Showing posts with label Redflex Traffic Systems Inc.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Redflex Traffic Systems Inc.. Show all posts

Friday, May 17, 2013

In Florida, red-light camera supporters at FDOT HQ tinker with yellow-light timing and make FL roads MORE UNSAFE -but more profitable for greedy cities- while in Chicago, the city's Inspector General has blasted the city's red-light ticket program (designed by Redflex) after an audit, saying that Mayor Rahm Emanuel's "City Hall cannot back up claims that its controversial red-light camera program is designed to make intersections safer"; $100 Million in revenue in FL off of red-light cameras!

City Hall cannot back up claims that its controversial red-light camera program is designed to make intersections safer, according to a watchdog's report released Tuesday.

Now THAT'S how you start a news article about a municipal government intentionally engaging
in fraud to keep propping-up a program largely for revenue!
And it isn't even Hallandale Beach, though it would be equally true if an audit was done here.

Chicago Tribune
Inspector general blasts red light ticket program
By Hal Dardick, Clout Street, 
6:42 p.m. CDT, May 14, 2013 
City Hall cannot back up claims that its controversial red-light camera program is designed to make intersections safer, according to a watchdog's report released Tuesday.
Inspector General Joseph Ferguson said the city cannot provide documents to prove that the cameras went up at intersections with the most side-impact crashes. He also questioned why cameras remain at intersections with no recent history of such crashes, which the $100 ticket-issuing "cops-in-a-box" are designed to prevent.

A predicate for understsnding thsi IG report is my previous post of November 24th, 2012 on the shenanigans taking place in Chicago, titled, :
More Red-Light Camera shenanigans: National Journal's Mike Magner has warning for U.S. drivers about unscrupulous cities' amber-colored money trap: Yellow means Green & $$$ - "Dreaded Yellow Light May Be Trap for Traffic Violations" -on purpose. And Rahm Emanuel's Chicago, with Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., is the most brazen of all

So when will we see this sort of news headline about Hallandale Beach's red-light camera program that for years has been Exhibit A for South Florida municipal governments greed and willingness to look the other way on public safety, and as was the case here, the Police Dept.s refusal to make records public that would allow citizens to see whether the city was putting them where they'd do the most good or where they'd get the most revenue?

Or a reasonable explanation from FDOT District 4 Secretary James Wolfe about why it took them a year to place a red-light camera warning sign somewhere on west-bound Hallandale Beach Blvd./State Road 858 near NW 9th Terr., that was actually visible to drivers, instead of the one that was hidden between palm trees, as photos I've taken and posted here for years have proven?

Or an explanation from Wolfe about why, YEARS LATER, there are STILL ZERO red-light camera warning signs on HBB/State Road 858 approaching U.S.-1/South Federal Highway in either direction, unlike the approaches to HBB at that same intersection?

Unbeknowst to most of you, some of us have actually been talking seriously about timing certain HB and Hollywood intersections with stop-watches to see if they even meet the federal DOT legal standards.
I'll be filming some of them this weekend if the weather looks okay. 

Why?
Because of what we already know and can see with our own eyes, and great enterprising reporting like this by Noah Pransky of WTSP-TV that proves what we've long thought: $100 Million in revenue in FL off of red-light cameras

Shorter yellow lights criticized as trap for drivers: A subtle, but significant tweak to Florida's rules regarding traffic signals has allowed local cities and counties to shorten yellow light intervals, resulting in millions of dollars in additional red light camera fines. Quoted in story: FL state Senator Jeff Brandes, FL state Rep. Ed Hooper, FL state Rep. Mike Fasano and FL state Senator Jack Latvala.
http://www.floridatoday.com/videonetwork/2384133376001/Shorter-yellow-lights-criticized-as-trap-for-drivers

Florida quietly shortens yellow lights, resulting in more red light camera tickets
Noah Pransky, WTSP-TV, Tampa/St. Petersburg

Saturday, November 24, 2012

More Red-Light Camera shenanigans: National Journal's Mike Magner has warning for U.S. drivers about unscrupulous cities' amber-colored money trap: Yellow means Green & $$$ - "Dreaded Yellow Light May Be Trap for Traffic Violations" -on purpose. And Rahm Emanuel's Chicago, with Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., is the most brazen of all


Red Light Ticket Capital YouTube Channel video: Confessions of a Chicago Red Light Ticketing Camera. Uploaded December 31, 2009. http://youtu.be/njbG6Yeg3s0 
And this video was made almost THREE YEARS ago!

More Red-Light Camera shenanigans: National Journal's Mike Magner has warning for U.S. drivers about unscrupulous cities' amber-colored money trap: Yellow means Green & $$$ - "Dreaded Yellow Light May Be Trap for Traffic Violations" -on purpose. And Rahm Emanuel's Chicago, with Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., is the most brazen of all  

Now here's a story that someone like me who lives in the city that's the red-light camera poster boy of South Florida can really appreciate. 
A city where the mayor, Joy Cooper, writes guest Op-Eds in a local newspaper praising red-light cameras, despite it NOT leading to a reduction in traffic accidents, and weeks later, she's receiving thousands in campaign contributions from the vendor here with the red-light camera contract. Why? 
Because she and her Rubber Stamp Crew on the City Commission like the revenue it produce$! 


The National Journal
Dreaded Yellow Light May Be Trap for Traffic Violations
By Mike Magner
November 21, 2012 | 6:00 a.m.
Updated: November 21, 2012 | 9:19 a.m.
The National Motorists Association has a warning for the millions of drivers hitting the road for the busy holiday travel season: Beware of the yellow lights.
The timing of yellow lights on traffic signals at many intersections is purposely set to a minimum so more drivers can be ticketed for running red lights, says the 30-year-old activist group based in Waunakee, Wis.
Read the rest of the post at:
http://nationaljournal.com/domesticpolicy/dreaded-yellow-light-may-be-trap-for-traffic-violations-20121121


Red-light camera sign in Hallandale Beach, FL. April 24, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

See my last blog post on red-light cameras from August 25th, 2012: 
City of Hallandale Beach prints analysis that refutes Mayor Joy Cooper's mendacious efforts on red-light cameras - "In summary, there is no safety benefit to the citizens, and there is no financial benefit to the taxpayer due to automated for-profit law"


One town's experience in New Jersey:
http://brick.patch.com/articles/red-light-cams-shut-down-over-yellow-light-length-concerns

To see more on the company at the center of the storm in Chicago, Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., see what the Chicago Tribune has been reporting on them, with one scandal after another - http://www.chicagotribune.com/search_results/?q=+Redflex 


Red Light Ticket Capital YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/user/MrBFagel