Traffic-enforcement cameras continue to make news, in Snohomish County and elsewhere. Here’s some of what you need to know:
Decision looming in Lynnwood
Lynnwood City Council members are expected to vote on Monday night whether to temporarily extend the camera contract with American Traffic Solutions, Inc. through February.
The current contract expires Nov. 12. Mayor Don Gough and Police Chief Steve Jensen asked city leaders to hold off on renewal until a lawyer finished an outside investigation into the police department’s relationship with ATS. The investigation came after The Herald reported in August that two key cops may have displayed conflicts of interest in their communication with the company.
You can read the memo about the contract extension here.
Questions, questions
An Everett traffic engineering company is raising questions about Bellingham’s plan to install red-light enforcement cameras.
Gibson Traffic Consultants, Inc. examined five years of crash data at an intersection in Bellingham where the city and its camera vendor, ATS, plan to install a red-light camera.
The report can be found here. Its conclusion? The “data does not support the introduction of red-light cameras.”
Indeed, data suggest the cameras have the potential to increase by an average of five crashes per year the number of read-end collisions, the study found.
The analysis was paid for by The Transportation Safety Coalition, a Bellingham organization that has challenged the plan to install enforcement cameras there. Bellingham voters are being asked to weigh in on what’s become an advisory vote on whether that community should start using the cameras to issue red-light tickets.
“Operation Paper Blizzard” in Monroe
Mukilteo initiative activist Tim Eyman sent out an email blast Friday announcing that he and other camera opponents plan to converge on Monroe during the next several days to distribute a flier that puts the boots to Mayor Robert Zimmerman.
Yes, this is politics related to the upcoming vote on Proposition No. 3. On Nov. 8, voters will be asked whether the city should continue with its traffic-enforcement camera program after September 2013.
The group Seeds of Liberty worked with Eyman to gather sufficient signatures to qualify another measure that if passed would have immediately eviscerated the city’s fledgling camera program. Instead of Zimmerman and others at the city held that Initiative No. 1 is legally flawed and should be kept off the ballot.
They filed a lawsuit against the initiative backers. The matter is currently under review by Snohomish County Superior Court judge George Bowden.
Trouble in Longview, too
Longview voters also have been asked whether that city should keep its enforcement-cameras rolling.
The Daily News there reported last week that nearly half of all camera-tickets issued there came from people taking rolling right turns at red lights. People blowing straight through the intersection comprised the other half.
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