Red Light Cameras Turned Back On (Houston, Early: unemployment, university, prices)

[baytownb]

The problematic issue with red light cameras brings up the same word that describes the problem with speed cameras: "trap." In the case of Texas, short yellow light times have been found to make it more likely someone will enter the intersection after the red begins to glow - and therefore make it easier to issue ticket.
In one case the length of a yellow light in El Paso was shortened by just a four-tenths of a second and citations jumped by 132%. In another case, a yellow light at a 45-mph intersection in Houston that lasted 3.6 seconds rang up 341% more tickets than the yellow lights at other, similar 45-mph intersections.
Opponents of the red light cameras point to the fact that the duration of yellow lights in these scenarios is often less than the minimum durations proposed by national and state traffic engineering bodies. The Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) has a formula for determining how long a yellow light should stay illuminated, but intersections boasting red light cameras rarely follow those informal guidelines.
In 2003, a study by two researchers at the Texas Transportation Institute published a study that resulted in these findings: "(1) an increase of 0.5 to 1.5 s in yellow duration (such that it does not exceed 5.5 s) will decrease the frequency of red-light-running by at least 50 percent; (2) drivers do adapt to the increase in yellow duration; however, this adaptation does not undo the benefit of an increase in yellow duration; and (3) increasing a yellow interval that is shorter than that obtained from a proposed recommended practice published by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) is likely to yield the greatest return (in terms of a reduced number of red-light violations) relative to the cost of retiming a yellow interval in the field."
In plainer English: increase the time of a yellow light, reduce the number of accidents. A one-second increase in the yellow light time duration resulted in a 40-percent reduction in crashes and a 53% drop in violations. Short Yellow Lights Mean More Tickets, Money For Cities

Loma Linda, CA turns off red light cameras after lengthening yellow light by 1 second and violations dropped 90%

"I believe these red light cameras are ways for city governments to legally extort money from their citizens," said Mayor Rhodes Rigsby, who decided to dump the cameras once the city's contract with Redflex ended.

Loma Linda to remove red light cameras | abc7.com


The Yellow Menace | The Weekly Standard

[baytownb]

Emailing state officials is great, here is one I got over a year ago in a response to if registrations were really being blocked or not. Keep in mind that Harris county has since then decided they will not chose to block registrations, as in the article I mentioned before.


"what I CAN tell you is that "failure to pay a red light camera citation from Houston" CAN get a vehicle registration renewal blocked, as that is what the city's contract with us allows for. It does not, however, mean that it WILL result in a block by the Registration office, as this is their decision to make at the time the registrant shows up to renew. The same thing goes for Baytown or any other city in Texas with a City Scofflaw Interlocal Agreement with us. They have the option to block a renewal, if the registrant shows up to renew and has a Scofflaw flag on their vehicle record; but, our system will not prevent it, should they decide to go ahead and renew the vehicle. Our system will only prevent a renewal of a Scofflaw'd vehicle if the owner goes online from home to renew. Our flag is purely informational
for the clerks at the County Tax Offices. It allows them to make the decision at that time, or to simply follow a mandate their own local government may have put in place for that circumstance.

I hope this helps a bit more to clarify our position as it relates to flagging Scofflaws.

Have an excellent evening!

Linda Williams
TX Dept of Motor Vehicles
VTR/TSB - Scofflaw &
Law Enforcement Programmer
Austin, TX

[jasonamd]

Originally Posted by Trae713

I've seen cars enter on yellow and the light still flashes for them when it turns red.

And in this case, the video should show that the car was in the intersection legally when the light turned and a ticket would not be sent.

[baytownb]

Probably, if the vehicle was completely in the intersection, but the issue is the cameras can issue a citation for a violation of less than a tenth of a second, not even discernable by the naked eye. And depending on how they are calibrated it could issue a ticket for someone whose vehicle was halfway into the intersection when it went from yellow to red. Which is why you see another concern that goes to the root of the question of fairness about the camera tickets. Is it fair to get a ticket for something not even discernable to the naked eye and that a police office most likely wouldn't pull someone over for if they were observing the intersection.

Originally Posted by jasonamd

And in this case, the video should show that the car was in the intersection legally when the light turned and a ticket would not be sent.

[Bily Lovec]

more bull by the fanatics..
please stick to the facts and not your opinions.

ALL violations are reviewed by an HPD officer before they are issued. These are NOT auto-mailed based on a computer generated photo. If you're in the intersection and the light changes to red, you are not issued a ticket. IF you enter the intersection on a red light, you get the ticket.

