El Monte, California votes to eliminate red light cameras after study shows they did not reduce accidents.

Following San Jose, California’s recent decision to reject red light cameras, the Los Angeles suburb of El Monte yesterday decided to put an end to photo ticketing after five years of use proved disappointing. With a unanimous vote, the city council declined to renew its contract with Australian camera vendor Redflex because, according to police, the cameras failed to produce any reduction in the number of intersection accidents. More importantly, however, the devices failed to produce revenue.

“We’re spending a lot of staff time on this just to gain $2000 a month,” City Manager James W. Mussenden explained.

“It doesn’t reduce accidents — that’s what our studies and results have come back.”

Data obtained by highwayrobbery.net suggest the loss in revenue could be related to changes in intersection signal timing. On April 12, 2004 the city increased the yellow warning time to 3.5 seconds for the left turn movements at the intersection of Peck Road and Ramona Boulevard. The results were immediately felt. In March 2004, before the increase, Redflex mailed 665 tickets. In May, the first full month after the increase, citations dropped to 265. This small engineering improvement cut the photo enforcement system’s total profit by $1.4 million.

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Overly quick red light camera trigger in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania results in 4390 refunded citations worth $439,000.

A total of 4390 red light camera tickets, worth $439,000, will be refunded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania after a ticket challenge revealed that they were improperly issued. The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper uncovered the error while investigating the case of Mike Kochkodin, 59, who received a ticket on March 17 for allegedly entering an intersection two-tenths of a second after the light turned red. Last month, a Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA) adjudicator summarily dismissed Kochkodin’s case, noting that the city had promised not to take photos until a third of a second had elapsed. After an article appeared on Thursday, PPA decided to refund the tickets.

“We did not know the magnitude of the problem, nor did the contractor report it,” PPA Executive Director Vince Fenerty told the Inquirer. “Should we have looked further? Most definitely. We didn’t.”

Fenerty suggested the error was caused by the February switch from cameras that use 35mm film to fully digital camera technology. The contractor, American Traffic Solutions (ATS), is accustomed to using the quicker trigger setting to maximize the number of tickets issued and was unaware of the 0.33 second requirement. Shorter trigger settings or “grace periods” allow jurisdictions to collect more revenue because the greatest number of technical violations occur within the first 0.25 seconds after a light turns red, according to a Texas Transportation Institute study. Ticketing such violations has little impact on safety as the same study showed the probability of a right-angle collision within a split-second after a signal changes from yellow to red is almost zero at an intersection with a protected left turn lane. “Given a 1.0-second all-red interval, the probabilities also suggest that crossing through vehicles will not start to enter until after about 4 seconds have lapsed,” the Texas study explained (page 99).

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The traffic ticket industry relies on people not having enough time to fight their tickets. Going to court, often multiple times, can be a burden on even the most motivated ticket fighters.

Because of the amount of time a traffic ticket case requires, we’re often asked if there is any way to fight a traffic ticket without the hassle of driving to the courthouse. The good news is that in certain states, through something called “trial by declaration” or “trial by affidavit,” it’s possible. The bad news is that those states are in the minority.

Trial by declaration allows a defendant to state their case in writing, send it to the judge, and have the judge make a decision based on the facts presented in the letter.

Although this may sound appealing, there are few things to consider before fighting a traffic ticket in this way:

1. 1. When you fight your traffic ticket using trial by declaration, you give up the right to directly ask the officer questions.
   2. Any chance of dismissal due to the absence of the ticketing officer disappears.
   3. Because you’re not there in person it becomes much easier for the judge to find you guilty — all it takes is a rubber stamp.
   4. In some states you give up your right to a regular trial when opting for trial by declaration.
   5. As mentioned previously, it’s not available in the vast majority of states.

States where trial by declaration is not allowed include:

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RENO, NV – It seems kind of unusual. A local man caught for speeding is sent to jail. Police claim he committed a crime, but he says it was all a misunderstanding.

38-year-old father and business owner, Anthony Buck is not your typical criminal. “I don’t speed very often. My brother always calls me the old lady, you know, ’cause I don’t go very fast,” said Buck. But on Monday, Buck was driving 40 miles per hour down Dixon Lane in South Reno. It’s a 25 miles per hour zone and he admit that he was speeding. But when he got pulled over, he says he gave the officers his license and registration, but couldn’t find his insurance card.

“My kids, one of their little chores to clean out my car and they put stuff everywhere. I know I had it and I said ‘can I have a minute to look for my insurance?” Buck says the officer then wrote him a ticket for not having insurance, which he refused to sign, because he thought that meant he was admitting guilt. He says that’s when the officer arrested him. “He spread my legs, handcuffed me, put me on the curb,” said Buck. Sent to jail, over a speeding ticket. Police say it’s extremely rare, but unfortunately, Buck technically, did break the law.

“In the state of Nevada, traffic charges are misdemeanor offenses, so whereas in California, you might have an infraction that isn’t arrest worthy, in the state of Nevada, they are misdemeanors or crimes,” said Lieutenant Dave Evans with the Reno Police Department Traffic Division. Police say under Reno city code, you must have proof of insurance with you in the car at all times…and if you get pulled over, by law, you must sign the ticket. “The ticket itself is just merely a summons. It’s not an admission of guilt. It’s just saying you promise to appear in court,” explained Evans.

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