The Golden Fleece
Those of you who are of the "government is good!" school and "the bigger, the better," you need to think hard on that the next time you get a parking ticket that, in price, is edging rather close to that of a car payment.
Bureaucrats have to pay for their big government somehow, and one of the best ways to do that is to stick it to all of us in the form of exorbitant fees for things. But, hey, no new taxes!
A Texis pol, John Carona, a State Senator from Dallas, said that those red light cams need to stay up -- for the money, not the safety. On The Truth About Cars blog, another Texas lawmaker, State Senator John Whitmire, explains:
State Senator John Whitmire (D-Houston), who was first elected to the legislature in 1973, appeared on KTRH radio's morning news program to discuss how public opposition to red light cameras persuaded legislators to devote some of the camera profit to trauma centers."People went to Austin protesting it, and so John Carona -- a senator from Dallas -- didn't want to eliminate them," Whitmire explained. "He said, you know, it's obviously a revenue source. Local communities try to sell it as public safety, cutting down on red light running. He and I and I think most people would realize it's really a revenue source. John Carona in Austin said, I'm not going to eliminate but let the state have half of that revenue dedicated to trauma care which is badly underfunded."
Though the money was promised to trauma care centers, over $4.1 million of this money has remained in the state's general fund and not been distributed to the trauma centers.
...Houston's cameras were ultimately shut down, but only after a heated legal and political battle. A federal judge even intervened to overturn the results of a public vote on the matter.
"It is a bad deal and the people acted on it and repealed it," Whitmire said. "The issue of red light cameras, I was always suspect about it. I never thought it was about public safety. The greatest number of red light citations are issued to people who don't come to a complete stop on turning right or similar violations. It's a civil ticket, that shows you how insincere they are about it."
via @JonHenke
Mayor Bach, the new warlord of Colorado Springs, ordered the cameras shut down because they had no effect on safety. Some of the city council wanted to keep the money flowing, so the Mayor had someone cut the cables. Not unplugged: dangling severed wire hanging from each red light enforcement eye.
So far i like this guy.
Storm Saxon's Gall Bladder at January 19, 2012 5:23 AM
Linndale speed trap survives yet another legislator's attempt to flatten its tires: Michael K. McIntyre's Tipoff
This happens all over. They've been trying to shut it down for years.
Jim P. at January 19, 2012 6:16 AM
I hate red light cameras. Just like the example in the article, I've received a few tickets for not stopping completely on a right turn, or making the right a split second before a green arrow pops up.
$50 a pop, plus a $15 "admin" fee.
I've even read that red light cameras cause more accidents because drivers slam on their brakes when they see a yellow, and get rear-ended.
http://www.leftlanenews.com/study-finds-red-light-cameras-could-actually-cause-more-accidents.html
Doodman at January 19, 2012 6:30 AM
$50 a pop, plus a $15 "admin" fee.
That's cheap. Here, in Tallahassee it's a whopping $158. I think it is split evenly between the city and the camera vendor.
In most cases, they monitor the worst intersections. Which means that I avoid those intersections in the interest of safety. If they really wanted to promote safety, they would simply add another second or three to the time when the lights are red in all directions.
I R A Darth Aggie at January 19, 2012 8:38 AM
Rolling through a red light or stop sign in California is over $400. Take that, Red Staters!
Harry Bergeron at January 19, 2012 10:55 AM
It's a civil ticket because that "right to confront one's accuser" bit has yet to be removed from the Constitution.
MarkD at January 19, 2012 10:56 AM
We had three unpaid parking tickets and the city towed the car. (They towed the car on the third ticket. We paid the other two, but the payments were never processed.) On top of the tickets themselves, we had to pay for the tow truck the city used and the two days in the pound. This situation cost us $800 total.
MonicaP at January 19, 2012 1:19 PM
Some years ago, there was a town in Alabama called Fruithurst, which was a notorious speed trap. Traffic from what was then an unfinished section of Interstate 20 between Atlanta and Birmingham had to detour through the town, and they were raking it in.
One day, the attorney general's son got a ticket there. The next day, the attorney general went to the town and fired its entire police force. (The attorney general is constitutionally the head of all state police forces in Alabama.) The town was subsequently dis-incorporated. It doesn't even appear on maps anymore.
So the lesson is: Stuff like this will persist until someone powerful (or one of their family) is inconvenienced by it. Then it will end.
Cousin Dave at January 19, 2012 7:08 PM
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