Haines City to Drop Its Red-Light Cameras: Contract Ends in January
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City Commissioners in Haines City, Florida voted to remove their red light cameras. I'll keep the site updated as to when they go down.
Haines City to Drop Its Red-Light Cameras: Contract Ends in January
By Madison Fantozzi & Christopher Guinn
NEWS CHIEF
Published: Thursday, May 7, 2015 at 12:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, May 8, 2015 at 12:00 a.m.
HAINES CITY | Haines City will yank its red-light cameras and leave Lakeland the lone Polk County city operating the controversial program.
Commissioners in Haines City voted 3-2 on Thursday night to end the program when the city's contract with American Traffic Solutions is up in January because they don't want to use general funds to subsidize it.
Commissioner Roy Tyler and Vice Mayor Horace West dissented, although they said they didn't fully support the idea of taxpayers footing the bill either.
ATS proposed renewing the contract for two years and lowering the city's $61,750 monthly cost to $49,500 a month, but that didn't sway commissioners' opinions.
"We're on the hook for some dollars and it looks like we'll be on the hook for some more," Tyler said. "That means people who have never run a red light would be supplementing the program."
Only 11 percent of the 83,000 red-light camera tickets issued since the program's inception in 2011 have been issued to Haines City residents, according to ATS.
Mayor Ken Kipp and commissioners Don Mason and Ronnie Cotton said they wanted the cameras out regardless of the financial situation.
The city currently owes ATS about $60,000 and Public Safety Director Rick Sloan said it could owe $60,000 more by the end of the fiscal year, although he can't be sure. If red-light ticket revenue can't cover the cost, the city will have to dip into its general fund to pay off the debt.
City Manager Jonathan Evan said although taxpayers benefit from the program because it serves as a safety measure, they shouldn't have to pay for it..........
http://www.theledger.com/article/20150507/NEWSCHIEF/15050943...
POI Files
So if I read this correctly...
The red light camera ticket income is not covering the monthly fee from ATS?
Nuvi 2460LMT.
what you read
The red light camera ticket income is not covering the monthly fee from ATS?
was a story about a group of politicians that couldn't understand the law of diminishing returns which is pretty typical of those that believe Merriam-Webster took gullible out of the dictionary and are too arrogant to check.
Illiterate? Write for free help.
2+2=?
The red light camera ticket income is not covering the monthly fee from ATS?
Just remember Haines City population is around 22K people, as they stated only 11% of the violations came from residents meaning 89% was from people transiting through the city,only problem very few drove thru as east to west where most traffic happens is done on I4 located north of the city and north to south traffic goes on US27 that has overpasses over all Haines City streets.
Poor planning by the local politicians when they established the RLC program since there was no intersections with the volume of traffic needed to pay for the RLC
Garmin 38 - Magellan Gold - Garmin Yellow eTrex - Nuvi 260 - Nuvi 2460LMT - Google Nexus 7 - Toyota Entune NAV
Yellow Interval
Yellow Interval may have something to do with the lack of revenue.
From: http://www.wtsp.com/story/local/2014/02/03/2053572/
"RLC critics and federal studies have stated short yellow lights don't give drivers enough time to safely react to a changing intersection signal. And prior to a June 2013 decision from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to extend yellow lights statewide, Florida had some of the most lucrative RLCs in the country.
But FDOT's June 2013 memo, prompted by a series of 10 Investigates stories, instructed cities and counties to extend the length of almost every yellow light at RLC intersections by Dec. 31.And while data is limited in the short time since some municipalities changed their lights, the data suggests a yellow light extension of even four-tenths of a second makes huge differences in how many drivers get tickets."
Mark