BanRedCams.com

The Chicago Tribune has blown the lid off of Illinois’ lawmakers claims that red light cameras increase safety. From the article:

Accidents rose – in some cases, significantly – at half the 14 suburban intersections outfitted with traffic cameras by the end of 2007, the data show. The number of crashes fell at just five of those intersections after cameras went in, while two others showed little change.

With the data showing that claims of “safety” were false, the response from officials was …

Roger Pawlowski, a division chief at the Oak Lawn Police Department, said  the benefits of red-light cameras can’t always be extrapolated from crash statistics.

Folks, you need to read this incredible article and be equipped with the facts of the redcam scam in Illinois. The facts are on our side, but don’t expect the redcam companies and their legislative allies to roll over without a fight!

Thank you to Sen. Carole Pankau for criticizing redcams, particularly for right turns on red. We hope that she will come aboard the BanRedCams bandwagon and support Sen. Duffy’s bill to rid our state of these menaces.

Today, the Argus Press Spectator family of papers, which includes the Lombard Spectator, published a follow up article on BanRedCams and our particular focus on RedSpeed Illinois – the shady company that does the redcam dirty work for Lombard, Villa Park, and many other communities in Illinois.

RedSpeed has been featured in numerous news pieces, including this recent article from the Daily Herald, where intrepid reporter Marni Pyke reveals that her FOIA requests uncovered RedSpeed emails local officials regularly. The RedSpeed effort “includes urging local leaders to pressure lawmakers to back pro-camera bills, bad-mouthing ex-client Schaumburg, providing media talking points, and inviting law enforcement to a “Police Chief Brew Fest” for charity.”

The “Clout St” blog has revealed that Chicago aldermen now refuse to add new don’t walk timers to redcam intersections. These don’t walk timers tell pedestrians how long they have to clear an intersection, so that they can cross safely.

However, there’s a side effect to these timers: drivers can tell how long they have to get through the intersection before a light turns yellow or red. More information for drivers is usually a good thing, right? Well … not when a redcam is involved. You see,

Transportation officials said studies from other cities backed up their argument that countdown timers tend to hurt the effectiveness of red-light cameras…

Yet again, Chicago, red light camera capital of America, leads the way in responsive and thoughtful government.

In a room packed with local police chiefs, BanRedCams founder Peter Breen testified against red light cameras to the DuPage County Board’s Transportation Committee. The Roselle police chief testified in favor of the cameras, while each of the other police chiefs, when asked individually, each responded, “no comment” or the like. Chiefs, because they report directly to the aldermen or trustees of the municipality – the same elected officials who put red light cameras in their respective towns and cities – are not free to speak their minds on the real effect of cameras. If you talk, off the record, to rank and file police, you find that the vast majority of officers are against these cameras.

“The room was so hostile, I couldn’t even get someone to take a picture of me to post on BanRedCams,” said Breen. “Even the ‘neutral observers’ who were there wouldn’t help. They are so afraid of the red light camera companies and the money they generate for local governments. It was surreal.”

Fortunately, the members of the committee were not convinced by the “show of force” from local police and tabled the matter.

Thank you to the Suburban Life chain of newspapers for doing the right thing – calling for a full ban on redcams.

From the article:

More people would support red-light cameras if they thought the devices improved road safety.

But it’s apparent that red-light cameras are just another method for municipalities to fill their coffers. After all, the majority of tickets stem from alleged violations that pose minimal hazards.

…

Rather than making our roadways safer, red-light cameras are having the opposite effect. Towns then get to pocket $100 per violation.

Is this what municipal leaders envisioned when they agreed to install the devices in their communities? Constituents deserve to know why they have to pay so much when public safety isn’t being served.

The Suburban Life family of newspapers covers a broad swath of western, northwestern, and southwestern suburbs of Chicago.

A post from Barnet Fagel, the Illinois Activist and Traffic Researcher for the National Motorists Association:

To those folks who are still for RedCams,

Let’s be clear, we are for safety. We all agree that drivers who wantonly violate traffic signals should be ticketed by a police officer at the time of the incident. Yet, many, many studies conclusively prove that Red Light Ticket Cameras (RLTCs) are shown to affect traffic flow with unintended circumstances. RLTCs have been shown to dramatically increase rear-end and pedestrian collisions.

In fact, RLTCs cannot generate sufficient revenue for government and private companies in properly safety-engineered and maintained roadways and intersections. For example, a recent Georgia law extended the yellow-light time by one second at every camera-equipped intersection. Within 6 months of the law going into effect, the red light violation rate went down 80%, the red light collision rate went down 70%, and camera enforcement companies started to remove their equipment.

