Houston Mayor Annise Parker Lies; ATS Colludes With City

There is an extremely cozy relationship between American Traffic Solutions and the city of Houston, Texas. So cozy, in fact, that the mayor of the nation’s fourth largest city has no problem lying to the people she allegedly serves just to protect red light cameras.

Parker said after the election that the cameras were being shut off and wouldn’t come back on, as it was the will of the people. Well, here’s a shocker – that was a complete lie and it looks like it will cost her a chance to be re-elected, as Houstonians are now furious with Parker.

As a matter of fact, the red light scameras in Houston never really were shut off at all. American Traffic Solutions is pushing more bogus stats claiming that “more drivers are now running red lights” after tickets stopped being issued following the November election. Their stats make absolutely no sense when considering that accidents are down 16% since the flashing driver distractions were put on “stealth mode.”

How does it feel to know that ATS has been watching you and collecting data even though you voted them and their automated ticketing machines out of your city, Houston?

The collusion between ATS and the city of Houston, who clearly wanted to lose their court case is evident in the fact that they pushed for corrupt federal judge Lynn Hughes to hear the initial case. Paul Kubosh, who led the initiative to put the red light scamboxes on the ballot was quoted in the Houston Chronicle yesterday:

Wednesday’s announcement provoked the full fury of Paul Kubosh, a lawyer who helped lead the petition drive to get the cameras banned. When reached for comment, he did not even wait for a question. “Start typing!” he said, and launched into criticizing the decision.

“The mayor is going to ask for your vote in November. How can you possibly give her your vote when she does not respect yours?” Kubosh said. “She is not following the will of the citizens of Houston, she is following her own conscience.”

Kubosh repeated that the city shopped the suit in federal court in hopes of an unfavorable ruling that would compel it to turn the cameras back on.

The contract with ATS runs through 2014. Before that contract is extended, Parker said Wednesday, she intends to ask City Council to place another referendum on the ballot asking voters whether the program should continue.

“Anything she says about placating the voters is a lie. You can’t believe a word coming out of her mouth when it comes to red-light cameras,” Kubosh said. “She’s just saying that to appease the voters to try to calm them down a little bit. If she had an opponent the cameras would still be down.”

Annise Parker cannot be trusted and Houston will be rid of her in a few short months. As for British Petroleum owned Judge Hughes and his chicanery.. well his position should have been on the chopping block a long time ago.

Vote on L.A. Red Light Cameras By City Council is “Likely” on Friday

UPDATE: After testimony, mostly by ATS employees, including Charley Territo and CEO James Tuton, LA City Council decided to delay even voting on the “suggestive measure” until Tuesday.

LAist has more details.

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American Traffic Solutions is clinging to life in Los Angeles for another 48 hours, but the likelihood of them surviving the month of June is extremely low.

Two council members have been persuaded by an ATS lobbyist to introduce a motion to continue the red light camera scam on a monthly basis while a “safety analysis” is conducted.

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BREAKING: Red Light Cameras Voted Out of Los Angeles Intersections by Police Commission

Jay Beeber of Sherman Oaks, CA has been hard at work and it paid off in a big way today when the Los Angeles Police Commission voted to completely dismantle the city’s red light camera program.

Before the vote, Jay and some citizens from various parts of Los Angeles spoke out against the red light scameras. <read more>

 

Overworked Speed Cam Operator Drives Double the Speed Limit, Gets Fired

Not only are speed camera vendors operating one of the most wide-reaching scams across the world, but they’re also endangering employees and motorists with their negligence.

A man who has a medical condition which requires him to take heavy medication, but still works 12 hour shifts as a speed cam operator, reportedly got behind the wheel in a completely dazed state and proceeded to drive double the speed limit, SEVERAL times.

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Will Redflex Begin Seizing Vehicles in Albuquerque Next?

Earlier this week, news came out that Redflex and Las Cruces, NM PD will begin stealing cars as ransom for red light camera fines. The excuse they’re using is that there are too many unpaid tickets and now they’re losing money.

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New Study: Speed Cameras Cause Bad Driving, Increase Crashes

We’ve known since they first appeared, but now it’s official: Speed cameras cause bad driving. A recent poll by UK car insurance provider Liverpool Victoria, 81% of drivers said they looked at the speedometer instead of the road when a camera appeared, and 5% admitted to braking suddenly when in sight of a camera. Liverpool Victoria managing director John O’Roarke was quoted as saying, “…while they may reduce speed they also appear to impair driving ability or, at the least, concentration on the road. As this report shows some drivers behave erratically and, at worst, dangerously around speed cameras.”

We agree, as free-flowing traffic with driver’s attention on the road is safer than having even a small portion of drivers distracted and driving erratically.

In another report, Express.co.uk reports that cameras have caused 28,000 lives in the UK over the pas 10 years, as cameras have been cited as the official cause of 1% of all accidents.

To prove the point that the opposite is true – that removing cameras reduces accidents – the Telegraph reported Saturday on newly reduced data from Swindon (UK). Swindon turned off their cameras 9 months ago, and similar to Arizona, experts predicted a bloodbath. Redflex’s Shoba Vaitheeswaran predicted, “…watch for a large increase in aggressive, dangerous driving” after Arizona ended its statewide contract. Instead, the opposite has happened. Since the cameras were turned off, injury and fatality crashes were down by 4% and 50% respectively in the entire area. At the camera sites themselves, fatalities dropped from 1 to 0 and non-injury accidents dropped from 13 to 12. We expect similar results in Arizona.

