When Kim Whitehead got a letter from the city of Atlanta last year notifying her that she had been given a ticket for running a red light, she suddenly remembered everything about the incident — except the red light.
“I was behind a big truck making a left turn from Freedom Parkway onto Boulevard. “When the truck went, the light was green. I followed the truck and it was green.”
Apparently not. Along with her ticket was a photograph of her car — making a left turn on red.
“That light was green,” swears Whitehead, who didn’t contest the ticket, considering the overwhelming evidence against her.
She was driving at the wrong time. For the next two months at least, drivers across Atlanta will get a slight break. “Although we’ll still expect drivers to obey all of the regulatory traffic laws,” said Public Works Commissioner Richard Mendoza.
Last week, the city’s contract with Xerox to run a red-light camera program expired. Mendoza said the city is considering bids from two vendors to resume the program.
For now, the cameras are not being operated, although Mendoza expects a new contract to be in place by mid-May. The cameras cost between $300,000 and $400,000 annually to operate, he said.
Under the last contract, which will continue through the new one, red-light cameras are located at: Spring Street at North Avenue; Cleveland Avenue at Metropolitan Parkway; and Freedom Parkway at Boulevard.
When the program started several years ago, there were eight cameras throughout the city. Mendoza said information culled from the Department of Public Works, the Atlanta Police Department and the Georgia Department of Transportation helps determine where the cameras should go.
“The good news is they kind of work themselves out of a job,” Mendoza said. “I feel the cameras save lives and reduce injuries.”
Last year alone, Mendoza said the three intersections produced 10,000 tickets, photographing the license plates of cars that entered an intersection after the traffic signal had turned red. The tickets, which carried a $70 fine, were issued through the mail.
If all of those tickets were paid out, that’s $700,000 the city made by electronically monitoring three intersections.
A couple of years ago, Charles Driebe got a ticket driving his wife’s car at Freedom Parkway and Boulevard. He was able to beat the ticket in court on a technicality.
“I hate to admit it, but once we got that ticket, we don’t ever come close to running that red light again,” Driebe said. “It does keep people from doing it. But this isn’t about safety. This is a cash cow for the city.”
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