Good red light camera article about Arlington

[mikeb]

You serious? This is a bullshit money grab, and more than a few cities have been caught shortening yellow light times to increase red light revenue. Just because it hasn't happened to you doesn't mean it doesn't happen, and that it's not bullshit.

Yep. As someone else said just increasing the yellow a bit solves the issue, but of course there is no revenue in doing that so instead they shorten the yellow to the absolute minimum (or less) and put in the red light cameras. Follow the revenue.

As far as safety is concerned, when i'm in one of those situations where i'm approaching an intersection with a red light camera and the light has turned yellow and i'm too close to stop without locking up the brakes and risking getting rear ended I'll floor it to get through in time. I can't imagine that they want people doing that but that's what has to be done to avoid getting a ticket.

[Chuck_Finley]

Another article here:

http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/09/16/6125909/proposed-red-light-camera-ban.html

Councilman Rivera, in my opinion, is the only decent guy there. This isn't the first time he's gone out and tried to do stuff that makes logical sense only to met with resistance from everyone else because they're bought off.

[Baba Ganoush]

They've generated $12MM? I realize that many are timed/screw job, but that's a lot of bad driving and stupid motherfuckers paying it forward. I'd say leave them up.

[bcoop]

I'd say leave them up.

Except for the fact that the mere presence of a red light camera increases frequency and severity of traffic accidents because nobody wants to hassle with a ticket. These were originally all about safety. Dallas was all over the safety aspect. Then they got caught manipulating the yellow light times. They finally admitted a few years ago that it was about money, not safety, when they shut down a significant amount of their red light cameras because they weren't generating enough revenue.

[John -- '02 HAWK]

Except for the fact that the mere presence of a red light camera increases frequency and severity of traffic accidents because nobody wants to hassle with a ticket.

"A study by city staff of some intersections with cameras found that right-angle crashes were down 58 percent, and rear-end crashes had fallen 89 percent, according to the staff report."

[bcoop]

"A study by city staff of some intersections with cameras found that right-angle crashes were down 58 percent, and rear-end crashes had fallen 89 percent, according to the staff report."

Source? I can produce dozens of links that state otherwise.

[NTexas_V-Star]

Because the officer reviewing the video doesn't apply any common sense. For mine, I was literally too close to the intersection to stop. I wasn't speeding, I was just too close when it turned yellow, then red. It was safer to just roll through it.

Another one of mine was making a right turn at an intersection. Between observing the stopped traffic in the right lane, , pedestrians, and the yellow light, I ended up yielding at the intersection and barely catching the red. After viewing the video they provide, I can see where I didn't come to a complete stop but when I was driving, everything just happened. I don't even know if that one makes sense.

However, just the other morning, I was coming to an intersection near my house that has a camera. I wasn't speeding but sure enough, it turned yellow right at that moment where had I rolled through it, I wouldn't caught the red light. So to avoid the ticket, I had to nail my brakes...and I mean NAIL! Thankfully I didn't have anyone behind me because I truly don't know if they would've avoided me. BUT HEY... I didn't get a ticket.

I've only ever gotten one, in Prosper on 380. Same thing, I was too close to stop without doing a full on brake stand. I swear it seemed like the yellow was shorter than average, but I'm no expert. I got the ticket, paid it, and am much more careful now.

[John -- '02 HAWK]

Source? I can produce dozens of links that state otherwise.

right above your post

Another article here:

http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/09/16/6125909/proposed-red-light-camera-ban.html

BTW I know you can. I would like to see their study/statistics as well

[Leah]

I've got 2 that I haven't paid and I just renewed the registration today. (In Tarrant County)

[OreoStang]

I understand the safety thing but all in all its a money grab for sure. I have seen those damn things go off when u brake behind the line then go to make a right on red. How is that fair?

[Phoenix]

How about the light turns yellow and someone slams on the brakes with a cop behind?

[David]

I got two. Both in same spot. Was told I needed to stop twice behind the "stop" line.

[Gasser64]

Exactly. No one ever agreed to pay any of this shit.

confused, are you guys saying that you simply never pay those red light tickets?

[talisman]

Arlington City Council member Robert Rivera can rattle off scores of reasons why his constituents think the city should pull the plug on its red-light cameras. They worry about Big Brother's growing omniscience and the privatization of policing, or object to the government making a revenue grab while cloaking it in public safety measure. Some just have a gut feeling that it's unconstitutional.

Rivera doesn't formally endorse any of those sentiments, which, though they have been echoing across the country for a decade, have failed to slow the rapid adoption of the technology by cash-strapped local governments. His stated reason for floating a proposal to abolish red-light cameras in Arlington is more pragmatic and thus less easy to dismiss as the product of the populist fringe. Arlington's system simply isn't fair.

