News
First LA, Now Houston…No More Red Light Camera Enforcement Thursday, August 25th, 2011
Houston is the most recent city to say no to red-light camera enforcement, ending it’s program yesterday.
Opponents of the red-light cameras claim they did not make intersections more safe, were an invasion of privacy and that this is the beginning of a nationwide trend to abandon the devices.
Supporters claim that these cameras do indeed save lives and that more than 500 municipalities, including Washington DC and New York, are still successfully employing camera programs.
Houston residents voted nine months ago to end the camera enforcement program. After months of legal challenges to this vote, the Houston City Council voted to end the program, even though cancellation could cost the city as much as $25 million.
Several on the council who voted to end the program still maintain that they support the cameras but indicated the importance of respecting “the will of the people.”
Los Angeles saw it’s camera program come to an end after the City Council voted on July 31 7-5 to allow their contract to expire without renewal.
LAPD claims these cameras did increase safety, citing a 62% decrease in red-light traffic collisions. However, it’s worth noting that opponents have always questioned the safety related “evidence” in support of red light cameras. For example, does this 62% number take into account the number of rear end accidents caused by people slamming on their brakes in fear of a camera summons or the number of accidents caused by people cutting corners or traveling residential roadways to avoid major camera enforced intersections?
The main issue in LA was that the program was ineffective because fines were not always collected. One Councilman cited the courts failure to use the tools at their disposal to hold people responsible and force them to pay their fines. Instead, too many fines went uncollected and what would have been a profitable venture became a losing one.
Houston and Los Angeles have spoken but this isn’t the last we’ll hear of this issue around the country.
Los Angeles Carmageddon Not As Bad As Expected Tuesday, July 19th, 2011
“Carmageddon” is the name Los Angeles residents are gave to what they figured would be a traffic jam for the ages due to a construction closure of a very busy 10-mile stretch of the 405 Freeway from Friday night to Monday.
As a bridge was demolished as part of a $1 billion freeway-widening project, motorists expect hours of delays and ripple effects on about a dozen other highways.
Celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher and Erik Estrada were recruited to help spread the message. For one weekend at least, please stay off the roadways in question if at all possible.
The weekend has come and gone. Everyone has had a chance to reflect and most are coming to the same conclusion–this was an incredibly successful operation. Nothing close to the dire predictions came to fruition.
Streets and freeways were generally clear. California Department of Transportation statistics show significantly fewer cars on some freeways and significantly less traffic in general, even in areas far from the 405.
Now some mass-transportation advocates are using this as an example to show that with some eduction, cooperation and small sacrifices we can really reduce the number of vehicles on the road, number of accidents, hours lost to traffic, vehicular emissions, etc.
Others argue that it’s one thing to ask people to make a small sacrifice in one are over one short, finite time period. It’s a whole other thing to get people to make the kind of permanent sacrifices necessary to drive less and carpool/use public transportation more.
Illinois Seat Belt Violations–New Law Friday, July 15th, 2011
Starting Jan. 1, 2012, there will be a change in the existing Illinois seat belt law.
Currently, only adult drivers and front seat passengers are required to drive with their seat belt on.
Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation last month which will make it mandatory for all Illinois drivers and passengers to wear seat belts beginning next year.
With children already required to be buckled into the back seats, the law now means that every individual in a moving vehicle in Illinois will be required to wear some kind of restraining device.
Fines will start at $25, the same as they are now for seat belt violations.
The law makes Illinois the 15th state to make wearing a seat belt mandatory for everyone in a vehicle, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association, a nonprofit that says it advocates for highway safety.
Dan Aykroyd Gets Speeding Warning On Way To Honda Toronto Indy Tuesday, July 12th, 2011
Actor Dan Aykroyd was pulled over this weekend by an officer who threatened to issue a speeding ticket. Ultimately, he was merely given a warning and he pulled away without a ticket. There’s not much of a story here outside of the irony:
Mr. Aykroyd was on his way to the Honda Toronto Indy to serve as Grand Marshal.
“I was racing to the race,” he was quoted by media as saying on Sunday, much to the amusement of the tens of thousands of high speed car racing fans. “You know when you see these races, you want to get into your vehicles and drive home and you do it trying to imitate the driver. That won’t be me this afternoon.”
Note this wasn’t necessarily a case of preferential celebrity treatment. Issuing a speeding ticket is up to the discretion of the officer on patrol. Warnings may be given if a speed isn’t too high, there are no outstanding issues on the individual’s license, the driver is contrite and polite, etc.
NY Speeding Ticket Email Hoax Friday, July 8th, 2011
If you get an email which seems to be from the New York State Police and has the subject line “Uniform Traffic Ticket”, don’t open the attached zip file. The email did not originate from the State Police or other agency and the zip file most likely contains a computer virus and is definitely not a speeding ticket.
Even if you know this is not a speeding ticket, please don’t open the attachment out of curiosity or any other reason.
