Tampa votes to use RLC for "$afety".  Uses Per Ticket Cost Neutrality scheme, and Officer Bennet is getting "interesting" number from the scamera side.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/article1162311.ece
I won’t bore you with the usual “reasons” the city council said.  (Code for “WE NEED THE MONEY”)!

I will share with you some observations (I even left a post too on the papers web site, I have elaborated more here on this).
 

• Bennet claims "Around Florida, cities that use the cameras see a 22 percent drop in the number of citations issued after the first year" .  Sound impressive until you realize that ATS and Baytown, TX made the claim that they had a 20% decrease in “citations”.   The PROBLEM, ATS and THE TOWN INCREASED THE REJECTION RATE!  http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/31/3173.asp

Quote:  “The program rejected 29 percent of violations in July 2008, but documents show the rate of rejections climbed to 54 percent in December.”

 Added Quote:  Thanks to the boosted rejection rate, this dropped the number of tickets issued from 2724 to 2155 -- a 20 percent decrease.

• The county claims “accidents with injuries dropped from 62 in 2008 to 31 in 2010 at six monitored intersections.”  Sounds "impressive". 

BUT REALLY THIS IS  MISLEADING DUE TO A REPORT FROM THE TAMPA TRIBUNE IN DEC 2010:

Quote on 12/31/2010 Tampa Tribune:  "From January through November, there have been 13 fewer wrecks – and eight fewer with injuries – at the intersections compared with the same period in 2009."  http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/dec/31/hillsborough-nears-30000-red-light-tickets-in-firs/news-metro/

So it it really isn't 31 DROP since RLC.  It is more like 13 (not counting December)  HMMM   Or did we have a 18 drop comparing one Dec to another???

That is almost a 200% Exageration!  Ain't it!  They were voted on in March of 2008, THEY WEREN'T EVEN INSTALLED TILL SUMMER 2009 at six intersections! (St. Pete Times 11/29/2009 article on Temple Terrace by Rich Shopes).  THE COUNTY DIDN'T EVEN SEND CITATIONS OUT TILL DEC 30, 2009!  http://www.tampabay.com/news/transportation/red-light-cameras-hunting-down-drivers-in-temple-terrace-hillsborough/1055120?postCode=201#comments

See more:  http://www.banthecams.org/20110101755/Is-Hillsborough-County-engaged-in-selective-reporting-of-accidents.html

But back to my questions.  HOW MANY OF THOSE WERE RLV RELATED??????  And what were the Causes?????   (See Table on bottom of post).

But of even more concern was what ATS and the Town of Arnold, MO did.  It was claimed by the city, RLC reduced “crashes”.  WHAT WAS LEFT OUT WAS THE TOWN USED 50ft to count wrecks, MO DOT used 133FT.  Cute eh! 

http://camerafraud.wordpress.com/2011/02/10/ats-astro-turf-support-american-traffic-solutions-desperate-for-friends/  
Quote:  “The City of Arnold is so desperate to show that these cameras work, that they only count accidents as ‘accidents’ within 50 feet of the intersection. By using 50 ft. instead of the transportation standard of 133 ft., they have been able to more than halve their reported accidents at red light camera monitored intersections.”
See more:  http://www.banthecams.org/20110212885/Lies-Damn-Lies-Statistics-and-SCAMERA-SIDE-Statistics.html

• They wrote 34,000 tickets.  HOW MANY ARE TECHNICAL FOULS, BE HONEST ATS and Hillsborough County.

1. How many are right turns on red (After Haines City citing over 4794 right turns this WINTER I wonder).  http://www.newschief.com/article/20110304/NEWS/103045155/1021/news01?p=all&tc=pgall
2. How many are stopping over the stop line????
3. How many are the result of short ambers, ie under 1 second.  I know for a fact that the left turn at Waters to SB Dale is just under 3 seconds.  Similar ones are almost 1 second LONGER!

• The “Cost Neutral” contract is a VIOLATION OF STATE LAW most likely since it is a PER TICKET FEE IN DISGUISE!  They give a “discount” to the town if they don’t “cite” enough.  That has been causing the scamera companies a whole lot of trouble in CA as lawsuits mount!  A number of towns have DROPPED the RLC because of having to drop the illegal (per ticket) cost neutrality arrangements!  http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/32/3249.asp http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/34/3427.asp

And finally BE HONEST on the CRASH data, how many were caused by RLV and what was the underlying cause. 

Like at Hillsborough and Nebraska in 2010???  THAT WAS A FATAL DUI!  Something a RLC WILL NEVER STOP!  (Most RLV crashes are plus 5 seconds and have secondary themes like fleeing police, not paying attention, medical/mechanical just to name some).  http://www.banthecams.org/20110130840/Why-most-RLV-crashes-WILL-NOT-BE-PREVENTED-BY-RLC.html  the wreck:  http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/tampa-man-turns-himself-in-on-dui-manslaughter-charge/1135938
 

The chart below shows what happened in FL on RLV fatal crashes and Impairment Fatal Crashes.  Impairment is a major factor in many RLV crashes (see link in above paragraph). 

Notice how the RLV Fatals dropped from 107 in 2007 to 56 in 2009.  Also notice the Total Impairment Drop from 832 in 2007 to 519 in 2009. 

Could the Vendors be taking credit for something they souldn’t be.  Wouldn’t be the first time.  Las Cruces NM the city and vendor attempted to take false credit:  http://blog.motorists.org/las-cruces-manipulates-ticket-camera-numbers/ 
 

Fatal RLV crashes did drop, But SO DID THE FLORIDA TOTAL DEATHS between 2007 and 2009 OVERALL:
 

Notes: 
2005 was LAST FULL YEAR NO RLC!   DUI change in Summer of 2005 from .1 to .08  http://dui.findlaw.com/dui/state-dui-law/florida-dui-law.html     
2006 (first illegal RLC installation Gulf Breeze)                   
2007 Orlando and Apopka late 2007.                   
2008 START of Recession and $4.00 a gallon gas.    Next illegal installs Pembroke Pines, Palm Coast                    
 

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