Archive for January 20th, 2009
Virginia: Proposal Eliminates Safety Check on Red Light Cameras
Virginia legislative proposal allows cities to use the shortest possible yellow time at red light camera intersections.
A bill introduced last week in the General Assembly quietly seeks to eliminate a significant motorist protection built into Virginia’s existing red light camera law. The proposal of a pair of Democratic state delegates representing Virginia Beach, Joseph F. Bouchard and Robert W. Mathieson, would delete just three words from that statute, but the change would have wide-ranging effects. Under current law, cities that want to install traffic cameras must first submit a detailed engineering justification to state transportation experts.
“A locality shall submit a list of intersections to the Virginia Department of Transportation for final approval,” Virginia Code Section 15.2-968.1(J) states.
House Bill 2416 would delete the phrase “for final approval,” eliminating oversight by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) entirely. Many lawmakers reluctantly voted in 2007 to allow the operation of red light cameras only after a handful of provisions were added to ensure municipalities did not simply install automated ticketing machines as a means of obtaining easy revenue. To date, the most powerful of these provisions has been this oversight power which has already been exercised in turning down proposals by the cities of Virginia Beach and Leesburg as unsafe.
VDOT has been careful regarding red light cameras because its own studies in 2005 (view study) and 2007 (view study) showed that accidents increased significantly at the intersections where red light cameras were operational in Virginia. Because VDOT does not share in the revenue generated by a camera, unlike a municipality and its private vendor, lawmakers saw the agency’s participation as an essential third-party check on municipal designs.
VDOT has also been burned in the past by aggressive participation in local red light camera programs. In 1999, the agency shortened the yellow signal duration at a Fairfax County intersection by 1.5 seconds just four days after county officials signed a contract to install red light cameras. Accidents and violations increased dramatically. When VDOT lengthened the signal back to 5.5 seconds a year later, accidents and violations dropped immediately and decisively (view full details).
Shortened yellows are the key to the financial success of red light camera programs. Confidential documents from the private vendor now operating as Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) show that employees were only allowed to install red light cameras at intersections with yellow times of “less than four seconds” and “downhill approaches” (view documents). A Texas Transportation Institute study confirmed that when the yellow light timing was increased one second above the bare minimum amount recommended by the ITE formula, accidents dropped 40 percent (view study).
Bouchard and Mathieson’s proposal would give Virginia Beach and other municipalities the freedom to ignore any engineering improvements — especially lengthened yellow timings — recommended by VDOT.
Horry County to debate new motorcycle rally rules
The area’s motorcycle rallies will be back in the spotlight today as Horry County Council discusses again whether to restrict where vendors can sell their wares, raise the price of required vendor permits and reduce the time merchandise can be sold.
Some residents are looking for the county to take action against the noise, congestion and rowdy behavior they say accompany the Harley-Davidson spring rally and the Atlantic Beach Bikefest, both in May. Biker groups, though, say restricting vendors is the wrong way to go.
“People don’t come for the vendors,” said Sonny Copeland, the owner of Myrtle Beach Bike Week LLC, which sells merchandise online. “That’s a great misconception that the locals seem to have, that the vendors make the rallies. People come to these events because they enjoy the area.”
Horry County’s effort to regulate the rallies comes after the city of Myrtle Beach passed laws last year to stem the effects of the rallies. Tom Rice, an attorney who lives in Myrtle Beach, said the county proposal does not go far enough and address heightened crime and traffic deaths during the rallies.
“If we were Walt Disney World, and we had a ride that every year people got killed on, how long would that ride be open?” Rice said. “We would definitely have to do something to change it.”
The proposal to be discussed by the county today would only allow 100 vendors east of the Intracoastal Waterway, 100 between the waterway and the Waccamaw River and 200 west of the river. For last year’s Harley-Davidson rally, most of the nearly 400 vendors were east of the waterway.
The proposal would also change the price for vendor permits for the rally: $1,500 for east of the waterway, $1,000 between the waterway and the river, and $500 west of the river. Last year, the permits cost $800, which included a $100 hawker’s license.
For the Atlantic Beach Bikefest, permits would cost $1,200 east of the waterway, $800 between the waterway and the river, and $400 west of the river. Most of the 36 vendors were also located east of the waterway last year, when the permits cost $500, including the hawker’s license.
The proposal would also reduce the time vendors can sell merchandise from 10 days to five days during the Harley-Davidson spring rally and from five days to four days during the Atlantic Beach Bikefest. Both rallies brought about 250,000 to the area last year.
Also up for discussion is a measure that would require bars and other establishments to receive special event permits from the county for wet T-shirt contests, pudding wrestling, motorcycle or car washes, stunt shows, burn-out pits and just about any outdoor event.
The vendor restrictions already received a preliminary nod from the council in November and need two more votes to pass. The new special event rules still require three votes to become law.
The city’s laws have prompted several lawsuits, including ones filed by Copeland’s business, other establishments and several residents. The laws, which include a helmet requirement, have yet to be overturned by a judge.
Mike Shank, a partner with Festival Promotions, which markets the Harley-Davidson rally, said the proposed restriction on vendors is more like a vendor ban because very few would pay twice as much for a permit that only allows vendors to sell for half the time.
“It doesn’t even matter the number east of the waterway if the permit is going to be so exorbitant,” said Shank. “It doesn’t matter if there’s 1,000 permits east of the waterway - if they’re $1,500, there won’t be any vendors.”
Council members appeared split on the two proposals.
Councilman Brent Schulz, who represents portions of Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach, said one of his major concerns was drinking and other events that end up taking place in parking lots outside of bars. The new special event rules should help, he said.
“Rather than having a free-for-all in all these different parking lots up and down [U.S.] 17, we’re going to pick and choose which outdoor events don’t negatively impact the neighborhoods behind them,” he said.
But County Council Chairwoman Liz Gilland said she was unsure how she would cast her vote. She said she did not think restricting vendors would solve the problems with rowdy behavior during the rallies.
“If you don’t have vendors, what are folks going to do?” she said. “I don’t want to invite folks here to have a rally with our name on it when we don’t provide anything to do other than you come, you gather at the bars, and you drink all day.”
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