No matter which position you take on the using of red light cameras to fine those who run thru red lights, when reading the above linked Toledo Blade article this jumped out at me as an "excuse me?" moment:
Mr. Kaplan said documents provided by the city show that $279,000 of the nearly $1.1 million collected in 2004 went to the city, and the remaining $800,000 was given to RedFlex.
Yes, that states the company RedFlex is making more from red light violators than the City of Toledo. Seems like more of a funding deal for RedFlex...I haven't gone back into the records to see who approved this but I really have to wonder.
I suppose the bright side is when they are declared illegal Toledo won't be out the money for cameras...The shear numbers aspect that many people ran red those particular 17 red lights to create that kind of revenue is disturbing. Given the number of red lights in Toledo the realization that we have that many drivers out on the road that don't care about safety immediately came to mind. I also can't help but wonder if some attention to making it so the lights were syncronized better to stop some of the stop and go issues that I see on a daily basis might be a small step not only for better fuel usage due to less time waiting at lights but less red lights.
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11 comments:
Lisa - I recall some initial discussions about this when I was Clerk...
The thought was that it may not be a majority of the money from the camera enforcement, but it was money the city wasn't going to have otherwise...so the logic was: some is better than none.
Maggie, that could very well be the logic behind this. Yet when the disparity is that much you can't help but wonder if the City got a good deal.
It is probably better to only collect a smaller percentage than to have purchased the cameras as well as have to fund repairs/maintenance. Especially given the current legal questions. It does seem however at first glance that RedFlex is getting quite a bit of profit unless these lights are extremely expensive to operate and maintain and one also wonders why there are no Ohio companies who are doing this. Though I'm sure Arizona appreciates the business.
:-)
I used to live on the corner of Dorr and Secor. I could count on at least 4-5 accidents a week sometime daily on that corner. Once the red light camera was put up the number of accidents on that corner drastically went down. Sorry no statistics.
I'm sure that the amount of money that has been saved by the citizens of Toledo in accident repair and hospital bills has been huge due to the cameras. I can totally believe that they have generated over $1,000,000. Some drivers in this town are totally reckless.
As I recall - RedFlex gets a big percentage for the first 3 years or so then the percentage turns around and the city gets the larger percentage.
Mark, my oldest daughter lives on Dorr near Byrne. She states she sees accidents almost daily. Mainly fender benders but it's obvious that people aren't driving as careful as they should.
It's unfortunate that it would take the threat of a camera at 17 intersections to make people drive as they should drive.
I've seen some stats that support your belief from some areas as well as some that state there have been increased rear end accidents from people who stop more quickly. I think it depends on the area, you could argue both for and against the cameras depending on which one you felt was more accurate.
Take this Washington Post article as one example. It covers both sides, one side that states accidents increased and another that states without the cameras there could be more accidents. It also shows that DC has more violators than we do given the number of fines and the income raised.
:-)
Not sure anonymous - the program was approved in 1999 and according to what I've read started in January of 2001. So if it was for the first three years that a higher amount was collected it should have been over for 2004. All of 2001, all of 2002 and all of 2003 would equal three years. If that percentage reported in 2004 is the higher amount? Hate to see what the profit for RedFlex was before then.
I found out that Columbus when adding this had a contract offer that Redflex gets 75 percent of each ticket for the first 1,000 tickets or 65 percent if more than 1,000 are issued.
Appears RedFlex is not a US based company from reading this.
The City of Cary got an even worse deal:
At an expected collection rate of 90%, the $50 citations will amount to $121,500 per month. At the fee schedule shown above, at 162 citations collected per intersection per month, Redflex would receive monthly revenues of $108,000 and the Town would collect $13,500 per month (system-wide).
link
I know that our legal system doesn't work like this but I would love it if there was some way to get approval from the courts. I would think that if the city was going to install an expensive and possibly legally controversial camera system it would be nice if they could take the proposal to the courts and get some sort of stamp for it to say that this was constitutional or not. That way if someone complains then you can just point them to the stamp and say case dismissed. Of course the ability to reinterpret the law is always needed.
It just bugs me that someone would get that upset about getting caught by a camera, obviously doing something wrong, and take it to court. The article even says that you just get a fine it doesn't even put a point on your record.
Put me down in favor, though I'd like to see the city get a bigger cut. Monroe/Secor used to have 4 or 5 cars stretch the yellow on a routine basis. Cameras made the problem go away. I'm not sure yet about the speeding cameras because sometimes it can be safer to go a bit faster if it keeps things flowing.
Lisa,
People these days don’t give a damn about mere traffic laws, they can't be bothered.
On the money split, you may not fully understand that RedFlex, out of their portion/cut, has many expenses that must be covered.
Initial cost of the equipment,
Equipment installation costs,
Internet connections at each intersection,
Utility and maintenance costs,
Cost to preview and sort out the likely provable offenses/offenders,
The cost to relay the likely offenses to the Toledo Police for review,
Graft/corruption/kickbacks..., strike that.
Associated consultant's and other incentives fees, finder's fees, additional consulting fees,
Well now, you just might have a little better idea that the 80% isn't all that it's cracked up to be, once you consider the costs/expenses...
"I also can't help but wonder if some attention to making it so the lights were synchronized better to stop some of the stop and go issues that I see on a daily basis might be a small step not only for better fuel usage due to less time waiting at lights but less red lights."
As I recall, the last traffic engineer that truly understood traffic flow (C.E. Riser), left years ago. Those attempting to fill his shoes are mere "wannabe's."
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