Posted on 08/01/2009 2:52:45 PM PDT by buccaneer81
4 weeks, 10,000 traffic tickets Heath officials say they didn't expect such a windfall Saturday, August 1, 2009 3:01 AM By Josh Jarman THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH HEATH, Ohio -- City officials say they were shocked by the number of violations recorded during the first month of traffic-camera enforcement and decided to make it cheaper to protest multiple tickets.
More than 10,000 violations had been recorded by Heath traffic cameras through Tuesday. At $100 apiece, that would net the city a little more than $830,000 after paying the vendor, Redflex, its share.
In four weeks, the cameras will have generated an amount equivalent to roughly 12 percent of the Licking County community's annual budget -- and a lot of anger.
Mayor Richard Waugh said the city's intention was not to saddle drivers with four, six or sometimes eight or more tickets. Citations were not mailed for almost three weeks, however, to give City Council members a chance to modify the program in response to the high number of violations.
That meant some drivers racked up several over a period of days without realizing it until a bundle of tickets arrived in the mail.
Waugh said he sympathizes with drivers facing multiple fines. "If someone was pulled over by police and given a ticket once, that would be enough to modify driving behavior."
Before yesterday, drivers who sought to have their tickets dismissed would have had to post a full $100 bond for each one. Now, they will have to post $100 on only the first ticket to fight all of them, Waugh said. The hearing officer has been instructed to be lenient in cases of similar violations, he said, adding that he hopes that could lead to dismissal of up to half the tickets sent in July.
Waugh said that would cut the city's take, but the cameras were never about money. He said no specific purpose has been identified for the fines, which will go into the city's roughly $7 million general fund.
The cameras have generated fewer tickets each week, and Waugh said the city had expected the number to level off at about 400 a month. He said the city anticipated generating an additional $100,000 from fines this year.
But opponents still call the cameras a cash-grab by the city, questioning their effectiveness as safety devices. Ten cameras watch over six intersections, looking for speeders, red-light runners and other violators. Signs at the intersections warn that the cameras are in use.
According to statistics compiled by the Ohio Department of Transportation, 16 of the 408 traffic crashes reported on Rt. 79 from Hopewell Drive to Irving Wick Drive between 2006 and 2008 were caused by someone running a red light. Six were attributed to cars traveling faster than the 35-mph speed limit. Following too closely was reported as the greatest contributing factor in most crashes, which overwhelmingly were rear-end collisions.
A similar report for Rt. 79 south of Irving Wick found that one of 38 crashes in the same period was caused by speeding. Two speed-enforcement cameras at Coffman Boulevard in that area accounted for more than half of all the tickets issued last month.
Heath Police Chief Tony Shepherd said ODOT's crash data does not tell the whole story. In most noninjury crashes, police do not have the time or manpower to conduct crash-reconstruction analysis, he said. The speeds listed on those crash reports are the speeds reported by the drivers.
Shepherd said officers typically write about 100 traffic tickets a month, mainly because his department is too short-staffed to devote significant time to enforcement.
Shepherd and Waugh disagree with those who say the speed limit at Coffman is artificially low. The four-lane road there travels through a less-congested area of some businesses and homes before opening up to fairly rural countryside south of the city.
Every day in summer, more than 1,500 children travel to the city water park, about a block north of the Coffman intersection near City Hall, Waugh said.
He said raising the speed limit along that stretch would put residents in danger, considering how many drivers already exceed it.
"The speed limit has been 35 there for 40 years," Waugh said, "and there are three signs telling you that before you get to Coffman."
jjarman@dispatch.com
It helps the purpose of revenue generation if the yellow light is about 1 second. Now motorists will be slamming on the brakes as soon as it turns yellow, causing more rear-enders. But then the City gets more revenue, as they can give a ticket to the driver at fault. Its win, win and win for the city.
I have been T-boned by red-light runner....even if I hadn't been I'd still have absolutely no problem with this technology.
I did the T-boning once. The other guy ran the light and a semi hit me from behind. Had I been breaking, I would have been crushed.
Same here. Two cars in the last ten years at the same intersection, Hilliard-Rome and Renner.
Anymore out here, you don’t dare start moving when the light turns green, because you’ll be t-boned by four or five cars that regularly run every single light cycle at just about every intersection in town.
The people who bitch about red light cameras are usually one of the offenders who is mad about being caught by one. Pay the fine and stop running the red light.
Problem solved.
It is getting to the point where you have to come to a complete stop at these red-light intersection, even if the light is green, then procede only after the next time the light turns green. Hopefully, you can make it through the intersection before the camera catches you?
http://www.radarbusters.com/photo-radar/license-plate-shields/6524+6528+4293856170.cfm
Also, flip down your visor to hide your face, wear sunglasses, and register your vehicle in your spouse's name. Do not check your mailed ticket on-line (you admit to receiving it).
“the cameras were never about money”???????? They were never about anything BUT money.
They can’t be about reducing accidents, when the cameras are said to cause more rear-enders at yellow lights, now can they?
And when the revenues fall from people becoming more wary, at least in my small city, they worry about how they’re going to pay the big monthly fees to the camera providers. What do you suppose this leads to? Shortened yellow lights. Then the people notice that and start complaining. Only to be told “we tested them and you are wrong”. I wonder what comes next.
Careful in Columbus
I think there is an iPhone application for that already.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.