Bluff City officials enjoying speed camera revenue windfall

AP - via Kingsport Times-News ^

[don-o]

BLUFF CITY, Tenn. (AP) — Bluff City officials are enjoying the extra revenue from speed cameras that have generated more than a million dollars in a little over a year, but the windfall could be short-lived.

Between Jan. 1, 2010, and May 31, 2011, the cameras on U.S. Highway 11E in Piney Flats issued 39,923 citations to drivers, including now Gov. Bill Haslam, who was ticketed last year when he was caught speeding during his campaign.

The tickets netted the city nearly $1.6 million — an amount equal to eight times Bluff City's total property tax collections from the last fiscal year — during that period, according to the Bristol Herald Courier.

[don-o]

Read it all

This is the famous camera located between Johnson City and the Bristol Motor Speedway.

[Michael.SF.]

40,000 tickets and only $1.6 million?

These guys need to up the fine and make some real cash. $40.00 a ticket is chump change.

/sarcasm

[IdratherbeatPemberley]

Great! We just drove that stretch of road yesterday. We live in this area and I had no idea about this camera. I guess I need to pay closer attention to local news.

[Grut]

All fines for anything should go into a common fund that's shared out to a state's taxpayers once a year. Keeps the courts from being treated as a cash cow and lets government employees concerned for 'safety' say so with a straight face.

Of course, it's possible that there won't be so much enthusiasm for safety programs once that's the case.

[ketelone]

Or maybe you just need to pay attention to how fast youre going? ;)

[red-dawg]

Speed cameras aren't anywhere near where I live and I'm too lazy to look it up.

What sort of "tolerance" are built into these systems?

How far over the limit can you go before it kicks into gear?

[Gumption]

12 mph in Maryland.

[JimRed]

I had a parking ticket yesterday; my car overlapped a yellow curb by about three feet. $55.00.

[TStro]

Texas passed a law years back aimed at speed traps. It was aimed at a few (IIRC one was at Quitaqua) that required municipalities to share revenue collected on state hwys with the state. Really cut back on crooked speed traps.
One small town near here (Agua Dulce, TX) uses the dirty trick of catching the first cars through the school zone as the school zone light starts in the morning, though it wasn’t flashing as they passed it. It still wasn’t flashing after he stopped me. He gave me a ticket anyway.