A brand new red light camera on California’s historic Route 66 is already generating thousands in revenue for San Bernardino, but the biggest lawbreaker in these cases may turn out to be the city itself. Since September 25, a photo ticketing device has watched over the intersection of Mount Vernon Avenue and 9th Street, trapping motorists caught by a yellow light that is so short it violates state law.

Truck driver Raymond Chacon discovered this last month while taking a training course to help him upgrade his commercial driver’s license. Under the supervision of an instructor, he came to the intersection behind the wheel of a big-rig tractor trailer. He entered just a split-second after the light had turned red. After successfully completing the course and passing the Department of Motor Vehicles Class A license test “with flying colors,” Chacon received a $400 red light camera ticket in the mail. Chacon immediately began investigating what might have happened at that location. He turned to the highwayrobbery.net website, which encouraged him to check whether the city used yellow signal timing that conformed with state guidelines.

Video from the intersection in question confirms that drivers are given only 3.0 seconds of yellow, even though the California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) insists that 35 MPH intersections have a yellow of no less than 3.6 seconds. While this 0.6 second shortage appears insignificant, it can represent the difference between a ticket and no ticket for thousands of motorists. This is even more true for truck drivers like Chacon.

Most drivers faced with a quick-changing yellow can simply slam on their brakes to avoid the citation. For Chacon’s 53-foot-long rig, however, the compressed-air braking system requires an extra 0.5 seconds to activate. Beyond the usual risk of causing a rear end collision in this situation, slamming the brakes with an unladen trailer risks jack-knifing the truck. With a properly timed signal, Chacon would have had enough time to clear the intersection.

Studies show that shorter yellow times can increase the number of citations generated. According to the Texas Transportation Institute, when the yellow light timing is one second shorter than the bare minimum recommended amount, violations increase by 110 percent (view study). Confidential documents uncovered in a San Diego court trial prove that the city and its private vendor, now Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), colluded to install red light cameras only at intersections with short yellow times, thereby maximizing profits.

San Bernardino may be aware of the importance of this signal timing. It is one of only a handful of cities across the country that deliberately conceals signal timing information — including the “time into red” or “late time” — on its citations. In 2002, a Baltimore, Maryland judge had used this information to find tickets issued at locations where the signal timing was illegally short. As a result of the judge’s investigation, Baltimore was forced to refund thousands in citation revenue (Read court memo). Chacon insists that San Bernardino similarly provide refunds from those caught by the illegal signal timing on Mount Vernon Avenue.

“It is a cash cow for a financially strapped San Bernardino city,” Chacon told TheNewspaper. “The fact that they knew the yellows were too short shows that public safety is not a sole concern for the red light cameras.”

Earlier this month, the National Motorists Association Foundation announced that it had begun a nationwide search to track down intersections with short yellow times and force cities to comply with proper engineering practices. Visit the Short Yellow Lights Project website.

Source: theNewspaper.com

Dallas, Texas based Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) earlier this month became the second major photo enforcement camera company to be busted for operating without a license. Proceedings are scheduled to continue today in a Dallas County courtroom as 192nd Civil District Court Judge Craig Smith decides the appropriate remedy for the situation.

On November 19, Smith issued an order declaring the company in violation of a state law requiring commercial firms that provide evidence for use in court to have a license that proves their employees have passed strict criminal background checks and other requirements. Dallas attorney Lloyd Ward sued ACS after the company mailed a ticket to his home.

“Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment on the issue of failure to obtain appropriate license and bond under the Texas Occupation Code Section 1702.101 et seq. is hereby granted,” Judge Smith wrote.

Smith’s order agreed with a May ruling by the Louisiana State Board of Private Investigator Examiners which found Australian camera operator Redflex Traffic Systems had been illegally operating an investigation service in that state. Both Louisiana and Texas impose similar restrictions on commercial services that provide evidence for use in court.

“Unless the person holds a license as an investigations company, a person may not… offer to perform the services of an investigations company,” Texas Code Section 1702 states. “A person acts as an investigations company for the purposes of this chapter if the person engages in the business of obtaining or furnishing… information related to… crime or wrongs done; or… engages in the business of securing… evidence for use before a court, board, officer, or investigating committee… furnishing information includes information obtained or furnished through the review and analysis of, and the investigation into the content of, computer-based data not available to the public.”

ACS is not the only company on the hot seat in Texas for operating without a license. Ward on November 24 filed a separate federal class action complaint against Redflex for willful negligence in providing unlicensed investigative services for the cities of Duncanville and Plano. To ensure all the major photo enforcement vendors are covered, Ward filed another case against Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions (ATS) for its operations in Amarillo. Neither ACS, ATS nor Redflex hold the required Class A private investigation company license, according to Texas Department of Public Safety records.

The maximum criminal penalty for operating such a service without a license is a year in jail and a $4000 fine. The same penalty applies to any individuals found guilty of hiring an unlicensed company. Ward, instead, is seeking the return of illegally collected fines. In the Redflex case, for example, that amounts to $3 million. Ultimate success would mean the full refund of every photo citation issued in Texas.

At least one photo enforcement vendor has actually used arguments similar to Ward’s in court. ATS brought suit against its competitor, Redflex, after learning the company illegally operated radar units without the appropriate certifications from the Federal Communications Commission. ATS now wants a court to invalidate a statewide Arizona contract adopted while Redflex had no legal right to operate speed camera equipment in the US. Redflex even volunteered to provide refunds over the incident, but state officials turned down the offer.

A full copy of the Dallas County decision is available in a 50k PDF file at the source link below.

Source: Ward v. Affiliated Computer Services (District Court, Dallas County, Texas, 11/19/2008)

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).

Philadelphia also seems unaware of its own ordinance, which bans the use of digital technology.

“Photographs collected as part of the automated red light enforcement system must be 35-millimeter film only, must only record traffic violations and may not be used for any other surveillance purposes,” Philadelphia Code 12-3012 states.

The provision was initially authored by state lawmakers as a means of ensuring the lucrative contract landed with campaign donor Affiliated Computer Services (ACS). Once the provision was publicized, however, PPA selected a less controversial vendor. Between April 1, 2007 and March 31, 2008, the system issued 89,156 tickets worth $8,915,600 at just ten intersections. Of this amount, ATS took $2,835,952, while ACS took $134,232 for collection services.

Source: thenewspaper.com