Governor Brewer: Helps us improve road safety here. Let us vote on photo enforcement!

Scottsdale Strikes Again! Another Innocent Victim of Photo Radar

In a follow-on to previous articles about the burden of erroneous photo tickets on the innocent, another innocent driver has had to resort to the local media to resolve a problem with an erroneous ticket. Eleven years ago, Terry Fox received a photo ticket from Scottsdale for a car he no longer owned. Terry dutifully filled out the form saying it wasn’t his and heard nothing back (which is typical). Eleven years later, the City of Scottsdale is demanding to be paid.

But the City of Scottsdale was no help in resolving this issue. Terry reports that “The girl at the window told me, suggested, that I pay that ticket and she said my driver’s license was probably already suspended on it.” He had to resort to calling 12 For Action in order to resolve this matter.

Thanks to this failure in the Scottsdale photo enforcement system, Terry was now forced to request an evidentiary hearing and then report to court for the hearing in order to clear the matter. When the judge checked the file for evidence, none was found.

Terry got his money back, but at the expense of spending many hours of frustration trying to resolve the issue, miles of driving to the courts and to the city, and possible time off of work to attend the court hearing.

For those who say, “Don’t speed and you have nothing to worry about,” think again. Terry didn’t speed and he had plenty to worry about and deal with.

Just like the designer of the novelty plate ‘N JOY AZ’, who is frequently accused of speeding and running red lights in places he has never been. Or the couple in Wyoming who tells us that Redflex has trouble telling the difference between a Wyoming truck and a car license plate and hasn’t been to Arizona in decades. Or the 600 unfortunate victims of Scottsdale’s faulty equipment.

Many more examples of equipment malfunction and erroneous tickets can be found at PhotoRadarScam.com.

Arizona Citizens Against Photo Radar Makes National Press

The Associated Press, New York Times and even the Drudge Report are all spreading the word about the nation-wide anti photo radar movement. Those at Redflex may not acknowledge that it exists, but we are pretty sure it does.

Paul Connors/Associated Press

It seems everyone is now finding out the dirty little secret of the absolute failure of the contract between Arizona DP$ and Redflex. You don’t have to take our word for it however. Just ask national media outlets. The AP first ran a story on December 30th about the program, mentioning Shawn Dow of The Arizona Citizens Against Photo Radar.

“I see all the cameras in Arizona completely coming down ” in 2010, said Shawn Dow, chairman of Arizona Citizens Against Photo Radar, which is trying to get a measure banning the cameras on the November ballot. “The citizens of Arizona took away the cash cow of Arizona by refusing to pay.”

Enjoy your final 11 months in AZ, Redflex. Make sure to book your moving vans early.

Ever Wonder What’s in a Red Light Camera Box?

Inside a Red Light Camera

Ever wonder what’s in a Redflex Red Light Camera box? We recently caught a glimpse while a Redflex technician was servicing the unit at 83rd Ave & Union Hills. All of the equipment is jumbled and laying haphazardly inside of the unit. Click on the pictures for a closer view.

Inside a Red Light Camera 2

Illegal Parking

Of course, since Reflex is above the law, they have no problem with breaking the city ordinances in order to save a few steps. In Peoria, it’s illegal to park in the public right away and to obstruct a sidewalk. Nevermind the fact that there’s a Circle K parking lot he could have used just a few yards to the West, but that would have required the technician to have to walk a few more steps.

Camera Glass

And if you ever wondered how thick the glass is, here’s your answer.

After the technician finished servicing the unit, you’d expect that he’d be required to test the system to make sure it’s all working correctly, but you’d be wrong. Equipment accuracy and functionality has never been important in the quest for profits. The technician finished servicing a piece of equipment, placed it back inside of the unit, and sped away without performing any apparent testing on the system.

Guilty! And You Didn’t Even Know It

An injustice to one is an injustice to all

Your license could be suspended and you may not even know it. In yet another colossal failure of photo enforcement, you may have been cited with a traffic citation and never been notified. Since you didn’t pay the ticket you didn’t know about, some judge suspended your license when you didn’t show up to court for the hearing you didn’t know about.

This is an increasing epidemic in they city of Scottsdale, where photo enforcement has been in place for years.

This week, KPHO reports on Elizabeth Vaughan, who recently lost a job because a background check revealed a suspended license due to a photo radar ticket from 10 years ago that she was never notified of.

On September 29, 2009 AZFamily’s 3 on your side segment reported that Patty Parker found out that her license was suspended when Phoenix police pulled her over and told her that her license was suspended. Research revealed that a judge suspended her license after Patty failed to respond to 4 mailed tickets that she never received, despite no Declaration of Service ever being filed.

On September 5, 2009 KPHO reported on Ken Lind, whose license was suspended after he was ticketed in April 2000 without his knowledge and without being served. Lind has already spent hundreds of dollars getting his record cleansed and license reinstated.

Like a broken record, Scottsdale spokesman never seem to have an explanation. Officials insist that the purpose of photo enforcement is safety. But if people are never notified, how is it supposed to have any effect on how people drive? The biggest fallacy associated with photo enforcement is the belief that notifying people weeks, months, or years after they’ve violated a law will have an effect on their habits and behavior.

More importantly, is this how the people of Scottsdale and surrounding communities wish to be governed? Is unknowingly suspending people’s licenses really going to be effective at keeping our roads safe? Is this the burden we wish ourselves and others to suffer just so cities can make a few extra million dollars? The people of Scottsdale and its visitors deserve better. Cops, not cameras!