2014 city revenue from traffic cameras
Dayton: $1.7 million*
Trotwood: $227,296
Springfield: $265,812
West Carrollton: $100,091
Hamilton: $82,067
Middletown: $169,482
Source: Depts. of Finance.
*Estimated.
INTERACTIVE MAP
Find out where drivers speed and get the most red light camera tickets in Dayton at MyDaytonDailyNews.com
TRAFFIC COVERAGE
On TV: Sgt. Mark Bowron has traffic updates to help you with your commute every 10 minutes in the morning Monday-Friday from 5-7 a.m. on WHIO-TV Channel 7.
Online: Watch traffic cameras and find out where the cheap gas is on our new online traffic page at WHIO.com
On Twitter: Get the latest local traffic updates at @WHIOtraffic.
On the radio: Sgt. Mark Bowron has traffic updates throughout the day at News 95.7 FM and AM 1290. Also, listen at 7:15 a.m. Mondays for a look ahead at the week in construction areas to watch from our transportation reporter Steve Bennish.
What do you think?
Traffic cameras are a hot topic on our Facebook page. Here’s what some readers had to say:
Isaac C. Downey: Well it's not lost revenue when it was theft to begin with. They might (have) of continued to use them illegaly if the money was used for roads or schools, rather thank lining pockets.
Jacob Estes: Only in Ohio do they ignore the Constitution and Bill of Rights to create jobs in other states.
Ralph Simpson: Good, nothing but revenue enhancement anyway.
John Butsch: They should be at every intersection
Scott Richardson: They are a violation of privacy rights and a scam. They also cause dangerous driving situations. As a result of people slamming on the brakes to not risk being ticketed. Also the flash is blinding at night and they error quite frequently. They should be removed and banned. If cities quit wasting money on useless endeavors they wouldn't need this revenue.
INTERACTIVE MAP
Find out where drivers speed and get the most red light camera tickets in Dayton at MyDaytonDailyNews.com
TRAFFIC COVERAGE
On TV: Sgt. Mark Bowron has traffic updates to help you with your commute every 10 minutes in the morning Monday-Friday from 5-7 a.m. on WHIO-TV Channel 7.
Online: Watch traffic cameras and find out where the cheap gas is on our new online traffic page at WHIO.com
On Twitter: Get the latest local traffic updates at @WHIOtraffic.
On the radio: Sgt. Mark Bowron has traffic updates throughout the day at News 95.7 FM and AM 1290. Also, listen at 7:15 a.m. Mondays for a look ahead at the week in construction areas to watch from our transportation reporter Steve Bennish.
What do you think?
Traffic cameras are a hot topic on our Facebook page. Here’s what some readers had to say:
Isaac C. Downey: Well it's not lost revenue when it was theft to begin with. They might (have) of continued to use them illegaly if the money was used for roads or schools, rather thank lining pockets.
Jacob Estes: Only in Ohio do they ignore the Constitution and Bill of Rights to create jobs in other states.
Ralph Simpson: Good, nothing but revenue enhancement anyway.
John Butsch: They should be at every intersection
Scott Richardson: They are a violation of privacy rights and a scam. They also cause dangerous driving situations. As a result of people slamming on the brakes to not risk being ticketed. Also the flash is blinding at night and they error quite frequently. They should be removed and banned. If cities quit wasting money on useless endeavors they wouldn't need this revenue.
INTERACTIVE MAP
Find out where drivers speed and get the most red light camera tickets in Dayton at MyDaytonDailyNews.com
TRAFFIC COVERAGE
On TV: Sgt. Mark Bowron has traffic updates to help you with your commute every 10 minutes in the morning Monday-Friday from 5-7 a.m. on WHIO-TV Channel 7.
Online: Watch traffic cameras and find out where the cheap gas is on our new online traffic page at WHIO.com
On Twitter: Get the latest local traffic updates at @WHIOtraffic.
On the radio: Sgt. Mark Bowron has traffic updates throughout the day at News 95.7 FM and AM 1290. Also, listen at 7:15 a.m. Mondays for a look ahead at the week in construction areas to watch from our transportation reporter Steve Bennish.
What do you think?
Traffic cameras are a hot topic on our Facebook page. Here’s what some readers had to say:
Isaac C. Downey: Well it's not lost revenue when it was theft to begin with. They might (have) of continued to use them illegaly if the money was used for roads or schools, rather thank lining pockets.
