OLYMPIA—Spokane and any other city in Washington that uses cameras to catch red-light runners could have their ticket fines limited to $25 under a proposal before the Legislature.
State Rep. Christopher Hurst, D-Pierce County, the prime sponsor of House Bill 2780, said the cameras create an “unholy alliance” between cities and the companies that maintain them and share the revenue the tickets generate. He likened them to speed traps cities once set up to help pad their budgets.
“This is not Tijuana, this is Washington state,” Hurst told the House Transportation Committee.
Greg Parks of American Traffic Solutions, the company that has the contract for the cameras in Spokane, Seattle and Bellevue, argued that the cameras are set up to reduce accidents at dangerous intersections: “It is a safety program. It’s not about revenue.”
To remove any profit motive, Hurst’s bill sets the maximum fine at $25. He said he’s willing to negotiate, but it should be similar to a parking fine. A ticket in Spokane now costs $124.
It also requires the yellow light to be on for at least four seconds, which is the time Spokane already uses, Spokane Police Officer Theresa Fuller said.
The Spokane program is about safety not revenue, Fuller said, although she questioned the comparison to a parking fine: “You’re not going to kill somebody not paying your parking meter. You can kill somebody running a red light.”
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Jim Camden is a veteran political reporter for The Spokesman-Review.
Jonathan Brunt covers Spokane City Hall for The Spokesman-Review.
spokelooneh on January 28 at 10:53 a.m.
There’s no definitive, independent data which concludes that the red light cameras improve safety. At BEST, the nature of the accidents change somewhat.
fiveandsix on January 28 at 1:41 p.m.
Spokelooneh is the expert on this. Probably googled it to death.
I think they should take the profits and install cop car cams on the fleet. They want to monitor us, we should be watching them.
Obie1 on January 28 at 9:39 p.m.
Here is an idea for the camera paranoia group; start a campaign on getting rid of the cameras by no one running red lights so no money for the city. If you are successful you can be smug…and the city will say Bravo.
srd275 on January 29 at 8:36 a.m.
Obie, I don’t think you get it.
Camera vendors NEED VIOLATIONS to be profitiable. Without it they loose their contracts like in Dalton, GA or Norcross, GA where the amber time increased killed of the camera revenue.
Further if you do a FOIA request you will find that most of what the RLC write are not the plus 5 into red who kill someone but people who stopped over the stop line by 1 ft, right turns on red or under a second (too many of which indicate the need for longer ambers).
This is not about highway safety. Never had been. Heck ATS operation in Tucson was busted moveing the trigger line into the intersection by two car lenghts. Read about it here: http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/29/2990.asp