Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Parking Authority Begins Photo Red Enforcement At City Hall

The Philadelphia Parking Authority began issuing tickets today to motor vehicles caught on camera running the Broad Street red lights on the North and South Sides of City Hall. Violators must pay a $100 fine, being caught running a red light with a camera is a citation and not a moving violation, so no points are issued to the owner of the vehicle (who may or may not be driving). In the past month the City Hall cameras have been averaging 100 warnings a day.

The PPA releases annual red light camera reports. From April 2009 to March 2009 there were nearly 93,000 citations with violators paying 8.8 million dollars to the Authority.

The Red Light Camera program has been criticized by some as a revenue generator for the Parking Authority but it is achieving its goal of reducing red light running, which nationally is responsible for 900 traffic deaths and 153,000 injuries. The first installation at Roosevelt Blvd and Grant Avenue in 2005 there were 3046 citations issued during March and April of 2005. In 2009 that number for the same time period was 378 an 87% decrease.

1 comments:

Unknown said...

This is slightly off-topic, but what is up with people who criticize this program because it generates revenue? How is that bad? Governments require revenue. If you want to abolish taxation, but still want to be able to call the police in an emergency, drive on paved roads, and get your war on, you haven't thought things through.