Then, we can review the technical problems inherent in these cameras. When you buy a pound of hamburger, fill up your car at a gas station, take a cab ride, or get a clocked by police RADAR, each and every transaction is metered or measured by a device that meets statutory standards for accuracy and measurement. Even parking meters are subject to breakdowns and maintenance. Yet RLTCs are not subject to any of the same accepted standards of commerce, locally, on a state basis or federally. (Hmmm, wonder why not?)

Moreover, a RedCam is a mere machine: a machine with no ability to change its field of vision, listen for emergency vehicles, factor for inclement weather, arrest violators or appear in court to face the alleged violators. This is not law enforcement. It’s “Instamatic Injustice.” (Ed. Note: the Kodak Instamatic was an early “point and shoot” camera)

Some folks say, “the law is the law.” But, that completely ignores the law of physics. When traffic engineering errors aren’t corrected and when proper maintenance is not performed on traffic signals, the RLTCs are documenting engineering errors, not enforcing the law. Incidentally, just because a bill becomes law doesn’t presume that it is lawful. The City of Chicago exhorts over $48 Million a year using RLTCs, but many of these intersections have short-timed their yellow-light time phases, below the yellow-light times provided by the federal government. Finally, even with all this revenue, Chicago’s streets and sanitation electrical department will tell you that they are short-handed and unable to properly maintain the short-timed traffic signals. They are left to respond only to burned out bulb reports.

Municipalities installed RLTCs believing their vendor’s claims of increase safety. Yet, these claims – by the very vendors who profit from getting the cameras in place – have been found wanting upon scrutiny by public peer review, whether shown as using flawed statistical methods or outcomes. You can visit motorists.org, the home page of the National Motorists Association, to verify these facts and figures.

The Federally Highway Administration calls for the three “E”s: Engineer, Educate, and Enforce – in that order. If you want to talk more about this issue, I will be at the East Dundee Village Hall for a public safety committee meeting on this subject tomorrow, Monday the 28th, at 5:30p.m.

Fox Chicago attended the Rally and put together a nice report for their 9p.m. news

The cameras look pretty scary, eh?

The Daily Herald had a front page teaser and a nice article on the Rally.

The Suburban Life had a good article on the Rally, too.

NBC local had a more snarky article on the Rally, but we’re all for good fun.

The Parking Ticket Geek had a very thorough article on the event, as well.

Surprise, surprise, the Trib reports Berwyn is now considering adding “SafeSpeed LLC” cameras (note the use of the word “safe” in their name to remind you that RedCams are all about safety – in case you left their company talking points sheet in the other room – and the use of an LLC – a corporate structure that prevents public view of a company’s operations). The problem is, Berwyn is already signed up with RedSpeed-Illinois LLC. Why? Berwyn’s attorney (and a contributor to the mayor’s political campaign) is connected to SafeSpeed, so Berwyn may go with two RedCam companies for a while. Yeesh, don’t trip over one other on your way to feed at the public cash trough.

This morning, Sheriff Mark Curran of Lake County confirmed his support of the effort to BanRedCams in Illinois. Noting that people “don’t want to live in a police state,” Sheriff Curran believes that government should use the many proven methods of increasing safety at intersections (e.g., increasing yellow light times), not red light cameras.

Remember, red light cameras have been shown to increase accidents. And, in the Village of Lombard, headquarters of RedSpeed, 100% – or almost 100% - of red light camera violations are for right turns on red, a driving maneuver shown to have negligible impact on safety.

Why is Sheriff Curran’s voice on this issue so important? He is an elected law man, directly accountable to the voters of a large county, where these cameras are becoming more prevalent. Because he is elected directly by the people, and not bound by a municipal board looking for RedCam money, Sheriff Curran can say “what needs to be said” – and say what other law enforcement officers would like to say, if allowed to speak freely.

Sen. Dan Duffy (R-Barrington Hills) will speak at the Kickoff Rally for BanRedCams.com tomorrow night. This is an incredible honor, because Sen. Duffy is the leader of the fight against red light cameras in the General Assembly, having already “pre-filed” a bill in the Senate to ban the cameras.

All of the gubernatorial candidates were also invited to the Rally and Adam Andrzejewski (R-Hinsdale) accepted the invitation to address the crowd. Brian Costin, President of the Schaumburg Freedom Coalition, will speak on his experience in successfully fighting to ban the cameras in his hometown. State Representative Mike Connelly (R-Lisle) is previously engaged but is supporting the effort by sending a letter that will be read to the assembled crowd. State Senators Randy Hultgren (R-Winfield) and Chris Lauzen (R-Aurora) have also agreed to sign on to Senator Duffy’s bill.

Remember to bring a flashlight, so that we can give RedSpeed a taste of its own medicine!

The Rally kicks off at 7p.m. at 400 Eisenhower Lane N., Lombard, IL, and will run for about an hour.