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Red Light CamerasRed Light Cameras are popping up everywhere in Ohio; Cleveland, Akron, Cincinnati, Toledo. You may think this is a great way to increase motorist safety? No...it's the newest way to boost city revenue, and the long arm of the law could be reaching deep into your pocket next. Point of reference: In its first four years with traffic cameras to catch red-light runners, Washington, D.C., sent out more than 361,000 tickets and netted more than $20.9 million. Cleveland Ohio Mayor Jane Campbell made no bones about it. She expects to collect $6 million in annual revenue by the end of 2005. Running a red light typically results in a $150 fine. If the cameras are installed by spring, as Campbell hopes, the city would have to issue about 150 tickets a day to meet the mayor's $6 million goal by the end of 2005. The city of Akron Ohio claims they are not installing red light cameras as a means of making money for the city, but the camera Akron wants to buy is known as the ProCam Laser Device. The camera costs $9,200, but the expectation is that it could generate as much as $3,000 in revenue a day. Toledo has become Ohio's proving ground for red-light cameras. In January 2001, the city started installing the cameras under the home-rule powers granted to municipalities under Ohio law, according to John Madigan, general counsel for Toledo. Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Redflex Traffic Systems operates the cameras. Images are reviewed twice by the company based on Toledo's criteria, and vehicle ownership information is confirmed with the state's Bureau of Motor Vehicles; the photos are then transmitted to a Toledo police officer, who determines if a ticket should be issued, according to Lt. Louis Borucki, head of the traffic section. In the year since the cameras started clicking, police have ticketed more than 8,000 red-light violators at $75 per violation. Are Red Light Cameras Actually Safe?A
brand new, exhaustive study of all seven How Red Light Cameras Work In a typical system, cameras are positioned at the corners of an intersection, on poles a few yards high. The cameras point inward, so they can photograph cars driving through the intersection. Generally, a red-light system has cameras at all four corners of an intersection, to photograph cars going in different directions and get pictures from different angles. Systems use either film cameras or digital cameras. There are a number of trigger technologies, but they all serve the same purpose: They detect when a car has moved past a particular point in the road. Red-light systems typically have two induction-loop triggers positioned under the road near the stop line (more on this later).The computer is the brains behind the operation. It is wired to the cameras, the triggers and the traffic-light circuit itself. The computer constantly monitors the traffic signal and the triggers. If a car sets off a trigger when the light is red, the computer takes two pictures to document the violation. The first picture shows the car just on the edge of the intersection and the second picture typically shows the offender in the intersection and records the date, time of day, the elapsed time since the light turned red and the vehicle's speed. Tickets are mailed after the photographic evidence is reviewed. Critics charge the process can be manipulated to generate more money for a city. One way, they say, is through so-called "short-lighting" — reducing the yellow times at intersections. In San Diego, red-light camera citations dropped 90 percent at one intersection when the caution time was increased from three seconds to 4.7 seconds; in Ohio, the yellow-light intervals are supposed to range from approximately three to six seconds, according to the state's traffic-control device manual. Ohio's Defense Against Red Light Cameras
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News Articles on Red Light Cameras in OhioCampbell Says Red Light Cameras May Be City's Ticket to Solvency Cleveland to use cameras to catch traffic violators Akron Catching Up with Speeders We at PhantomPlateSales.com do not condone intentional running of red lights. |
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