Email Address
Site Index by Subject

If you haven't already done so, please read the Metro section on the Camera Towns page

LA Metro / MTA Documents
(and Information)

  Metro, also known as the MTA, and formally titled the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority, operates bus, subway, and light rail public transit in Los Angeles County.

Metro has red light cameras at road crossings along its Orange Line east-west busway in the San Fernando Valley, along the Eastside Gold Line right rail line in East LA, and along the Blue Line light rail line which runs north-south between downtown LA and Long Beach.

Metro's cameras are provided by ACS (read Defect # 5 on the Home page), most tickets are signed by the County Sheriff, and most are prosecuted by the LA City Attorney.   The signals at the busway intersections are usually maintained by the city in which the intersection is located.

As of April 2012 there is a bill in Sacramento to require LA County judges to issue bench warrants to motorists who do not reply to their MTA/Metro camera tickets.  Strong opposition is needed to stop this bill.  Please phone your legislators and ask them to stop AB 2147.  More info about it is on highwayrobbery.net's Action Legislation page.

If you are doing a Public Records Act request for Metro records, the request should be sent to Metro's Records Management Department, at (213) 922-2342, fax (213) 922-2389.  Metro's main number is (213) 922-2000.  However, if you are doing a Public Records Act request for details about the signal lights (signal timing chart, maintenance records) at or near a busway intersection located in the City of Los Angeles, your request would go to the City's Department of Transportation, at:  City of Los Angeles, Department of Transportation, 100 S. Main St., 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90012, (213) 972-8470.
If you are filing for Discovery, file it with the Los Angeles City Attorney if "your" intersection is in the City of LA.  For tickets filed at the Van Nuys courthouse, the address for the LA City Attorney would be:  Office of the City Attorney, 6262 Van Nuys Blvd., Suite 160, Van Nuys, CA 91401 Phone (818) 374-3300. 
If "your" intersection is in an unincorporated area not in the City of LA, your  Discovery request should go to the LA County  District Attorney, and your Public Records Request for details about the signal lights should go to the LA County Public Works Department.

Be sure to read the "Countywide Information," which is Docs Set # 2 on the LA County Documents page.

The phone number for the sheriff's deputy who handles the WeHo and Orange Line tickets is (818) 701-2861.

Docs Set # 1
Long Late Times:  Lighted Limit Lines, Simulated Gates
New 10-9-07

Graph by highwayrobbery.net

At least one Orange Line camera detects an unusual proportion of very long Late Times.  I believe that these long Late Times occur because the busway intersections are unusually complex, with several having two or three sets of traffic signals in rapid succession.  The graph above is from a 2007 comparison of red light camera ticket Late Times at Balboa / busway to Late Times at two large but  relatively conventional  intersections in other cities (Hawthorne and Los Alamitos). 

A file containing the raw Late Time data is here.
 

This is the intersection of Reseda Blvd. and the busway.  It has three signals in a 250-foot span.  For a larger copy of this photo, click here.

In 2009 and 2010 Metro and the Los Angeles Dept. of Transportation (LADOT) conducted an experiment, adding in-pavement red LED lights to the limit lines at two of Metro's red light camera-enforced intersections - one on the Orange Line busway, and the other on the Blue Line light rail.  An Apr. 2011 Interim Report showed inconclusive results:  An average 17% decrease in the number of red light camera violations at the test intersections, compared with an average 20% decrease at the control intersections.

Lighted Limit Line LEDs, from Interim Report

 
  In Dec. 2009 the Metro Board directed staff to install quadrant gates at 24 intersections along the Gold Line Eastside Extension.  In May 2011 Metro conducted a two-week experment along the 3rd Street portion of the Extension, adding lighted "no turn" signs, bells, and an all-red signal phase to simulate the effect of gates.
Metro Fact Sheet
Metro Press Release
More Info from Metro (Click on "Quadrant Gates")
Virtual Video of Gold Line Extension Route

Docs Set # 2
Ticket Counts

Total Violations Recorded, Citations Mailed [4]

New 3-21-12

Cam #

[3]

Total Notices Printed as % of Violations Recorded

Total Violations Recorded/ Notices Printed [1] [4]

Jan10

[5]

1602

Feb10

[5]

1492

Mar10

[5]

1833

Apr10

[5]

1666

May10

[5]

1682

Jun10

[5]

1810

Jul10

[5]

1540

Aug10

[5]

1756

Sep10

[5]

1763

Oct10

[5]

1712

Nov10

[5]

1796

Dec10

[5]

1743

2010

20681

Jan11

[5]

1585

Feb11

[5]

1522

Mar11

[5]

1661

Apr11

[5]

1767

May11

[5]

1758

Jun11

[5]

1382

Jul11

[5]

1325

Aug11

[5]

1396

Sep11

[5]

1421

Oct11

[5]

1645

Nov11

[5]

1438

Dec11

[5]

1661

2011

18561 [7]

Jan12

Feb12

Mar12

Apr12

May12

Jun12

Jul12

Aug12

Sep12

Oct12

Nov12

Dec12

2012

This table made by highwayrobbery.net, using official documents obtained under the California Public Records Act.
Those official documents are available here:

Systemwide monthly totals, 2010
Systemwide monthly totals, 2011
 
[  ] indicates a footnote.
[1]  Except as noted, totals are as provided by Metro.
[2]  YTD = Year-to-date total.
[3]  Un-used columns are to allow for later expansion of Metro'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 ACS calls Violations, and due to time limitations may have been posted only for selected months or locations.  If there is sufficient public interest, the remaining months or locations will be posted.  Or, you can look at the raw data, by clicking on the three links above. 
The figures in black type are what ACS calls Citations, and represent citations mailed.

[5]  Intersection-by-intersection data has been requested but has not yet been received.
[6]  The camera enforcement is on traffic on the first-named street, but the direction of enforcement (north, south, east, west, thru, left) is not yet available.
[7]  Annual total by highwayrobbery.net

Docs Set # 4
Bench Warrants for MTA/Metro Tickets?

As of April 2012 there is a bill in Sacramento to require LA County judges to issue bench warrants to motorists who do not reply to their MTA/Metro camera tickets.  Strong opposition is needed to stop this bill.  Please phone your legislators and ask them to stop AB 2147.  More info about it is on highwayrobbery.net's Action Legislation page.