The City of Toronto moved today to clear up a backlog of more than a quarter-million parking tickets. But if you think the move will net the cash-starved city any additional revenue, guess again.

For the past couple of years, it’s been easy to make parking tickets disappear. A while ago I got an evil yellow flapper under my windshield wiper. I schelpped down to Metro Hall, 55 John Street, and asked for a court date. The attendant said, “you may or may not hear from us.” I haven’t heard from them.

In the past two years motorists have filed 250,000 requests to contest such $30 parking tickets, but only 4,300 have received trial dates. Today I looked up Barry Randell, Toronto’s Director of Court Services, at his office on University Avenue to find out what was going on.
Toronto’s 24 courtrooms — eight at Old City Hall, nine at 1530 Markham Road, and seven at 2700 Eglinton Avenue W., simply don’t have room to process those trials, Mr. Randell said.

“When you’re in the emergency department and you have a broken arm, you will get priority over someone with a sprained ankle,” he explained.

Even those with more serious offences (the ones that actually make it to trial) are benefiting from the court backlog. Today I popped into a traffic court on the third floor at Old City Hall and watched the Justice of the Peace, his worship Angelo Cremisio, withdraw or stay case upon case. In several cases the police officer who laid the charge has since resigned; in others, the judge accepted a Charter of Rights argument of “unreasonable delay” between the charge and the court date. He deemed 13 months’ wait unreasonable.

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A Texas Court of Appeals has ruled that laser speed detection equipment (LIDAR) has not been proven to be accurate and therefore cannot be admitted as evidence in criminal cases in Texas.

The Court ruled that prior judicial decisions affirming the reliability of RADAR were irrelevant to the question of the reliability of LIDAR.

The Court of Appeals in Waco ruled that the state failed to prove the reliability of LIDAR on which the officer relied to determine that the defendant was speeding.

The entire decision is available here.

It might come in handy if you get a ticket in Texas by an officer using laser.

Speed limit on Lakeville Highway set artificially low, defense claims in trial that could set legal precedent

An attorney for a young man challenging his speeding ticket with his own GPS data suggested Friday that the site where he was ticketed is an illegal speed trap.

Shaun Malone, 18, and his parents, Roger Rude and Karen Kahn of Windsor, are appealing a July 4, 2007, speeding ticket he received after police said their radar clocked him driving 62 mph in a 45 mph zone on Lakeville Highway east of Frates Road in Petaluma.

Rude, a retired Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department lieutenant, said if the speed limit was set artificially low — below what most reasonable drivers are traveling — it amounts to an illegal speed trap, which would invalidate Malone’s ticket and potentially hundreds of others given in the same area.

Malone’s parents installed a GPS device in his 2000 Toyota Celica GTS, over his objections, with the goal of encouraging him to drive safely. The device notes speed, time and location data every 30 seconds and records the information so his parents can monitor his driving activity.

But Rude said he told Malone if he ever got a speeding ticket and the GPS data supported him, he would support Malone in a challenge. They say their GPS data prove he was driving 45 mph at virtually the same time and place the officer said he clocked him speeding.

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Travis County, Texas commissioners prohibit staff from using toll roads after county employees caught not paying toll, red light and parking tickets.

For jurisdictions that treat all red light camera tickets, toll violations and parking citations as civil penalties, it does not matter who was behind the wheel when the alleged infraction occurred. Under civil procedures, the vehicle’s registered owner is automatically responsible for paying once an accusation is made, regardless of individual guilt. But if the general public were to follow the example set by Travis County employees as revealed on Tuesday, fewer motorists would bother paying citations mailed by the state of Texas or the city of Austin.

“There are some employees using county vehicles on a toll road and they are not paying the tolls themselves,” the county’s executive manager for transportation, Joe Gieselman, said. “Therefore the toll agency sends the county the bill because they go search the license plate and sure enough Travis County is the title holder and, voila, we have the toll is not being paid. And none of these departments have budgets or authorization to pay tolls.”

The problem, however, extends far beyond toll skipping. Over the past four years, county employees have been blowing through red lights and parking in handicapped zones. County law enforcement vehicles have been nabbed for parking in tow-away zones. In total, the county has racked up $10,000 in unpaid parking fines with Austin, and that city now wants its money. After the city began booting county vehicles to encourage those officials to pay up, the county commissioners court scheduled a meeting to discuss the issue.

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Federal Highway Administration and Illinois governor urge Maryland, Missouri and Tennessee to use freeway speed cameras.

Officials from Maryland, Missouri and Tennessee joined Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich (D) at a two-day event designed to promote the use of speed cameras on freeways throughout the country. In 2006, Illinois became the first state government to implement a statewide photo ticketing program. This effort was soon copied by Arizona, Colorado and Washington state, each of which also sent participants to yesterday’s “highway safety workshop.” Officials attending heard about how successful these programs have been at imposing automated tickets worth up to $1000 each.

“One of the keys to this success has been the photo speed enforcement vans that have deployed by IDOT and the Illinois State Police,” Blagojevich said in a prepared statement about the event.

The participation of Missouri and Tennessee officials has revealed their states’ interest in using automated ticketing machines on freeways.

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