Are you ready for this? Are we about to get a red-light camera in Woodstock? Where will it be? Is it really needed? Will it pay for itself? Will there be more than one?
The first step in the process is to create an Adjudication Court, so that tickets can be handled locally and not sent to McHenry County Traffic Court (with the corresponding loss in revenue). Rumor has it that such a Court is under heavy consideration in Woodstock, and perhaps a judge has even already been identified.
I think Crystal Lake recently established its own adjudication court, where it hears cases involving violations of City Codes.
Having such a court here could be a convenient and profitable way to handle City Code violations, such as parking and nuisance violations. And with such a court tickets for red-light violations could be processed right here in Woodstock. A "plus" for the violator is that payment of a fine or conviction, should he ask for a trial, does not result in a blemish on his driving record at the office of the Illinois Secretary of State.
Would liquor license violations be processed there, too? If so, that would move them out of the "courtroom" at Liquor Commission hearings.
We can expect to hear more about this in the coming weeks.
You never know who is interested…
3 months ago
7 comments:
I've got to remember where I saw the study that found increasing the length of the yellow light two seconds results in reduction of red light violations equal to or greater than red light cameras. The only thing increasing the yellow length will not do is increase revenue.
This would be an interesting study to see. Hope you can find it. Unfortunately, IDOT controls the traffic lights in Woodstock; think they'd give us longer yellows?
I wonder if, after a while, drivers would adjust their driving to take advantage of longer yellows. Some drivers suspect that yellow light times are shortened in some locations as a revenue increasing scheme.
Do you know if there is a 'standard' for the length of a yellow light, such as 4 seconds?
I agree with the person above. Also the yellow lights in the city are much shorter than the 'burbs like 2 sec.
http://www.stopredlightrunning.com/2007%20Symposium/retting.2007_rlc.pdf - - Cached
“find the owners manual you fool” provided the following search results, out of 647,000 available.
The “stopredlightrunning.com” link above leads to a report of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. It is an excellent, detailed report. Lengthening the yellow light by one second reduced violations by 36%; subsequent red-light camera enforcement reduced violations by 96%.
Other links he provided are:
From the New York Times, www.techdirt.com/articles/20080604/2243441315.shtml
About cities that shorten yellow lights to create more violations: www.boingboing.net/2008/04/12/cities-making-redlig.html
The National Motorists Association on cities that shortened yellow lights:
www.motorists.org/blog/6-cities-that-were-caught-shortening-yellow-light-times-for-profit/
The Texas Transportation Institute on lengthening yellow lights:
www.thenewspaper.com/news/02/243.asp
From the New York Times today, February 8, 2009:
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/trolling-for-trouble-in-the-red-light-district/
From the Rocky Mountain News about red-light cameras in Denver:
www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/jan/04/denver-collecting-75-fines-not-red-light-traffic-d/
(The Woodstock Advocate does not publish links to websites without inspecting them first.)
Second attempt to post. There is no authority for non reporting tickets to be heard in "City Courts" in Illinois.
In a related note: If you don't want to publish comments, that's ok, I really don't need to visit Woodstock Advocate if there is not going to be an active discussion.
Another lawyer, I believe I've posted all comments received from you. Sometimes there might be a delay, but your thoughts are well-worded and I'm happy to publish them.
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