Red Light Cameras

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Houston study lauds red light cameras despite uptick in accidents

We all know we shouldn't mess with Texas. And Houston, Texans shouldn't mess around with statistics, because the folks running the show are going to come to any conclusions they want no matter what the statistics say. This is the easy part: a study of red light cameras in the city shows that accidents have actually increased at intersections with the cameras.

 

These are the parts that are open to interpretation: most intersections only have one camera looking at one (out of four) directions of traffic, but the accident rate went up for traffic in the other three unmonitored directions; and, in the one monitored direction, "accidents remained relatively flat or showed only a slight increase." What do you make of that?

 

Mayor Bill White and the study authors say the city in general is experiencing a swell in the number of collisions, and claim that collisions at the monitored intersections haven't risen as much as the wider municipal rate. Yet they have no data to back up an increase in citywide collisions, and no year-on-year accident data at intersections (let alone an explanation for the uptick). White said that a 40-percent year-on-year drop in red light citations in the month of October shows the program is working and keeping drivers more safe. Critics say that the program is nothing but a cash register for city government. The study's authors plan to study insurance industry findings to come up with more substantive conclusions.

 

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6185795.html

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UK police admit almost half of all speed cameras are off

 

 

We all know the drill. You see a speed camera, you slow down, you look at the camera, you check your speedometer and look for the camera again. But in the UK at least, reports now indicate that nearly half of the 1,000 speed cameras installed are entirely inactive.

 

Because many of the cameras installed in the UK during the 1990s failed to meet transportation department criteria for deployment, some 40% were immediately decommissioned. However, the boxes that house them are still there, even though many of them are empty altogether. Motorist groups are lobbying to have the inactive devices removed, citing them as a dangerous roadside distraction, but the government insists that whether they're in use or not, the visible presence of the camera boxes keep drivers' speeds in check.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1102917/Nearly-half-speed-cameras-switched-admit-police.html

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Italian traffic cameras investigated for red-light rigging that may have cost motorists $1.7M

Red may be their national racing color, but there's little Italians hate more than red lights. And with good reason, it turns out: Stefano Arrighetti, creator of the T-Redspeed "smart" traffic system implemented across Italy, is under investigation for fraud on suspicion that he illegally forged transport ministry certification for his system. In place in over 300 municipalities, the system reportedly cuts the yellow-light time by half to ensnare motorists and charge them with running red lights. According to reports, some camera locations jumped from issuing 15 fines per day to more than 1,000. The net-net? The scheme may have fleeced motorists for more than $1.68 million dollars.

 

Arrighetti isn't the only one under investigation. Along with him are 63 chiefs of police and 39 local government officials. Local police are charged with rubber-stamping the automated tickets and sending them out without proper review. If the T-Redspeed system is indeed fraudulently issuing moving violations, it would be the local authorities reaping the benefit from the extra charges incurred.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7862893.stm

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REPORT: Billings, MT rushes to install red-light camera before new state law bans them

 

According to TheNewspaper.com, the city council in Billings, Montana, voted last week to hurriedly approve new automated red-light cameras – conveniently just before they are scheduled to be banned by the state legislature. With a potential clause allowing existing cameras to be grandfathered into legality still in negotiations, Billings would appear to be attempting to load up on the devices before the revenue-enhancing opportunity closes.

 

Making the action even more suspect, TheNewspaper.com is reporting that Billings Chief of Police, Rich St. John (right), is apparently endorsing cutting the duration of the yellow warning lights during the signal changes to further raise revenue. "Changes in the yellow times after red light camera systems are in place and operational will affect the number of photographed violations, increasing the number of violations...," said St. John in a recent memo. While cutting one second from the yellow light may boost ticket income by 110 percent (according to a 2004 Texas Transportation Institute study), it may also increase crashes by up to 225 percent, according to the same study. Addressing the concern in his memo, Chief St. John seems to be content with his solution of simply proving residents with "public information announcements" alerting them to the quicker lights.

 

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/27/2747.asp

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REPORT: Winnipeg police outed for manipulating red-light camera accident data. Again.

de Autoblog de Dan Roth

Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal, Canada

 

Winnipeg authorities are all "Lookie! Crashes are down at the intersections equipped with our spiffy new red-light cameras," but Manitoba Public Insurance and the Winnipeg Sun newspaper are all: "Stop lying!" Winnipeg says its 12 intersections equipped with the electronic sentinels have seen a 37% reduction in crashes since 2002. MPI and the WInnipeg Sun beg to differ, however, saying that insurance claims tell a markedly different, more complete story.

 

Part of the disparity can be attributed to the fact that collisions causing damage under $1,000 don't have to be reported to the police, but claims for those incidents are usually still submitted to insurance. According to the newspaper, the city's use of incomplete statistics to spin data the way it chooses has been going on for a while - it was flagged for the practice in a 2006 finding, and the figures that Manitoba Public Insurance reports figures some 66% higher than the city's figures. To hear the Sun tell it, the government's interest in photo radar appears to continue unabated as long as the money keeps rolling in, and skewed statistics only help make the case for the enforcement technology.

 

http://www.winnipegsun.com/news/columnists/tom_brodbeck/2009/06/10/9747061-sun.html