AB 529: California's Red Light Revenue Raid

Not satisfied with impoverishing residents and unwary visitors with $500 automated tickets for being a tenth of a second late at a light, California’s legislators are moving a new bill allowing cities to reduce many posted speed limits by 5 mph. The lower limits will, in turn, allow them to shorten yellow lights, which will produce more red light camera tickets (four of the sponsoring cities have red light cameras).

And how many more tickets you ask? The shortening permitted by a 5 mph decrease in the posted limit will increase the number of tickets by an estimated 50% at least. Worse, the shortening will increase severe accidents, by an estimated 30%. (If you are wondering why the accident rate increases less than does the number of violations, it is because most of the severe intersection accidents occur multiple seconds after the light has gone red, involving a driver who has failed to see the red light, at all, because he is impaired by a medical condition, liquor, or drugs.)

Assembly Bill 529, by Assemblymember Michael Gatto (Glendale), is moving through Sacramento fast, with a critical hearing scheduled soon [latest version and tracking here].

If this bill passes in California, other states will likely follow suit. If you are concerned, phone your state legislators, as soon as you see this. It takes no more than a couple minutes per call. And then if you have more time, phone your auto club and ask them to oppose this bill – or anything like it in your state.

The bill in detail:

Every seven to ten years the city traffic engineer goes out to the street and uses a radar gun to measure the speed of 100 cars. Then he discards the 15 fastest cars. The speed of the fastest car remaining is the “85th percentile speed.” (AB 529 does not change this part of the survey process.)

Under present law, the engineer then rounds the 85th percentile speed to the nearest 5 mph increment, which can be up or down depending upon what the 85th percentile was found to be. That 5 mph increment becomes the posted speed limit, unless the engineer is able to cite a dangerous road condition that would not be visible to a driver (Cal. Vehicle Code Sec. 627 uses the phrase “conditions not readily apparent to the driver”), such as a higher-than-average accident rate or a hidden driveway. If the street is a dangerous one, the engineer can lower the posted limit to the next-lower 5 mph increment. Thus, an 85th of 33 or 34, normally posted as 35, can be lowered to 30 if there is a hidden danger or a high accident rate.

If AB 529 passes, no longer will the engineer be required to round to the nearest 5 mph increment. He will be allowed to round down, anytime he wishes, even if the street is a safe one; He will not need to cite a dangerous condition as justification. Thus, the speed limit on any (and potentially every) street having an 85th of 33 or 34 could be lowered from 35 down to 30 – even where there is a very low incidence of accidents. The same would apply to every street having an 85th of 38 or 39; The speed limit could be lowered from 40 down to 35.

[Courtesy: An editor of highwayrobbery.net]