[TVC15]

Originally Posted by baytownb

Opponents of the red light cameras point to the fact that the duration of yellow lights in these scenarios is often less than the minimum durations proposed by national and state traffic engineering bodies. The Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) has a formula for determining how long a yellow light should stay illuminated, but intersections boasting red light cameras rarely follow those informal guidelines.

Can you find any studies or any proof that this is what is happening in Houston at the red light camera intersections.

Can you please post any good data sources not just a news article...but a real study that shows that the TxDOT is ignoring yellow light timing guidelines just so they can increase the number of red light tickets?

There are plenty of good data sources out there that shows that red light running incidents decrease where there are red light cameras. Not increase. HPD has excellent data showing how much the red light running incidents increase quite at bit once the cameras were turned off. So it just does not follow your argument very well. The data out there does not support your argument.

I emailed HPD and asking them about the Houston Chronicle's claim that since the cameras were turned off there was a 16% reduction in red light accidents. This is the response and data that HPD provided for me.

Attached is the data you requested. The 16 percent number looked at the period immediately before and immediately after the cameras were taken down. It did not account for seasonal driving habits. This data compares November 09-May 10 to November 10-May 11. It clearly shows that when comparing the same time periods, crashed were up more than 137 percent. Major crashes were up 350 percent. Thank you for interest.

[baytownb]

Who said they were auto mailed based on a computer generated photo?

Originally Posted by Bily Lovec

more bull by the fanatics..
please stick to the facts and not your opinions.

ALL violations are reviewed by an HPD officer before they are issued. These are NOT auto-mailed based on a computer generated photo. If you're in the intersection and the light changes to red, you are not issued a ticket. IF you enter the intersection on a red light, you get the ticket.

[baytownb]

Can you find any studies or proof for Houston not put out by people making money off of the cameras?

Originally Posted by TVC15

Can you find any studies or any proof that this is what is happening in Houston at the red light camera intersections.

Can you please post any good data sources not just a news article...but a real study that shows that the TxDOT is ignoring yellow light timing guidelines just so they can increase the number of red light tickets?

There are plenty of good data sources out there that shows that red light running incidents decrease where there are red light cameras. Not increase. HPD has excellent data showing how much the red light running incidents increase quite at bit once the cameras were turned off. So it just does not follow your argument very well. The data out there does not support your argument.

[TVC15]

Originally Posted by baytownb

Can you find any studies or proof for Houston not put out by people making money off of the cameras?

Can you answer my question? It does not support your argument.

I can post a lot of data as far as the sleazy Kubosh's are concerned and what their motivation was in getting Prop 3 on the ballot.

That is my next adventure for everyone to see what this is really about.

Tell me baytownb...how much money as Kubosh lost due to red light camera videos that don't lie thus he can't represent those offenders?

Look at the data graphs that HPD provided. The graphs are for the same time period over a two year span that shows crash data with the cameras and crash data once the cameras were turned off. Now what were you trying to prove again...that red light cameras are a money scam that and the whole conspiracy theory that says the yellow lights are timed in such a way to produce more red light tickets!

The HPD data blows your argument right out of the water...nice try though!

I do my homework very carefully...I don't just grasp at straws and news article conspiracy theory garbage!

[baytownb]

Already posted the Rice university study that mayor white commissioned and tried to bury and have them rewrite, also posted the chronicle article showing HPD data showed accidents went down 16% after the cameras were voted out. Once again, can you show any proof or data from a source not making money off of the cameras? Or does your "outrage" about financial interests only move in one direction?

It is your assertion, based on a smear campaign by the camera company front group that Kubosh is losing money because of the cameras and he can't defend them. Of course no one has ever offered any proof of that and camera tickets don't fare so well when ticket attorneys do get involved. So much for that theory. Get back to me when you have some proof. The evidence doesn't support your position.


Lawyer takes red light cameras to court, again and again - St. Petersburg Times

"His high-volume firm, the Ticket Clinic, will refund its $75 fee if it can't beat a red light camera rap. So far he has challenged about 550 tickets in five counties and not lost one.
Hollander and a handful of other lawyers have figured out that when one ticket bites the dust, dozens more can disappear on the same grounds.
Their persistence has thrown an unexpected wrench into South Florida's headlong rush toward red light cameras and could have big implications for Tampa Bay area cities getting into the business."

Originally Posted by TVC15

Can you answer my question? It does not support your argument.

I can post a lot of data as far as the sleazy Kubosh's are concerned and what their motivation was in getting Prop 3 on the ballot.

That is my next adventure for everyone to see what this is really about.

Tell me baytownb...how much money as Kubosh lost due to red light camera videos that don't lie thus he can't represent those offenders?

Look at the data graphs that HPD provided for me. The graphs are for the same time period during over a two year span that shows crash data with the cameras and crash data once the cameras were turned off.