With nearly 60% of the House members in Iowa legislature voting to ban photo ticketing, yesterday, House File 2540 passed after a brief delay before the vote.

Iowans haven’t been shy in their desire to rid themselves of these automated ticketing machines that now litter their highways, as well as intersections. After some House members had tried to kill the bill before a vote, voters reached out to Speaker Paulsen, who brought it back to the floor, when some had called the bill dead.

Clearly, the pressure got to him. Quoted from RadioIowa.com on March 31st:

“The problem is, well, how are these going to develop over time and experience in other states tell us that instead of a focus on public safety, it will turn into a focus on money, so it seems to me that we ought to be able to provide some regulatory framework for them to operate in,” Paulsen says. “But if we can’t do that, I’m not interested in leaving an unfettered, I guess culture of surveillance or government surveillance out there. I don’t think that’s acceptable either.”

The numerous violations of constitutional rights weren’t mentioned in his reasons for resurrecting the legislation, but the money factor obviously played a heavy role. With last night’s vote, Paulsen undoubtedly feels much better about his reelection prospects.

As it turns out, this is a fairly partisan issue in Iowa legislature, with the Republicans voting against the cameras and a vast majority of Dems voting to keep them.

Credit goes to Rep Walt Rogers, (R)-Cedar Falls, for sticking with this bill while it lost some momentum after the early proceedings. Rogers echoed the sentiments of voters, who have banned photo ticketing every chance they’ve had, no matter what state or city has given them the chance to vote on the system.

Rogers was quoted in Quad City Times:

Rogers said he has spoken with several people as he worked on the legislation over the last few months and a common thread to all those conversations was a single word.

“That word was ‘hate.’ ‘Hate’ in the sense that people hate these things,” Rogers said. He said the safety data from the cameras was “conflicting at best; at worst, it’s misleading.”

More on yesterday’s proceedings on this vote can be found in The Sioux City Journal. [link]

Now that House members in Iowa have all gone on record, it’s time for the Senate to do the same, but there are no guarantees that a floor vote will happen. 

If there was ever a time to put the pressure on your legislators to get rid of these cameras, now is the time Iowa.

More info on Iowa legislature and contact info can be found here [link].

Des Moines Automated Ticketing Machine

Arizona has long been an easy target for flashing bandits installed by Redflex and American Traffic Solutions (ATS). One of the chief reasons for this is that those two private (foreign - Redflex) vendors get to make up almost all the rules, including where an intersection starts.

Arizona is one of only two states who don’t clearly define an intersection and it leads to a lot of dangerous practices by both Redflex and ATS, such as painting confusing “imaginary” lines in intersections.

The city of Tucson is one of the worst offenders in this category and has even been reprimanded by the Federal Highway Administration for illegal intersection lines.

The East Valley Tribune’s article points out that intersection lines could be clearly defined, if new legislation passes in the form of HB 2557, which is working its way through state legislature.

The article also points out that since Tempe, AZ has ditched their photo ticketing program, accidents have dropped. Maybe Arizona will join the rest of the country in defining just where an intersection starts instead of leaving that up to the scamera profiteers, just as they typically do with all their traffic laws in the last decade.

[READ MORE]

The Washington Times has just published an editorial about massive proposed increases in scamera ticketing in D.C. by the district’s mayor, Vincent C. Gray.

Gray is making no secret that the only reason for this move is to close a massive budget shortfall, to the tune of $172 Million. As we know, in the end, the only one to really profit will be American Traffic Solutions who will undoubtedly leave the district high and dry, citizens angry and promised revenues missing from the public coffers.

As accurately pointed out in this editorial, there is only so much these money grubbers can squeeze out of the motoring public, no matter how many traps they set out:

As experience has shown with the failed photo ticketing programs in Los Angeles and Houston, there’s only so much that drivers will take before they simply stop paying the citations.

[READ MORE]

With all the government contractors slithering around in the state of Virginia, you’d think the red light camera proliferation would be much wider than it is.

They are about to get a hot injection of fraud in up to 20 intersections. 

The video from WJLA.com explains the public stance by the PD and County, but what’s missed here is that there are many other solutions to a high volume of accidents and/or violations. “Enforcement,” either by police or unmanned spy cameras is no substitute for proper traffic engineering.

At least the public is now aware that the contractor, Redflex, will take home the majority of profits from the new and enhanced photo ticket scheme.

The intersection mentioned almost definitely has poor signal timing if police enforcement hasn’t quelled the problem.

There’s no way to know without examining Gleib Rd and Washington Blvd and recording the details of yellow light intervals with a timer and video camera.

Since county officials and PD have refused to turn the matter over to city traffic engineers, it’s time for citizens to take that matter in to their own hands.