Here’s what the email looks like:
From: Police agency
Subject: UNIFORM TRAFFIC TICKET
Attachment: Ticket.zip – 12k
New York State – Department of Motor Vehicles
UNIFORM TRAFFIC TICKET
POLICE AGENCY
NEW YORK STATE POLICE
Local Police Code
THE PERSON DESCRIBED ABOVE IS CHARGED AS FOLLOWS
Time 7:25am
Date of Offense 07/02/2011
IN VIOLATION OF NYS V AND T LAW
TO PLEAD, PRINT OUT THE ENCLOSED TICKET AND SEND IT TO TOWN COURT, CHATAM HALL., PO BOX 117
South Carolina To Examine Automated Camera Summonses Tuesday, July 5th, 2011
As part of a law banning speed cameras and speeding tickets based on photographic evidence, a Traffic Enforcement Commission in South Carolina soon will be appointed to examine the ethical, legal and policy issues traffic cameras create.
The commission will consist of representatives from state government, law enforcement and the S.C. Bar and Criminal Defense Lawyers associations. The law calls for the commission to start meeting “as soon as practicable” and commission members will participate without compensation.
The commission is to consider more than 20 questions related to the use of traffic cameras. Questions include the constitutionality of mailing speeding tickets to alleged violators, whether the state can handle the increase in citations and fairly adjudicate them and whether the Department of Public Safety should be the only agency authorized to use the cameras.
The panel must report its findings to the legislature by Nov. 1 and will hopefully provide lawmakers with answers critical for determining the future of automated camera enforcement in South Carolina.
New California Driving School Law Friday, July 1st, 2011
Under the current California regulations, a driver can attend traffic school multiple times as a means to erase a traffic violation from the driving record. Attend traffic school and the charge will show on one’s record as “dismissed”.
Now, the new law AB 2499 changes this in a substantial way. A dismissal via traffic school attendance will be available to drivers only once every 18 months. Attend traffic school for a second or third or fourth time within the 18 month period and the driving record will now show a conviction, not a dismissed traffic citation.
The primary purpose behind the law is to let judges who are adjudicating a traffic ticket have better insight and more information concerning the quality of the defendant’s driving record. Before the law, the system in place was allowing persistent violators to have tickets dismissed without the courts knowing that they were indeed persistent violators.
Courts will now know, for example, if you are attending court in Los Angeles just a few weeks after you had a violation in San Diego County dismissed by attending traffic school.
Essentially, the days of beating the system by attending traffic school multiple times within an 18 month period are over. “This new law creates serious consequences for repeat offenders,” DMV Director George Valverde said in a statement.
Nevada Starts Work On Road To Self Driving Cars Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
The state of Nevada passed a bill last week that will require its state Department of Motor Vehicles to start developing the unique rules and law necessary to regulate the use of autonomous vehicles on state roadways.
The specific section of law, Section 8, will govern autonomous vehicles and will take effect on March 1, 2012.
Google started testing self driving cars last year. Volkswagon has also been testing it’s TAP (Temporary Auto Pilot) car with what they describe as “production-ready” components.
Nevada defines “autonomous vehicle” as a motor vehicle that uses artificial intelligence, sensors and global positioning system coordinates to drive itself without the active intervention of a human operator.
Self-driving cars will not simply be instantly “street legal” thanks to this law. This law actually gives the Nevada DMV the task of coming up with the laws and regulations that will certainly be necessary to manage ownership and operation of autonomous vehicles. As the first state to get this far, Nevada can expect its progress to serve as an example for other states going forward.
Some of the necessary regulations are more obvious than others. For example, where will DMV stand on the traditional DMV eye chart / vision test for a legally blind person who can now operate an autonomous vehicle operated by sound queues? What will the insurance requirements be for an autonomous vehicle which largely takes human error out of the equation? Will a speeding violation be considered a moving violation worthy of an insurance increase or a mere equipment violation? In fact, wouldn’t the vast majority of moving violations arguably be equipment failure more than anything else?
If these vehicles do become a regular part of our driving lives at some point in the future, consider this Nevada law an important milestone on the road to that future.
National Bill To Ban Cell Phone Use While Driving Thursday, June 23rd, 2011
Representative Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., will announce legislation today with the goal of altogether banning handheld use of mobile devices while driving at the national level.
McCarthy cited National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics that found at least 5,400 people died due to distracting driving in 2009, and that “using a cell phone makes drivers four times more likely to be in an injury-causing accident.”
There is currently nothing in place on a national level which prohibits handheld cell phones from being used while driving to make calls or place text messages.
Nine states and the District of Columbia currently prohibit drivers from using handheld phones to place calls while driving, and there are 34 states that currently ban text messaging.
Windcrest, Texas Police: Pay Your Speeding Ticket Or Go To Jail Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011
If you have an outstanding Texas speeding ticket, the city of Windcrest is giving you one last chance to pay the speeding ticket fine.
More than 9,000 delinquent violators have until Friday, June 24 to pay up before officers track them down and begin making arrests.
Windcrest police Chief Joe Pabon explained that these people had ample time to come in and take care of their speeding tickets but have failed to do so. So now “we’re going to go and try to clear our books up.”
It’s no wonder they are anxious to collect the overdue fine money. Estimates place the total due on these overdue speeding tickets at $2 million.
