Speed Camera News Speed cameras for I-70 accelerate debate
Just a few days before Memorial Day weekend, a handful of north St. Louis County police chiefs gathered near Lambert-St. Louis International Airport to talk about preventing accidents on Interstate 70.
The chiefs, from eight cities, meet every quarter as part of a traffic safety group. This particular midday meeting, at Lombardo's Restaurant, was hosted by B&W Sensors of Sunset Hills. The speed camera company paid for the meals at the meeting, which was called to review a news release, said St. Ann Police Chief Robert Schrader.
The next day, the one-page release was issued, declaring that the cities were taking steps to deploy speed cameras on I-70. The release was faxed from B&W's offices.
Some of the chiefs later said they had no intention of installing the cameras. But the incident showed the active role B&W has played in a growing debate over cameras as substitutes for traffic police.
Since the company arrived on the scene in August 2009, B&W has pitched its speed cameras across the region and the state. So far, the company has gained a modest foothold in the growing, competitive market, signing up a handful of Missouri cities. The company also recently landed a Florida city.
Critics have derided speed cameras as a money grab, but the cities who use them, as well as B&W, insist the goal is safety.
"What we talk about is better safety through technology," company co-founder John Baine said in an interview last year. "Increased safety for your children in school zones and bus zones. Protecting our workers in construction zones. Concentrating where (communities) have known traffic problems."
The reception to B&W's message has been mixed. Some cities have politely tabled the matter. Others insist they have no speed problems. Cities that have deployed the cameras say photo enforcement is having the desired effect: more drivers are easing off the gas.
"I think it's the wave of the future," said Herb Soule, police chief in Sugar Creek, Mo. "As time goes along and things get more expensive, you won't be able to hire any more police."
B&W's Traffic Safety Solutions division outfitted St. Ann with the state's first speed camera on Ashby Road in January 2010. The company's client list includes burgs such as Cool Valley and Pine Lawn in North County — communities whose small police rosters limit traffic enforcement. Last fall, a B&W speed camera debuted in Dunnellon, Fla.
The prospect of speed cameras on a stretch I-70, a major east-west highway, promises to raise the volume on the debate.
St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch, a critic of the cameras, suggested that last month's news release may have been timed to avoid immediate action by the Missouri Legislature, which had already recessed. In South Carolina, for instance, state legislators sought to prevent photo enforcement on major highways after the small town of Ridgeland, S.C., installed a speed camera on Interstate 95.
UNIQUE TECHNOLOGY
Baine, B&W's co-founder, sat down with the Post-Dispatch last year but has declined repeated requests for follow-up interviews. He has consistently referred questions to the communities using his company's product.
He and electrical engineer Thomas Winkler came up with the idea for the business, which operates from the second floor of a Sunset Hills office building.
The company touts a multiple vehicle speed-tracking system. In his U.S. patent application, Winkler highlighted the problem of speed enforcement on an interstate superhighway with five to six lanes pulsing with a large number of vehicles in each direction.
"The multitude of vehicles traveling and a large number of lanes makes it extremely difficult for the law enforcement officer to make an accurate and positive determination of which of the vehicles is speeding," he wrote.
The technology can simultaneously track the speeds of multiple vehicles on the same multiple-lane roadway, according to the application. The cameras can be mounted on police cars, trailers, bridges, poles "or any location near the road."
Winkler, listed as the company's president, did not return phone calls from the Post-Dispatch.
In the interview last year, Baine said that rather than using radar or laser, B&W's devices determine a vehicle's speed by calculating the distance and time a vehicle travels. The results are used to generate tickets — cities have set varying amounts for the tickets — and the company and cities split the revenue.
The technology has been checked out by the respected Texas Transportation Institute.
"Nobody has the technology that we have," Baine said. "It's unique. It's new. And it's based on pure science."
On its website, the company says its technology has been "proven to reduce crashes, injuries and fatalities."
B&W has been trying to sell its system to area cities for nearly two years. It often offers to study speeding on roadways for those cities.
One of the earliest to sign on was the North County community of Charlack, which trained speed cameras on a quarter-mile stretch of I-170. The city faced heavy criticism and eventually pulled the plug in January, declaring that its nine-month speed-reduction mission had been a success.
RECORD GROWTH
Nationwide, there are more than 90 jurisdictions that use cameras to enforce speed laws, according to the latest tally by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Illinois permits their use in highway construction zones.
Overall, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration notes a 'substantial increase" in communities using cameras to enforce speed limits and other traffic laws.
American Traffic Solutions Inc. of Arizona, the country's largest provider of speed and red-light cameras, reported "record growth" from 2008 to 2010. ATS said it has installed more than 2,500 cameras under contracts with 260 communities in 21 states, as well as the District of Columbia and Canada.
The U.S. Department of Transportation suggested that speed camera systems can provide "a very effective countermeasure to prevent speeding-related crashes," but should be used as a supplement and "not a replacement for traditional enforcement operations."
In Missouri, the Highways and Transportation Commission this year endorsed speed cameras on state highways — but only in school zones, highway construction zones when workers are present, and so-called "Travel Safe Zones." St. Ann and seven neighboring cities along I-70 formed such a zone last year.
Police in those cities argue that speeding cars have contributed to a significant number of highway crashes.
But before cameras arrive on I-70, participating cities must get permission from the Missouri Department of Transportation, and would still have to pass ordinances allowing them on the interstate. At least three of the eight cities said they were not interested.
Still, the group of cities is amending its Travel Safe Zone plan to "include the use of automated enforcement as a strategy for reducing ... crashes," MoDOT staff told state highway commissioners last week.
Cameras would be rotated along the seven-mile section of I-70 in both directions.
In Sugar Creek, population 3,600, Soule said he was considering the use of speed cameras when he was approached by an old friend, former Kansas City Police Chief Larry Joiner, who he said now works for B&W. Soule said his department, which has 17 officers, including himself, had already been interested in the cameras because of the small size of his force.
The cameras are used at speeding trouble spots on Highway 291. Soule rebuffed the idea that the cameras are money-makers, saying he will be surprised if it generates $10,000 a year after expenses.
"It's never been about money to me," he said. "We aren't getting rich."
Others disagree.
"It is about the money, and to say it is not is disingenuous," said Richmond Heights Councilman Paul Lore, who was present when a B&W representative made its pitch to the council in March 2010. "I have a problem with private enterprise using an arm of the government to collect their revenue."
Richmond Heights did not sign up for the speed cameras after the presentation.
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