Jacob Estes: Only in Ohio do they ignore the Constitution and Bill of Rights to create jobs in other states.
Ralph Simpson: Good, nothing but revenue enhancement anyway.
John Butsch: They should be at every intersection
Scott Richardson: They are a violation of privacy rights and a scam. They also cause dangerous driving situations. As a result of people slamming on the brakes to not risk being ticketed. Also the flash is blinding at night and they error quite frequently. They should be removed and banned. If cities quit wasting money on useless endeavors they wouldn't need this revenue.
When Ohio’s red light and speed cameras stop issuing tickets later this month, police and city leaders face a challenge — trying to rein in motorists who drive highway speeds on city streets.
Here are some of the key issues:
* On some city streets, cars have been clocked by the cameras at going more than 70 mph in 35 mph zones.
* One speed camera on Salem Avenue gave out 17,137 tickets in 2013 and 2014.
* Local communities stand to lose more than $2.5 million in revenue when the traffic cameras are turned off.
* Dayton saw a nearly 50% decrease in crashes at intersections where cameras were posted after 2012.
The cameras — unpopular with the general public and Ohio lawmakers — operated for about a decade, generating millions for local cities as thousands of tickets were paid. They also functioned as unblinking real-time recorders of driver habits - and the record around the Miami Valley isn’t pretty.
Late last year, Ohio lawmakers and Gov. John Kasich passed a law requiring police officers to be stationed at the cameras for tickets to be issued. The law effectively rendered the cameras too expensive to operate.
Camera locations that produced the most tickets in the Dayton region recorded hundreds of drivers hitting highway speeds above 55 mph and beyond in 35 mph routes through residential neighborhoods, data obtained by this newspaper show.
For example, Dayton’s hottest speed zone for the past couple of years is the 1800 block of Salem Avenue, a straightaway.
A speed camera there in 2013 and 2014 recorded 17,137 violations, with 541 drivers clocked at 55 mph or faster.
Top speeds in Dayton in the past two years have varied from 72 mph to 74 mph, the data provided by Redflex Traffic Systems of Phoenix, Arizona, show.
As bad as that sounds, West Carrollton might hold the record for a speed demon caught on camera.
West Carrollton Police Chief Doug Woodard recalls one memorable speeder. “We had a car clocked at 92 mph close to noon one day on East Dixie and Alex Bell,” he said.
At the time, it was a 35 mph zone. Now it’s a 30 mph zone.
Woodard is preparing for the day the traffic cameras can’t issue tickets.
“We will try to enforce the traffic laws to the best of our ability. We are doing a lot more with less people and it becomes a challenge to do that traffic enforcement with fewer bodies,” Woodard said.
Red light violations
Hundreds more shoot through signals ten or more seconds after the light turned red, although some dispute violations as legal right turns on red. Police say false violations are supposed to be screened out and not cited.
A red light camera at North Gettysburg Avenue and Cornell Drive cited 2,203 drivers in 2013-14, 295 of the drivers for traveling through a red light ten seconds after it turned red. It’s the top location in Dayton for red light violations.
The city of Springfield has used red light cameras to help keep drivers in line at select intersections since 2006. City police Sgt. Brett Bauer testified before the Ohio House and Senate committees in a failed attempt to persuade legislators to allow the cameras to retain ticketing power.
Bauer said his traffic unit’s job will get tougher. “We’ll have an increase in crashes at these locations and no increase in personnel to handle them,” he said.
Bird’s eye view
Drivers behaving badly are not a secret to those who work within sight of the cameras.
Brian Harsh, store manager for Jason’s Goodyear at Salem and Otterbein avenues in Dayton, can see the hottest speeding cameras in the city 100 feet away from his perch at the service desk. The cameras flash all the time - all day long, he said.
He figures many are trying to beat a light before it turns red, and end up ticketed for speeding. “They speed a lot on this street,” he said.
He’s probably in the minority, but Harsh thinks the cameras are worth keeping activated. “If it brings in revenue and reduces accidents, I’d vote to keep ‘em,” he said.
Amine Ichchou, 29, a native of Morocco who manages the Express Mart, 2050 N. Gettysburg Ave., near Gettysburg and Cornell — the location for the most active red light violation camera in the city — has mixed feelings. It didn’t help that he just received an $85 ticket for a red light violation.
