Autoblog

The team at Njection have updated their Speedtrap site with new features and more detailed speed trap information. After introducing the ability to upload speed trap information to Garmin GPS units in March, Njection has now added color-coded maps on its website. Locations of user-reported police radar, or other speed enforcement devices, are displayed as colored dots based on the threat level. Low level threats are yellow, while medium threats are orange. The highest level threats are displayed in red. In addition to the map upgrades, a new "speed trap heat map" visually charts the day and time of the week when the threats are the highest. As before, all database information for the free service is provided by registered users on the site who report on their local enforcement tactics. Check out the press release after the jump for a special incentive for new registered users that may or may not be of any value to you.

[Source: Njection]

"Your mobile phone alerts you as you approach speed traps." That's the idea behind Trapster, an innovative service that uses technology, not the age-old flashing headlamps approach, to notify other drivers of a police speed trap. Motorists who come across an enforced speed zone are encouraged to report the location via an application running on their cell phone, PDA, and other types of devices. The notification is then broadcast to other Trapster members who receive audio or text message warnings as they approach the area.

There are four default alerts: police, speed camera, red light camera, and usual hiding place. Each is displayed in a color that alters from green to yellow to red, based on the "confidence" of the trap (more reports on a single trap increase the confidence). In a helpful move, known traps can be viewed on a Google-powered map on the Trapster web site before you leave the house or office and jump behind the wheel.

According to the inventors, Trapster works with any kind of phone. However, it is optimized with devices that support GPS or WiFi. While you'd think law enforcement would oppose the exposure of their speed traps, it hasn't been met with much resistance, as it actually encourages motorists to slow down. Unfortunately, as others point out, it also requires drivers to take their eyes off the road as they fumble to send alerts with their electronic devices.

[Source: AOL Autos]

Authorities in Charlotte, North Carolina have switched off their red light and speed camera units. The move stems from a May 16 decision by the NC state appeals court directing some 90 percent of proceeds to state schools, not to the city or the company that operates the cameras.

Peek Traffic Inc., the firm responsible for operating and monitoring the cameras had been receiving a whopping $35 out of every $50 for every ticket for blowing a red light, or $39 for those snapped speeding. The new ruling means that the city would have to shell out $30-$34 per ticket, something they obviously aren't keen to do. By this ruling, Charlotte now owes the school system $4.6 million dollars.

City council members are set to convene June 5 to figure out a way to get out of its contract with Peek Traffic, as well as figure out how to pay the $4.6 million dollars, provided officials don't take up the ruling with North Carolina's Supreme Court.

[Sources: TheNewspaper.com; Art by Andy Davey]

 

Anne Arundel County in Maryland has been running five red light cameras for five years, during which period they raised a fat $2.85 million in ticket revenue. Unfortunately, a comparison of accident statistics shows that the cameras have increased the rate of accidents.

Immediately after installation, the cameras sparked a 40-percent increase in rear-end collisions, and never looked back, with five-year increases in accident rates far exceeding a 10-percent increase in traffic.

Unfortunately, this is hardly an isolated phenomenon. TheNewspaper.com reports similar results in the state of Georgia, where the city of Duluth's one and only camera is forecast to generate a whopping $1 million next year, at the cost of a 21-percent increase in accidents. A study by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed red light cameras were linked to an increase in accidents, injuries and revenues across the state, although there is early indication that the rate of serious accidents in intersections is falling.

Critics charge that cities are at best trading one kind of accident for another, and that the proliferation of traffic cameras is really just a money generator, while advocates maintain that they encourage safer driving.

[Sources: theNewspaper.com, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

A Minneapolis, Minnesota area judge has given red-light cameras a taste of their own medicine. Hennepin County District Judge Mark Wernick has put the red light on the county's automated traffic signal cameras installed this past July.

The judge found legal fault with the county’s ‘Stop On Red’ program, which (like virtually all red-light camera programs) tickets the owners of the offending vehicles, not the drivers themselves. As Minnesota state laws put the responsibility for light violations on the driver, Wernick threw out the challenging ticket, saying that Minneapolis lacks the authority to make law an ordinance that would hold vehicle owners responsible.

The motorist who brought the case to court was represented by an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) volunteer attorney, Howard Bass, who argued that the ordinance was unconstitutional, though Judge Wernick didn’t comment on that facet of their case.

The city is mulling whether to appeal the decision, but the case could set an important legal precident nationwide, as it is estimated that as many as 160 other cities employ red light cameras.

[Source: Associated Press via KMSP Fox 9 News]

(Top tip, Jenni!)