A study of red-light cameras in Houston showed that traffic accidents doubled at those intersections in the first year after they were put in.

Mayor Bill White defended the use of the cameras, which he has favored, saying they prevented even more wrecks. Critics, however, said that the city-financed study supports their contention that the cameras are more about generating revenue than making streets safer.

Violators photographed running red lights at the 50 intersections monitored by cameras get $75 tickets in the mail. Since September 2006, the cameras have led to at least 387,000 citations and generated more than $20 million in revenue.

“There is no scientific, documented proof that collisions are reduced with the red-light camera program,” said Mike Sullivan, a Houston city councilman who opposes the cameras. “I’ve maintained all along that the program was flawed.”

White said a 40 percent reduction in citations in October compared with the same month a year ago is “proof in the pudding” that drivers are heeding the cameras.

“Our goal is to reduce the number of people who are running red lights,” he said in Tuesday’s online edition of the Houston Chronicle.

“Collisions are going up all over the city,” Bob Stein, a Rice University political science professor and one of the report’s authors, said Monday. “But red-light cameras have held back that increase at approaches where they have been installed.”

The mayor and the study’s authors are recommending more cameras at some intersections for additional research but acknowledged that comprehensive citywide vehicle crash data are not available.

Stein also acknowledged that Houston police figures show that the accident rate is down since 2004 but said those data are unreliable because police don’t file reports on every crash.

Researchers plan to look at insurance industry data to bolster their findings. Those results are expected sometime next summer.

Austin has seven red-light cameras. Police statistics on four of the cameras show that accidents increased at two locations and remained the same at two. Accident information was not available for the other three cameras.

Source: Austin American Statesman

City police officers in one Florida county will have unrestricted authority to make traffic stops outside of their jurisdiction beginning Aug. 1.

Broward County’s new policing-without-boundaries plan would allow officers to patrol any of its cities, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

Sheriff Al Lamberti has discreetly provided agreements to police departments giving city officers unfettered authority to enforce traffic laws countywide – even while off duty and running errands in civilian clothes.

So far, Sunrise, Coral Springs, Margate and Coconut Creek Counties have signed the plan. Fourteen cities and areas patrolled by sheriffs are also part of the policing agreement, including: Cooper City, Dania Beach, Deerfield Beach, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, unincorporated Broward, the airport and seaport, Lauderdale Lakes, North Lauderdale, Oakland Park, Parkland, Pembroke Park, West Park, Pompano Beach, Tamarac, Weston and Southwest Ranches.

According to the Sun-Sentinel, Coral Springs Police Chief Duncan Foster said the plan will help his city get tough on belligerent and careless drivers.

“Many times we’ll have officers outside their jurisdiction and people will just be flagrantly driving by,” Foster said. “There was little we could do.”

Fort Lauderdale city commissioners are entertaining the idea and considering trying the plan out for six months, limiting police intervention to only cases of drunk and reckless driving.

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Finally, someone’s fighting back against the fleecing of the general populace

Famous for liking things big, Texas lawmakers have laid the smackdown on red light and speed cameras in a big way!

HB.922 addresses this issue:

House Bill 922 amends the Transportation Code to prohibit a municipality from implementing an automated traffic control system to enforce compliance with speed limits and requires the attorney general to enforce the prohibition.

This means that cameras, automated radar or laser, or anything else designed to snag an image of a car, driver, or license plate and record its speed is now forbidden.

The even larger racket of red-light cameras have had the brakes applied by HB.1052, which requires warning signs, at least 100 feet out, before intersections at which a municipality uses a photographic traffic monitoring system to enforce compliance with a traffic-control signal.

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