More on Texas Red light cameras
Red-light special: Traffic cameras blossom in Texas
Texans, or at least their back bumpers, should get ready for their closeups. Lots of them.
Red light cameras, and the through-the-mail citations they generate, have caught on in cities and hamlets across the state.
More than a dozen municipalities, including Dallas and Houston, have them in place to catch red light runners. And more than 60 cities joined an informal “red light camera coalition” that hovered over the Legislature this spring as it considered how to regulate the emerging trend.
Last week I am pretty sure I went through a red it was either slam on the brakes or go through the yellow, when I got to the intersection I saw it turn red and I don’t know if I was in the intersection or still before it when it did. I am not even sure if the street has a red light cameras. I know there was a camera because it seems like every San Antonio light has a camera on it but who knows if it was one of those types of cameras. I have been watching my mail though in fact as soon as it happened I did the worst possible thing and called someone cell on mine to ask if Terrell Hills had red-light cameras. Certainly not my best driving hour. A new law to regulate red light cameras seems like it might be good. I noticed the new light right down the street from me has the shortest yellow cycle I have ever seen and I had certainly been thinking they had set it up so that they could catch people going through a red.
Red-light special: Traffic cameras blossom in Texas
As for the revenue-versus-safety question, key legislators moved this session to ensure that cities will have as little financial incentive as possible to install cameras. The result was Senate Bill 1119, which was carried by state Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, and signed by Perry last week. It will go into effect Sept. 1.
The bill, at least for new contracts, will ban the practice of paying vendors based on how many tickets or how much revenue their cameras generate. Cities can pay a set fee per month for each camera, which in existing contracts is about $5,000 a camera each month.
Cities will also have to give half of their net revenue to “regional trauma accounts” — after deducting the costs of buying, operating and maintaining the cameras as well as the expense of collecting the fines. The remaining 50 percent can be used only for “traffic safety programs.”
The new law, in answer to suspicions that cities might foreshorten yellow light cycles to catch more people with the cameras, also requires that the yellow period be at least as long as recommended in a state traffic control manual. It requires an engineering study of each intersection to see whether a design change might reduce red-light violations in lieu of a camera and instructs cities to install warning signs about the cameras at least 100 feet back from the intersection. And the law limits fines to $75 and late payment penalties to $25.
That certainly takes care of municipalities using red light cameras for profit as opposed to safety. I don’t think they were ever really profit motivated, I am sure that was a happy side effect of the cameras but I am sure they were thought up with the best intentions. How many of us haven’t almost been killed by some jerk that doesn’t think red applies to him. Of course some of these cities are going to have amazing traffic safety program soon if they don’t find a loophole. Given that our legislature finds ways to spend earmarked funds just about any way they want I am betting there are loopholes but let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.
Technorati Tags: red-light cameras, tickets, Texas, SB 1119. John Carona
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