Menlo Park Docs - Main Page - Illegal Red Light Cameras

Some of Menlo Park's tickets can be ignored. If your "ticket" does not have the Superior Court's name and address on it, it is what I call a "Fake Ticket." For more details, see the Fake Ticket section on the Your Ticket page.

If you have a ticket from Menlo Park - even one you already have paid - be sure to read the "San Mateo County Information," which is Docs Set # 4 on the San Mateo Documents page - and contact me!

This table made by highwayrobbery.net, using official monthly tabulations of citations actually issued. Those source documents are available at:

Cust. Mgmt. Reps. Apr. 2008 - Mar. 2009
Cust. Mgmt. Reps. Apr. 2009 & Aug. 2010
Cust. Mgmt. Reps. Sep. & Oct. 2010
Cust. Mgmt. Reps. Nov. & Dec. 2010
Also see ticket counts in Set # 2, below.

[ ] indicates a footnote.
[1] Totals and any percentages are as provided by the City.
[2] YTD = Year-to-date total.
[3] Un-used columns are to allow for later expansion of City's system.
[4] Any figures in red type (or, if you are looking at this table in black and white, the upper figure when there are two or more figures in a cell) are what the city calls Total Violations (total incidents photographed by the camera), and due to time limitations may have been posted here only for selected months or locations. If there is sufficient public interest, the remaining months will be posted. The figures in black type represent the sum of genuine citations issued (those filed with the court) plus any Nominations mailed (not filed with the court, a.k.a. Snitch/phishing/fake Tickets).
[5] See Set # 3, below.
[6] The camera enforcement is believed to be on traffic on the first-named street, but the direction of enforcement (north, south, east, west, thru, left) is not yet available.
[7] If you have a left turn ticket at Bayfront/Willow, see the expanded version of Defect # 9 - C, and Docs Set # 3, below.
[8] Per City staff, a defective sensor at Bayfront/Willow was replaced on 11-22-10. It may have been responsible for the low number of violations recorded during September and October.

Menlo Park Docs Set # 2
"Late Time" Graphs

The City provided bar graphs of Late Times, etcetera, for all four of its cameras, at six-month intervals.
These graphs track violations recorded, not tickets issued.
Where there is a large number of long Late Time violations in a curb lane, it is believed to indicate heavy ticketing on right turns.
(The curb lane will be the lane with the highest lane number.)

The picture above is an example from another city.

Ticket Counts May 2009 to Feb. 2010 & Bar Graphs - 6-Month Intervals
July 2009 Bar Graphs ECVA-01
Ticket Counts Mar. 2010 to Jul. 2010 & Jul. 2010 Bar Graphs

Bar graphs are available for other cities, too - see the list in the expanded version of Defect # 9.

Menlo Park Docs Set # 3
July 2010: Bayfront/Willow Yellow Lengthened

On July 2, 2010 at 10 a.m. CalTrans lengthened the yellow for the westbound Bayfront/Willow left turn to 3.5 seconds, up from 3.0.
As a result, violations dropped by about 80% - see the Ticket Counts table, above.
Flipping these numbers over, we can see that the missing half second increased ticketing fivefold.
At Bayfront/Willow, approx. 3000 drivers were ticketed unfairly. Approx. $1.3 million in fines.
If you have a pre-change ticket with a Late Time of 0.60 second or less, call the City and ask them to dismiss it. And if they refuse, take it to court.
See also a letter highwayrobbery.net wrote to the local assemblyman.

It is also interesting to note that between February and March 2010, something caused the number of raw violations at Bayfront/Willow (in the table above, the figures in red) to double.

Menlo Park Docs Set # 4
The Contract, Etc.

2006 Contract

The city council approved the city's contract with RedFlex on Dec. 5, 2006.

The 2006 contract includes an illegal "cost neutrality" clause, whereby the city will not have to pay RedFlex the full rent if there aren't enough fines to cover the cost. See Subsection B. of Defect # 10.

The 2006 contract also says: Definitions. "Warning Period" means the period of thirty (30) days after the Installation Date of the first intersection approach. (Emphasis added.) See Defect # 6.

Please note that there could be a contract or amendment later than the one listed above.

Menlo Park Docs Set # 5
Status Report

At the Oct. 12, 2011 meeting of the City's Transportation Commission, the police made a presentation about the red light cameras. The video of that meeting is available on the City's website.

Menlo Park Docs Set # 6
More Coming

There may be some more Menlo Park information posted in the next few weeks. Mark your calendar to remind you to come back here and look!

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RED LIGHT CAMERAS
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