprised people aren't plowing these things down all over America (or maybe they are, just nobody is reporting it).
This PROVES they were never designed for anythig other than revenue-raising by greedy governments!
You “get it”, that’s for sure.
Because of Ludowici, local yokels can’t write radar ticket for less than 10mph over the limit in GA, unless it’s in a construction or a school zone.
It's about like the moral dilemma that results from a state with high cigarette taxes banning smoking in public esablishments. Once the number of smokers decreases, tax revenue plummets. Then the government looks around to find something else to tax.
Why can't they just leave well enough alone?
That's not how it works. You're guilty of running a red light if it turns red and then the front of your car enters the intersection, breaking the plane of the curb of the cross street. It's against the rules to enter the intersection after the signal turns red, but not to leave it.
"Did you really think we want those laws observed?" asked Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. Youd better get it straight that its not a bunch of boy scouts youre up against... Were after power and we mean it... Theres no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there arent enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? Whats there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted and you create a nation of law-breakers and then you cash in on guilt. Now thats the system, Mr. Reardon, thats the game, and once you understand it, youll be much easier to deal with." - Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
That’s the first entry on my FR profile page.
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