RED LIGHT CAMERAS

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

  There is a lot more info below about the red light cameras in Santa Clarita.   But first, this important political announcement...

Zev "termed out," and in the Nov. 4, 2014 election, Sheila Kuehl won the race to succeed him, by a narrow margin.

Sheila "Kuehl Kams" Kuehl, in 2007

We need to watch Kuehl carefully, because as a Supervisor she will have a seat on the MTA/Metro board and she will be a vote to continue and expand their huge (101 cameras, so far) red light camera system.

Kuehl will be up for re-election in Nov. 2018 and Nov. 2022.

The table above was made by highwayrobbery.net, using official reports provided by the City under the California Public Records Act.

2004 - 2007 Reports
2008 Reports
2009 Reports
2010 Reports
2010 - 2011 Reports
2011 - 2012 Reports
Fall 2012 Reports
More 2011 - 2012 Reports
Winter 2012 Reports
2012 - 2013 Reports
May 2013 Report
Late 2013 Reports
2005 - 2014 Reports
Mid-2014 Reports
Late 2014 Reports
Early 2015 Reports

[  ] indicates a footnote.
[1]  Monthly totals are as provided by the City.  Annual totals, or projections, are by highwayrobbery.net.
[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 RedFlex calls Total Violations Recorded, or all incidents recorded by the cameras, 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 are what RedFlex calls Notices Printed, and may 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 Tickets).
[5]  Data was requested on:
[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, right) is not yet available.
[7]  Includes enforcement of posted "no turn on red" signs.
[8]  These figures are for the 30-day warning ticket period, July 8 to Aug. 6, 2004.
[9]  These figures cover Aug. 7 to Sept. 15, 2004.
[10]  Total Violations Recorded for the first quarter  (Jan. 1 - Mar. 31) of 2010, calculated using Set # 5, below.  The figures in blue type (or, if you are looking at this table in black and white, the figures below the notation for footnote ten) are Total Violations Recorded for left turns only, and also were calculated using Set # 5, below. The data for Notices Printed (citatitions issued) is presented month-by-month.
[11]  Speed limits and length of yellow light, from City publication received Apr. 5, 2010.  Per the staff report submitted for Mar. 25, 2014 council meeting, and an interview with staff, the citywide signal cycle length was increased from 120 seconds to 132 seconds on June 28, 2013 and the yellows for the left turns from Valencia to McBean were increased by one second, on Feb. 19, 2014.  Also see Set # 3 and Set # 4, below.
[12] The title bar has been repeated solely for the convenience of the reader - there is no difference between it and the one at the top of the table.
[13]  The report for this month was generated just a few days after the end of the month, so it is likely that not all tickets (for violations which occurred during the month) had been approved and counted by that time. 
[14]  Due to time limitations, intersection-by-intersection data for this month has not been posted in the table.  The data is available
at one of the links just below the table.
[15]  The break out by movement - straight, left, right - is from the annual report required by SB 1300 of 2012.
[16]  Per a Jan. 14, 2015 SCVNews.com article, the City lengthened the yellows for left turns at some intersections by 1/2 second, sometime during 2014, probably late in the year.  Also see Set # 3 and Set # 4, below.


Jan. 2015, Looking at the Trend:  Ticketing Down!  And Up!

Bouquet/Newhall Cameras
Northbound ticketing was down after the July 2014 yellow increase and somewhat below the lowest year, 2011.
Eastbound ticketing was down after July 2014 but still above 2011 and 2012.

Bouquet/Seco
In 2014 ticketing hit an all time high, several times 2008 - 2011 levels, despite the yellow increase claimed in the Jan. 2015 SCVNews article.

Magic Mountain.McBean
In 2014 ticketing was down slightly from 2013 but well above 2009 - 2011 levels.

Newhall/McBean
Ticketing dropped to an all time low beginning (approx.) in early Feb. 2014.

Orchard/Lyons
Ticketing dropped to an all time low beginning (approx.) in mid-November 2013.

Valencia/McBean Cameras
In 2014 ticketing was at an all time low after the Summer 2013 and Feb. 2014 signal adjustments - see footnote [11] above.

Whites/Soledad Cameras
In 2014 ticketing remained near all time highs, approx. double 2008 - 2011 levels, despite the yellow increase claimed in the Jan. 2015 SCVNews article.

City of Santa Clarita Docs Set # 2
Interview

Here is an interview of the sheriffs who operate the cameras in Santa Clarita.





City of Santa Clarita Docs Set # 3
The Contract, and Contract Termination March 2015

The new five-year Redflex contract renewal the city signed in early 2009 set the monthly fee per existing camera at $4000.

