Letter to the Editor: Red Light Cameras Cause 'Economic Harm' in Gulfport

James C. Walker, Board Member and Executive Director of the National Motorists Association Foundation emailed the following letter to Gulfport City Council members and Gulfport Patch on Friday, March 1.

"There is another mystery in Gulfport and other Florida cities that use the cameras.

WHY do these city councils want to do SO much economic harm to their own cities?

Most of the camera revenue goes to Tallahassee (52.5%) and Arizona (home to ATS and Redflex). Yes, some of this money comes back to the city councils to use, but WAY less than half the total take.  Often as little as twenty or thirty percent is actual "profit" after paying the $4,000 to $5,000 per month per camera expenses plus the costs for local police and courts to administer the program. The great majority of the money goes to Tallahassee and the corrupt camera vendors that seek only revenue.

WHY would citizens and council members put up with taking so much money out the local economies where it damages their potential employment levels and the economic viability of their businesses? Each $158 stripped out of the wallets of citizens and visitors is money that will NOT be spent in your stores, malls, restaurants, entertainment businesses, service businesses, charities, etc.

AND why would citizens and council members put up with having their visitors exploited at $158 a pop when so many of those ticket victims will refuse to return and spend money in such predatory towns? Treating tourists and visitors in such predatory ways is hardly the way to encourage them to return to spend their discretionary dollars in camera communities.

It makes no sense from any viewpoint.

Simply adding 0.7 to 1.0 seconds to the yellow intervals will improve safety overall and drastically drop the straight through violation rates, typically by 60% to 90%. And those lower violation rates STAY down, contrary to the false claims of the camera vendors.  This could be done immediately to sharply reduce straight through violation rates and tickets.  Better traffic light engineering produces greater safety than using red light cameras.

In the Florida Traffic Engineering Manual, Topic No. 750-000-005 about Signals, it says in Section 3.6.2 (5):

Yellow change and all-red clearance intervals specified herein are minimums, and should be increased as necessary, based on professional engineering judgment, to fit site conditions at any particular intersection.

I understand that some FDOT managers strongly discourage cities from using anything longer than the absolute minimum yellow intervals shown in the manual, with examples as shown in Section 3.6.2.1. This is probably so that cities using red light cameras will give the maximum number of camera tickets possible, so that the state will get the maximum number of $83 "commissions" for the state treasury. But the rules in 3.6.2 (5) clearly give the engineers discretion. It can be the "professional engineering judgment" of your engineers that sharply reduced red light violation rates are beneficial to the city, so the yellows are being lengthened by one second to achieve this result.

If your cameras ticket some right on red turns, Gulfport could also take a temporary step if the cameras must remain for a time to avoid an ATS cancellation penalty.  TEMPORARILY prohibit all right turns on red at all camera intersections. This will prevent most of the slow-rolling right on red turn tickets at the cost of a temporary bit of congestion.  Once the cameras have been removed, the temporary no-right-turn-on-red signs can be removed.

Data from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration shows that right turns on red (legal or illegal) account for only 0.4% of all crashes and 0.06% of all injuries and fatalities. Thus virtually all tickets for slow rolling right on red turns are about money, not safety. 
http://www.nhtsa.gov/About+NHTSA/Traffic+Techs/current/The+Safety+Impact+of+Right+Turn+on+Red:+Report+to+Congress

Clerk Ken Burke is correct when he said "There's not a law that says cities have to install red-light cameras." 

Collier County came to that conclusion, ended their camera program, and launched a project to increase the length of the yellow intervals at their lights for better safety, without economically harming the county, its citizens and its businesses with the cameras.

The Gulfport City Council could take the immediate steps above to drastically reduce all red light violations.  This would probably make ATS want to end the contract without penalties, because violation rates would be far too low to support camera costs.

These actions would then sharply reduce the economic harm being done to Gulfport, its businesses and the people employed by those businesses.  As soon as the cameras are gone, the economic harm done to Gulfport by the cameras would end entirely.

Wouldn't that be the right move for council members to fulfill their obligations to help the city, its citizens and its businesses prosper?"

- James C. Walker

Recently on Gulfport Patch:

The Florida House of Representatives is considering repealing the red light camera law. And last week, the Pinellas County Clerk of Court urged six cities there to stop issuing tickets for red light cameras, saying that the system is flawed and that it creates ill will among citizens "upset with the poor communication, insufficient information and resulting unfair penalties."

American Traffic Solutions, which provides red light traffic cameras for Gulfport and 70 other Florida municipalities, says court rulings are on their side.

The Arizona company that provides red light traffic cameras for Gulfport and more than 70 municipalities around Florida is fighting back against recent attacks on the legality of the technology and its use to catch violators.

In a news release sent Wednesday, American Traffic Solutions points out five court rulings that have upheld the Mark Wandall Traffic Safety Act, which cleared the way for municipalities to use red light traffic cameras.

Related Coverage:

• Red Light Camera Company Fights Back Against Florida Critics
• Red Light Cameras: Should They Go?
• Pinellas Clerk Asks Gulfport to Stop Writing Red Light Camera Tickets
• No More Red Light Cameras? Here's What Gulfport's Saying

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