Clive, Iowa was facing the same problem with accident-prone intersections as many towns and cities across the country and like many others, they turned to red light automatic ticketing cameras to solve their problem. The company that runs the camera system, Redflex, received $56.50 per $100 ticket that their system issued and the City of Clive got to keep the rest. The city decided to place red light cameras at 9 different intersection in the city.
A few years passed and in conjunction with the other enforcement efforts city-wide, the number of accidents started decreasing. In 2012, the city decided to double the number of intersections with ticket cameras. The numbers looked promising. From 2008 through 2012, the number of accidents decreased from 330 to 244 per year.
Then the city council looked closer at the data. While the total number of accidents had decreased city-wide by about 22%, the number of accidents at the intersections with red light cameras had actually increased by over 100%. Despite the claims of the proponents of red light cameras, not only were they not making the roads safer, it seemed that they were actually causing more accidents.
In an interview with “Land Line Now,” City Councilman Michael McCoy told them that “accidents at the red-light camera-enforced intersections have increased anywhere from 100 to 105 percent. That just tells you exactly what you need to know.”
The city of Clive will be phasing out the cameras and repealing the ordinance that allowed them. They will be shut off for good on June 30th 2014. In the mean time, the city has struck a deal with Redflex to only pay them $43.50 for every ticket issued.
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Source: landline
Image Source: nytrafficticket
I’d tell them come and get your cameras,or
We’re going to charge a storage fee
Now now, the town is trying to be honest.
(For once.)
Its anout time at least one city figured the truth about these “money makers” and the trouble they really create.
What wasn’t pointed out was the TYPE of accidents…And from experience those would undoubtedly be rear end collisions to those who are SOOO paranoid about getting a ticket they stop short, and the vehicle behind is unprepared for that. Happens here in Tampa all the time and I AM Prepared as I see it happen a lot….Worst City for that? Tucson, Az. They hae cams at nearly every single intersection.
They ended up removing Redflex cameras in the city of Tempe, AZ simply because no one was paying the fines. They would ignore the ticket and if the picture wasn’t clear enough, they couldn’t figure out who to serve. They were actually loosing money by still having to pay for the tickets.
I have a friend that is a police officer that works in the court house. When a red lite ticket is disputed his job is to go check it out. He has found more times than not the timed yellow light has been shortened. This causes more pictures of pe0ple supposedly running the light when in fact they did not due to manipulation of the timing of the light sequence.
I actually pulled up to a camera inforced intersection, put on my brakes, looked both ways (it was at an overpass) and made my legal right hand turn on red. And got a ticket for running a red light. There was no place local for me to dispute it (it had to be done online) & because the title is in my husbands’ name, who happens to be a trucker and gone most of the time, they didn’t want to hear anything I had to say anyway. Hence, I paid a $70 illegal red light ticket. Beware, overpass intersection north bound 820 East at Randol Mill Rd, Fort Worth, TX
It is GOOD that the Clive council decided to let the camera contract expire on June 30, 2014.
It is tragic they turned the cameras back on from now until then to rack up more crashes than would have to occur, and to pick the pockets of residents and visitors of another $1 million dollars before the predatory red light camera cash registers that cause more crashes get silenced for good.
Folks are forgetting the main point here… If everyone would start to drive responsibly, there would be no need to have those red-light cameras. When you see the light change to yellow, you are supposed to safely slow down and stop, not gun the engine and race through the intersection even if you don’t have room on the other side. THAT is where the accidents come from, folks racing through on a yellow light.
People in this country treat speed limit, stop, and red lights as if they were a suggestion. Although we as Americans have a lot of rights we do NOT have the right to brake the LAW.
Read more on the RLC CON!
http://www.motorists.org
http://www.banthecams.org
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