Had the council negotiated a $2900 fee like that in the 2007 contract of the City of Garden Grove, it could have saved $1100 per camera per month, or $660,000 for the ten cameras over the 60 months of the contract.

Or, had the council negotiated a $2500 fee like that in the 2009 contract of the City of Davis, it could have saved $900,000.

Or, had the council negotiated a $2225 fee like that in the 2009 contract of the City of Solana Beach, it could have saved $1,065,000.

Santa Clarita's 2009 renewal contained the following clause:

"Financial Feasibility"

"Based on general accepted accounting principles should the Customer and Redflex determine that the program is not financially feasible to maintain under the current pricing per this agreement then the Customer and Redflex shall enter into negotiations to adjust the pricing."
(From Exhibit "D" to the 2009 contract.)

The Documents:

Original Contract, 2003
Staff Report for 2009 Renewal
2009 Renewal
Evaluations

Invoices received in 2013 show that the City was continuing to pay $4000 per camera.

March 2014:  Program Continued, for a Year

At their Mar. 25, 2014 meeting the city council decided to change the contract term to month-to-month, for up to a year, to give staff time to prepare and present an in-depth report.  They did not get a lower price.
Staff Report
2014 Contract Amendment

March 31, 2015 Will Be Last Day of Operation

The contract was about to expire so a vote to either extend it, or cancel it, was scheduled for the Mar. 24, 2015 city council meeting.
Before the meeting, SCVNews published a guest editorial by a local resident, and SaferStreetsLA submitted a detailed report.
  Staff presented a report at the meeting and the council voted 3 -2 to let the contract expire and end the program (Nays:  Weste and McLean).
Article about the council meeting and the vote.
Another Article

In late April 2015 a report about yellow light lengths was published by the City's consulting engineers.  For more details see Set # 4, below, and footnotes [11] and [16] in Set # 1, above.

On July 7 the Santa Clarita Signal said that the last of the equipment was about to be removed.

 
This listing of contracts and amendments was up-to-date as of Sept. 15, 2014.

  City of Santa Clarita Docs Set # 4
The Revenue

You can track the City's monthly ticket revenue, in the Revenue Spreadsheet on the LA County Docs page.

The chart below shows that shortly after revenue went down in Summer 2011, ticketing went way up.  Summer 2011 was when it became public knowledge that in LA County, red light camera tickets can be ignored.


Click here for a larger/clearer copy of this chart.

Late note:  By early 2014 the City's setting of a longer signal cycle and a longer yellow brought a 90% or more drop in ticketing at VAMB-1.  For more details see Set # 3 and footnotes [11] and [16] in Set # 1, both above.

City of Santa Clarita Docs Set # 5
"Late Time" Graphs

The City provided bar graphs of Late Times, etcetera, for ten cameras. 
These bar graphs track Total Violations Recorded, not tickets issued.
All of these intersections have at least two left turn lanes, which in these bar graph reports are designated as Lane 1 and Lane 2.
The data from the 2010 bar graphs shows that 96% of all violations were for left turns, and that 74% of all violations would not have occurred if the yellow times had been 1 second longer or if there had been a 1 second grace period in effect. Flipping the numbers over, we would expect that if Santa Clarita removed that hypothetical extra second, there would be a four-fold increase in violations.


The picture above is an example from another city.


BCNR-01 July 08
BCNR-01 July 09
BCNR-01 1st Qtr. 2010

BCSC-01 July 08
BCSC-01 July 09
BCSC-01 1st Qtr. 2010

MMMB-01 July 08
MMMB-01 July 09
MMMB-01 1st Qtr. 2010

NRBC-01 July 08
NRBC-01 July 09
NRBC-01 1st Qtr. 2010

NRMB-01 July 08
NRMB-01 July 09
NRMB-01 1st Qtr. 2010

OVLY-01 July 08
OVLY-01 July 09
OVLY-01 1st Qtr. 2010

VAMB-01 July 08
VAMB-01 July 09
VAMB-01 1st Qtr. 2010

VAMB-03 July 08
VAMB-03 July 09 (not received)
VAMB-03 1st Qtr. 2010

WCSC-01 July 08
WCSC-01 July 09
WCSC-01 1st Qtr. 2010

WCSC-03 July 08
WCSC-03 July 09
WCSC-03 1st Qtr. 2010

2011:
First Quarter
Second Quarter
Third Quarter

Fourth Quarter 2011, Two Quarters 2012 (8  MB)

Third Quarter 2013

Bar graphs are available for more than fifty other cities - see the list in the expanded version of Defect # 9.




City of Santa Clarita Docs Set # 6
More Coming?

There may be some more Santa Clarita info posted here soon.  Please mark your calendar to come back here and have a look!





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RED LIGHT CAMERAS
www.highwayrobbery.net
www.highwayrobbery.net