Los Angeles Red Light Cameras Lead To Increased Accidents

Thanks to an excellent piece of investigative journalism by David Goldstein of Los Angeles television station KCAL, motorists are getting the real accident numbers at Los Angeles camera-enforced intersections.

The city has claimed that the cameras reduced accidents by 34%, but a little fact-checking proved this assertion wrong:

Is it money or safety? We wanted to know actual numbers of accidents at red light camera intersections to see if they really went down.

When we asked, the LAPD became very defensive. The sergeant in charge told me in an e-mail, “The city would hope that it is the goal of KCBS/KCAL to discuss the positive aspects of the photo red light program.”

So we filed a public records request. The department charged us more than $500 for a computer run. When we got the numbers back, they told a different story.

We looked at every accident at every red light camera intersection for six months of data before the cameras were installed and six months after.

The final figures? Twenty of the 32 intersections show accidents up after the cameras were installed! Three remained the same and only nine intersections showed accidents decreasing.

Charging extravagant prices for information requests is a common tactic by cities with ticket camera programs who are trying to hide unfavorable results (one city recently took it one step further and just stopped keeping track once they figured out that accidents were increasing.)

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9 Cities Where Citizens Voted To Ban Ticket Cameras

Despite claims by the ticket camera industry that most drivers support the use of ticket cameras, the automatic ticketing devices have never survived a public vote. That trend continued this week as three more cities were forced to shut down their cameras due to citizen ballot initiatives.

From the archives of TheNewspaper.com, here is a compilation of nine cities that have voted to ban ticket cameras:

1) Chillicothe, Ohio November 2009

In addition to kicking two camera supporters off the city council, 72 percent of those voting in Chillicothe, Ohio approved a total prohibition on the use of red light cameras and speed cameras. Prior to the vote, in order to protect their revenue stream, Redflex Traffic Systems sent a glossy mailer to every voter while the mayor demanded that the Ohio Supreme Court ban the public from even voting on the issue — a move high court justices swiftly rejected.

2) Heath, Ohio November 2009

In Heath, voters were bombarded with the same advertisements from Redflex, but they failed to persuade a majority. Voters also defeated Mayor Richard Waugh who had introduced photo enforcement as the signature issue of his administration.

3) College Station, Texas November 2009

The city’s automated ticketing vendor American Traffic Solutions (ATS) bankrolled a front group to conduct mass mailings and push polling in an effort to save the program that would have earned the company more than $11 million over the life of the contract. The ATS-funded group reported raising $71,240 in contributions, but not one dollar came from anyone living in the local community. To supplement the vendor’s effort, the city allocated taxpayer money to send red light camera promotional material to every voter. Despite all this, local citizens still voted to get rid of the cameras.

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MD Cities Create Fake School Zones To Install Speed Cameras

According to TheNewspaper.com, Maryland cities will create brand new “school zones” in an attempt to issue speed camera tickets on roads that previously had no need of the designation.

The speed cameras were authorized six months ago after intensive lobbying efforts by the ticket camera industry. The legislature knew that the driving public would not approve of speed cameras being allowed on all roads so they included a provision that the cameras could only be used within a half mile of a school zone as a way to combat opposition.

The city of Baltimore has decided to exploit a loophole in the legislation and is creating new school zones to allow speed cameras to be installed. TheNewspaper.com explains:

The city’s plan is to take a number of roads that are within the legally required distance to a school but are in areas where children do not regularly walk. Baltimore will install “school zone” signs on these roads for the sole purpose of meeting the legal requirement that the speed cameras be used only in a school zone. The new zones include Charles Street at Lake Avenue, Northern Parkway at Greenspring, Pulaski Highway at Monument Street and Roland Avenue at West Cold Spring.

Baltimore is not alone. In New Carrollton, two of the five proposed speed camera locations were not in actual, existing school zones.

“Speaking as a parent of two small children myself,” the editor of StopBigBrotherMD.org wrote, “if these were legitimate locations for school zones we might ask why public officials put the safety of children at risk by not bothering to do the inexpensive bare minimum step of marking the locations as school zones and alerting drivers to the presence of a school nearby… until there was a revenue motive for doing so.”

The city’s greed will also have negative long-term effects on school zone safety in the state. Once drivers figure out that these fake school zones never have any children near them, they are likely to begin ignoring them. Eventually this will lead to drivers having less respect for legitimate school zones in the area.

How To Safely Jump Start A Car With A Dead Battery

By Eric Peters, Automotive Columnist

Almost everyone will, at some point in their lives, have to deal with a car that won’t start because of a weak or dead battery. Jump-starting a car is simple but a few cautions should be observed:

1) Look under the hoods of both cars; pull the car with the good battery as close to the car with the dead battery as possible without the cars physically touching.

2) Put both vehicles in Park, depress the parking brake, shut off the engine (jumper car), turn the ignition switch to “off” for both cars and disconnect any plug-in accessories such as cell phones, iPods or radar detectors. The reason for this is to prevent current draw to accessories, which will make the car harder to start – and to protect accessories from possible power spikes through the system during the jump-starting process.

3) Inspect both batteries for signs of physical damage, in particular, cracks in the case and/or leaking fluid. If you see either, forget about jumping and call a tow truck. Attempting to jump-start a leaking battery could result in a catastrophic explosion resulting from sparks igniting volatile gasses escaping from the battery.

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