Ichchou insists the ticket isn’t fair. He was making a legal right turn on a red, he said. Still, he’s a witness to speeding drivers on Gettysburg Avenue. “I ain’t going to lie. They do drive fast,” he said.
He prefers police patrols to the cameras. “Have police in the area. If drivers see police parked there, they’ll slow down,” he said.
City leaders, lawmakers disagree on cameras
City officials around the state say the cameras slow down drivers and reduce accidents and fatalities. The figures back them up, but there’s no sign Ohio legislators will find a way back to supporting ticket cameras. The Ohio Supreme Court in December ruled the cameras are legal.
Among the most dramatic examples of accident reductions are in West Carrollton where crashes plunged 55 percent from 2008 to 2012 at five intersections with the cameras.
In 2007, 90 crashes occurred at Dayton’s 10 intersections with red light cameras, according to statistics provided by the city. In 2012, the number dropped to 48 crashes, or a 47 percent reduction.
Reducing bad driver behavior saves lives, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said. In 2014, 20 died in Dayton traffic accidents. Investigators cited speeding as a factor in eight of the 18 fatal accidents.
This year to date, five have died in four crashes in Dayton. Speeding was a factor in all the wrecks, investigators said.
“We knew on Salem Avenue that people were going very fast. The cameras were a way to change people’s behavior,” Whaley said.
$2.5 million in local revenue in 2014
The cameras have also been a good revenue source in an era of shrinking municipal budgets. In 2014, the cameras brought in $2.5 million for the six communities in the region that have them. Dayton, with more than 30 traffic cameras, saw $1.7 million in more revenue.
In Dayton, police hope the cameras will still be operated to keep track of traffic conditions, but there’s no guarantee.
The company that owns and operates the cameras, Redflex, has not committed to keeping them here and could remove them at some point, Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl said.
He’d like to keep the cameras in operation as a way to monitor the top locations for dangerous driving. If the cameras go away, it could revert to the old method of counting bad wrecks to decide where to concentrate enforcement, he added.
Biehl said police could rotate a mobile unit equipped with Redflex cameras to hot locations, but the city has only one unit at the moment. Biehl said he’s trying to persuade Redflex to provide two more. He’s awaiting word on the request. Redflex supplies the cameras and helps process the violations in a revenue sharing agreement with cities.
The strongest evidence that safety cameras work is what happens when the cameras are turned off, said Jody Ryan of Redflex. The Houston Police Department released data in October 2014, showing an increase in accidents. Police reported 4,100 crashes at monitored intersections from 2006-2010 followed by almost 9,000 crashes during the next four years without cameras, including a 30 percent increase in fatal collisions, Ryan said.
“Redflex will continue to support our clients, and work with them as they evaluate their options for their photo enforcement programs,” Ryan said.
The law change from Senate Bill 342 sponsored by Sen. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, requires a police officer be present at camera locations to witness a violation. Seitz himself got a ticket from an automated camera in Columbus.
Dayton said it will stop using the cameras for ticketing purposes on March 23 - the last day authorized by the legislation. Last month, the city of Toledo said it planned to file a lawsuit challenging the state law. It’s the only city in Ohio that’s made the commitment, and it’s unclear what ripple effects could come from the lawsuit.
It's also not clear how other cities plan to deal with the law change. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety maintains a list showing Ohio's largest cluster of cameras appears to be here in the Miami Valley.
Nationwide 469 communities have red light violation cameras and 137 have speed cameras.
Officers simply can’t cover the camera sites all day long. One study estimated that it would cost local governments in Ohio more than $77 million, including $12.2 million a year in Dayton alone, according to the Traffic Safety Coalition. The group includes those opposed to eliminating the cameras such as the Ohio Municipal League and the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police.
Police Chief Biehl said deactivating the ticketing authority of the cameras takes away an important tool.
“The technology has been the force multiplier in an era of austerity,” Biehl said. “It’s technology that’s made up the gap in service. Now the technology is under attack - whether it’s drones or cameras - and denied law enforcement even as the private sector uses it.”
Said Springfield’s Sgt. Bauer: “The public expects a certain amount of enforcement. When valuable resources like these are taken away, the ability to enforce like the community wants us to isn’t there. “
Whatever the year brings when the camera enforcement goes away, Chief Woodard is ready for the worst. “My fear is that when that behavior modification goes away, people will drive like they used to,” he said.
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