California, Washington: Residents To Vote On Banning Red Light Cameras

The Newspaper
by The Newspaper

Residents of Mukilteo, Washington and Anaheim, California will vote this November on whether to ban red light cameras and speed cameras. Washington initiative guru Tim Eyman joined representatives from BanCams.com and the Campaign for Liberty yesterday in announcing that the required number of signatures had been collected to force an anti-camera initiative onto the next ballot. A total of 1909 signed in a matter of just two weeks.

“We’ve shattered the Mukilteo record on the fastest amount of time gathering signatures,” Eyman told TheNewspaper jokingly.

The city has had only one other successful initiative petition, but Eyman credits the speed of collection to the strength of Initiative Petition No. 2’s message, namely that voters should decide whether or not to ban automated enforcement ( view initiative). Eyman hopes to have the petition certified and brought before the city council in time for its next meeting on June 21.

Eyman pointed out that Councilman Kevin Stoltz provided the 1909th signature on the petition. Stoltz had been out of town when Mayor Joe Marine cast the deciding vote to enact a red light camera ordinance. Had Stoltz been present, the motion would have failed. Initiative organizers plan to continue going door-to-door to collect more signatures and educate the public about their measure.

No signatures were needed in Anaheim as Mayor Curt Pringle pushed a city charter amendment banning red light cameras onto the November 2 ballot with the unanimous support of his colleagues on Tuesday.

“Neither the city council, nor any officer or employee of the city when acting in his or her official capacity, shall take any action which would directly or indirectly result in the authorization, approval or installation of any red light camera or other automated traffic enforcement system in the city of Anaheim,” the proposed charter amendment states.

Anaheim has no red light cameras, but Pringle wants to make sure that no future city administration attempts to install them without public consent after he steps down at the end of the year.

“I believe many red light cameras that are placed around this county or around the state are done for the purpose of local government’s revenue collection as opposed to traffic safety,” Pringle explained in April.

While ten cities have enacted similar initiatives prohibiting automated ticketing machines, Anaheim’s would be the first placed on the ballot at the request of a city council. Once on the ballot, no photo enforcement program has ever survived a public vote. The full text of the Anaheim initiative is available in a 45k PDF file at the source link below.

Proposed amendment: Measure No. 1 – Red light cameras (City of Anaheim, California, 6/10/2010)

[Courtesy: Thenewspaper.com]

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  • Lowmanjoe Lowmanjoe on Jun 11, 2010

    Tim Eyman is a big trouble maker up here. And the only place I'm aware of in Mukilteo where they were going to put in a speed camera is right by a school where a lot of motorists speed. The road adjacent to the school sees a lot of traffic from the Whidbey Island ferry dock and if you ask me, there NEEDS to be a speed camera there. This is one of those rare times where I am all for automated traffic enforcement.

    • SexCpotatoes SexCpotatoes on Jun 11, 2010

      Because Red Light & Speed Cameras stop people 100% from running red lights and speeding. If there is a problem, it's nothing a few strategically placed police cars staffed with actual human officers couldn't take care of during the 'peak hours.' Yes, they have other patrol duties and emergency calls take precendence, but Automated Ticketing Devices are just that, Ticketing Devices, pure revenue generators and provide NO safetey benefits or incentive to stop a behaviour until the 'civil' fine arrives a month or so after the offense.

  • CliffG CliffG on Jun 11, 2010

    Yeah, that Eyman guy is real troublemaker. He keeps getting initiatives on the ballot that force the legislature to ask permission of the voters before raising taxes. Fundamentally evil. Oh, the road by Olympic View MS could have cop by it the two times a day that is necessary. And cops are all over the place during the weekend when traffic is the heaviest. But, to catch that guy going by at 10 over at 1:00am when no one is around? Cameras! Revenue! Whoopee! Just think how much money we could raise if we had cameras everywhere!

  • EBFlex Garbage but for less!
  • FreedMike I actually had a deal in place for a PHEV - a Mazda CX-90 - but it turned out to be too big to fit comfortably in my garage, thus making too difficult to charge, so I passed. But from that, I learned the Truth About PHEVs - they're a VERY niche product, and probably always be, because their use case is rather nebulous. Yes, you can run on EV power for 25-30 miles, plug it in at home on a slow charger, and the next day, you're ready to go again. Great in theory, but in practice, a) you still need a home charger, b) you paid a LOT more for the car than you would have for a standard hybrid, and c) you discover the nasty secret of PHEVs, which is that when they're on battery power, they're absolute pigs to drive. Meanwhile, to maintain its' piglike battery-only performance, it still needs to be charged, so you're running into all the (overstated) challenges that BEV owners have, with none of the performance that BEV owners like. To quote King George in "Hamilton": " Awesome. Wow." In the Mazda's case, the PHEV tech was used as a performance enhancer - which worked VERY nicely - but it's the only performance-oriented PHEV out there that doesn't have a Mercedes-level pricetag. So who's the ideal owner here? Far as I can tell, it's someone who doesn't mind doing his 25 mile daily commute in a car that's slow as f*ck, but also wants to take the car on long road trips that would be inconvenient in a BEV. Meanwhile, the MPG Uber Alles buyers are VERY cost conscious - thus the MPG Uber Alles thing - and won't be enthusiastic about spending thousands more to get similar mileage to a standard hybrid. That's why the Volt failed. The tech is great for a narrow slice of buyers, but I think the real star of the PHEV revival show is the same tax credits that many BEVs get.
  • RHD The speed limit was raised from 62.1 MPH to 68.3 MPH. It's a slight difference which will, more than anything, lower the fines for the guy caught going 140 KPH.
  • Msquare The argument for unlimited autobahns has historically been that lane discipline is a life-or-death thing instead of a suggestion. That and marketing cars designed for autobahn speeds gives German automakers an advantage even in places where you can't hope to reach such speeds. Not just because of enforcement, but because of road conditions. An old Honda commercial voiced by Burgess Meredith had an Accord going 110 mph. Burgess said, "At 110 miles per hour, we have found the Accord to be quiet and comfortable. At half that speed, you may find it to be twice as quiet and comfortable." That has sold Mercedes, BMW's and even Volkswagens for decades. The Green Party has been pushing for decades for a 100 km/h blanket limit for environmental reasons, with zero success.
  • Varezhka The upcoming mild-hybrid version (aka 500 Ibrida) can't come soon enough. Since the new 500e is based on the old Alfa Mito and Opel Adam platform (now renamed STLA City) you'd have thought they've developed the gas version together.
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