Tarrant County Tax Assessor-Collector Ron Wright has repeatedly refused Arlington's entreaties to block the vehicle registrations of red-light scofflaws, saying that cities are responsible for collecting their own fines. (In a similar display of chutzpah, Collin County Tax Assessor Kenneth Maun rebuffed similar advances by the NTTA.) Because violations caught by red-light cameras are civil offenses that can't go on credit reports or driving records, there are no consequences for ignoring the tickets, meaning the upstanding citizens who actually pay them are suckers.

However carefully Rivera crafted his arguments, his proposal fell with a thud when he brought it before council last week. It will discuss the matter again in October, but with the cameras bringing in roughly $2 million in revenue per year, the chance that Rivera's colleagues will change their minds is roughly the same that they'll start distributing copies of the Constitution with Open Carry Tarrant County.

But it may not be up to the City Council. Veteran Tea Party activists Faith Bussey and Kelly Cannon are pushing to amend the city's charter to abolish the city's red-light cameras.

Bussey feels that Arlington's red-light program is problematic for many reasons, not least of which that it's operated by a vendor, Redflex Traffic Systems. She describes Redflex as "private company that's using the city to shakedown taxpayers. It's wrong."

She's found plenty of agreement. "The response has been huge on our side," Bussey says of her and Cannon's early efforts.

To get the charter amendment on the ballot, Bussey and Cannon will have to convince 5 percent of Arlington's 185,823 registered voters (9,292) to sign a petition calling for a referendum, and then convince at least half of the voters who show up at the polls in May to vote against red-light cameras.

It won't be a cakewalk, but Bussey and Cannon have already lined up a couple of dozen volunteers to canvass polling places during the gubernatorial voting, and it's hard to imagine many people not being willing to sign their petition. Red-light cameras, like toll roads, are loathed by the ACLU left and the Tea Party right alike.

There's also a precedent. Houston voters abolished their red-light cameras in 2010, and at least a couple of its suburbs followed suit. It's been more of a trickle than a trend, but those cases suggest that, when there's an activist is sufficiently committed to getting something on the ballot, red-light cameras are toast.

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2014/09/arlington_red_light_camera_petitions.php

[Chili]

Arlington City Council member Robert Rivera can rattle off scores of reasons why his constituents think the city should pull the plug on its red-light cameras. They worry about Big Brother's growing omniscience and the privatization of policing, or object to the government making a revenue grab while cloaking it in public safety measure. Some just have a gut feeling that it's unconstitutional.

Rivera doesn't formally endorse any of those sentiments, which, though they have been echoing across the country for a decade, have failed to slow the rapid adoption of the technology by cash-strapped local governments. His stated reason for floating a proposal to abolish red-light cameras in Arlington is more pragmatic and thus less easy to dismiss as the product of the populist fringe. Arlington's system simply isn't fair.

Tarrant County Tax Assessor-Collector Ron Wright has repeatedly refused Arlington's entreaties to block the vehicle registrations of red-light scofflaws, saying that cities are responsible for collecting their own fines. (In a similar display of chutzpah, Collin County Tax Assessor Kenneth Maun rebuffed similar advances by the NTTA.) Because violations caught by red-light cameras are civil offenses that can't go on credit reports or driving records, there are no consequences for ignoring the tickets, meaning the upstanding citizens who actually pay them are suckers.

However carefully Rivera crafted his arguments, his proposal fell with a thud when he brought it before council last week. It will discuss the matter again in October, but with the cameras bringing in roughly $2 million in revenue per year, the chance that Rivera's colleagues will change their minds is roughly the same that they'll start distributing copies of the Constitution with Open Carry Tarrant County.

But it may not be up to the City Council. Veteran Tea Party activists Faith Bussey and Kelly Cannon are pushing to amend the city's charter to abolish the city's red-light cameras.

Bussey feels that Arlington's red-light program is problematic for many reasons, not least of which that it's operated by a vendor, Redflex Traffic Systems. She describes Redflex as "private company that's using the city to shakedown taxpayers. It's wrong."

She's found plenty of agreement. "The response has been huge on our side," Bussey says of her and Cannon's early efforts.

To get the charter amendment on the ballot, Bussey and Cannon will have to convince 5 percent of Arlington's 185,823 registered voters (9,292) to sign a petition calling for a referendum, and then convince at least half of the voters who show up at the polls in May to vote against red-light cameras.

It won't be a cakewalk, but Bussey and Cannon have already lined up a couple of dozen volunteers to canvass polling places during the gubernatorial voting, and it's hard to imagine many people not being willing to sign their petition. Red-light cameras, like toll roads, are loathed by the ACLU left and the Tea Party right alike.

There's also a precedent. Houston voters abolished their red-light cameras in 2010, and at least a couple of its suburbs followed suit. It's been more of a trickle than a trend, but those cases suggest that, when there's an activist is sufficiently committed to getting something on the ballot, red-light cameras are toast.


http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfa..._petitions.php

Great way to approach it. I have a hard time believing that if they can get it on the ballot, that anyone will vote against it. At least, as long as they understand what they are voting on. The trick will be getting almost 10 thousand Arlington voters to sign the initial petition. Everyone avoids those people (volunteers obtaining petition signatures) like the plague.