It is no secret that American police rarely observe the laws of the land when out wilding with each other, and as any candid criminal judge will tell you, perjury is often their native tongue in court.

– Gore Vidal, Shredding the Bill of Rights, Vanity Fair, 1998

Another nail in Redflex’s coffin. Or, at least, it should be. We shall see.

10 Investigates gets new documents showing profit drive of red light camera company

Lobbyist under FBI bribery investigation more involved than previously known

Columbus fought for additional ticket profit to buy more police cars.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – State lawmakers effectively banned Red light cameras this year. They believed the cameras were about making money for cities and companies through fines. Columbus city leaders including Mayor Michael Coleman and Council President Andrew Ginther defended the red light cameras for saving lives. Documents obtained by 10 Investigates show how there was a lot of focus on money.

When attempting to convince Columbus not to switch vendors in 2009, Redflex said the risk of dumping them was a “huge opportunity cost for (the) city to risk upsetting a well-run and profitable program.”

The city also fought to keep their share of the fine money high, saying they needed it to buy patrol cars and fund programs.

These people are the worst.

Don’t make fun of me for seeing this in Woman’s Day. It comes by way of a Google News Alert. Sheesh, you people.

Nobody wants to receive a speeding ticket, but Reddit user CapnHammered managed to turn the experience into a very cute, instantly viral moment.

The driver was ordered to pay a fine after driving 35mph in a 30mph zone in Lincolnshire in England. (He lives near Birmingham, but he was visiting his girlfriend in the area.) Since letter writing is such a lost art these days, he didn’t have many envelope options to send in the fine.

What did he end up using? A colorful Disney envelope with the characters of Bambi and Thumper on it. Aww! To go along with the cute theme, he made sure his penmanship was equally sweet, and he drew hearts on top of each letter i. Nice touch!

Sup. Breed Backs Idaho’s Common-Sense Law: Let Bikes Yield at Stop Signs

Aaron Bialick – Streetsblog SF

Supervisor London Breed has come out as the first known elected official in San Francisco to publicly support a sensible change to California traffic law: allowing people on bikes to treat stop signs as yield signs.

Breed voiced her position today in today’s deftly-crafted article by SF Examiner reporter Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez on changing the stop sign law:

“I think that’s how it should be,” she said, when asked if she supported San Francisco introducing Idaho-style rolling stops. “A bicycle is not a car, and they should be handled differently.”

Of rolling stops, she said, “On my bicycle, that’s what I do.”

“She’s speaking common sense,” said Dave Snyder, executive director of the California Bicycle Coalition, and former head of the SF Bicycle Coalition.

READ MORE

I always suspected that red light cameras did nothing to increase traffic safety. Even the most optimistic stats showed single digit deceases in accidents often coupled by double digit increases in rear-end collisions. Why? Just because you decide to stop on yellow does not mean the Hummer behind you will. As a result, rear-end collisions have increased at intersections where red light cameras are installed.

Now there is evidence that ALL TYPES OF ACCIDENTS may increase when cameras are installed. In Stockton, California, accidents have increased by 8% at the majority of intersections with red light cameras. Over 15,000 citizens were cited at $338 each. This means that the city collected over $5,000,000 in fines to make its streets more dangerous. The city’s response to the obvious failure of their camera program : they are installing two more cameras. I hope the local trauma centers are well-funded and can handle the increased business.

If Stockton and other cities want to increase traffic safety they should focus on traffic safety, not windfall profits. Traffic engineering is not sexy or profitable, but traffic engineers can design safer intersections with proper funding, support and awareness by local governments. We should turn to our traffic engineers to improve the safety of intersections, not spooky defense contractors using the courts to violate our privacy and erode what few civil liberties remain.

I always suspected that red light cameras did nothing to increase traffic safety. Even the most optimistic stats showed single digit deceases in accidents often coupled by double digit increases in rear-end collisions. Why? Just because you decide to stop on yellow does not mean the Hummer behind you will. As a result, rear-end collisions have increased at intersections where redlight cameras are installed.

Now there is evidence that ALL TYPES OF ACCIDENTS may increase when cameras are installed. In Stockton, California, accidents have increased by 8% at the majority of intersections with red light cameras. Over 15,000 citizens were cited at $338 each. This means that the city collected over $5,000,000 in fines to make its streets more dangerous. The city’s response to the obvious failure of their camera program : they are installing two more cameras. I hope the local trauma centers are well-funded and can handle the increased business.

If Stockton and other cities want to increase traffic safety they should focus on traffic safety, not windfall profits. Traffic engineering is not sexy or profitable, but traffic engineers can design safer intersections with proper funding, support and awareness by local governments. We should turn to our traffic engineers to improve the safety of intersections, not spooky defense contractors using the courts to violate our privacy and erode what few civil liberties remain.