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Resistance See other Resistance Articles Title: SPEED cameras (Photo Radar) may be coming! A bill to legalize them has been introduced in the CA State Senate The Action Page: 5. Legislation 2008 (Current) HOT Legislation California Senate Bill 1325 - Photo Enforcement of Speed Limits Added 2-21-08, updated 4-29-08 State Senator Sheila James Kuehl (D) - Santa Monica - If it passes, SB 1325 (Kuehl, Santa Monica), will legalize automated speeding ticket cameras, also known as photo radar. It was introduced in Feb. 2008, and had its first committee hearing on Apr. 29. At that hearing it narrowly failed to get enough votes - it needed seven "ayes" and got five - but it may be allowed to come back to a later meeting (date presently unknown), for another vote. If we all phone our legislators and auto clubs, we may be able to stop it. SB 1325 is the successor to Kuehl's earlier unsuccessful speed camera bills, SB 1300 of 2006 and SB 466 of 2005 - which are discussed in their own sections, below. Speed cameras are an idea that won't go away! As presently drafted, SB 1325 is restricted to a pilot program in only one town, Beverly Hills, and only in 25 mph and school zones - making it very similar to Kuehl's SB 1300 of 2006. But if it is able to move onward through the legislature, SB 1325 will likely be amended to include other cities - per the Legislative Analysis dated Apr. 24, the City/County Association of Governments of San Mateo County has asked to be included in the program. And, according to the LA Times, the bill "is being closely watched in San Jose." In 2006, when Kuehl's SB 1300 was in the legislature, Burbank, Carson, Culver City, Pasadena and LA County came on board as supporters. SB 1325 could also be amended to enforce higher speeds - there is no technical bar to the use of the cameras for enforcement on freeways. Nor is the use of speed cameras on freeways unprecedented. Scottsdale, Arizona is an example of the use of cameras on freeways, and it is also an example of a pilot program rapidly spreading statewide. In early 2006, the City of Scottsdale installed cameras on an 8-mile section of the 101 freeway loop, for a 9-month pilot program. At the end of the pilot program, the East Valley Tribune reported that there had been an astonishing 130,992 tickets issued. Now, in 2008, the Governor of Arizona has taken control of the camera programs (and their revenue), and is rapidly installing cameras statewide. What to Do... Call your local State legislators and the members of both the Senate Transportation Committee and the Assembly Transportation Committee. Calling is much more effective than email. I recommend calling their office at the Capitol, not in the district. The two AAA auto clubs in California stayed "neutral" on this bill. They explained that they did not oppose it because the author had accepted amendments that the clubs proposed. If you are an auto club member, call your club. Tell them that you don't want speed cams, no matter which bill or which party they come from, and that you're not fooled by a so-called "pilot" program. I believe that if the auto clubs strongly oppose speed camera bills, they will not pass. I recommend using the club phone numbers in the purple SB 1900 box, below, and reminding the club representative that you have a wide choice of auto insurance companies. If you are a professional driver, call your union or your trade association. Is this about money for the state budget? Read this box. Kuehl Kam® Kash At the time I composed this, the California State budget shortfall was estimated to be $16 billion. The author of SB 1325 has not published an estimate of how much a statewide implementation of her photo radar cameras - let's call them Kuehl Kams® - could bring to Sacramento. But it is easy to make an estimate, by looking at Arizona's program, and scaling-up the figures: From Arizona Gov. Napolitano's FY 2009 Budget, page 147 California has six times the population of Arizona, so should be able to produce six times as much ticket revenue - $720 million. Is this a significant amount of money to our legislators, enough that they would consider selling us down the river? To gauge that, we need to look at their past behavior when similar sums were dangled in front of them. Indian gaming is a good example. With the expansion voters approved on Feb. 5, Indian gaming is expected to bring in $430 million: From Revenue Estimates, Gov. Schwarzenegger's Budget Summary 2008-09, page 44 Kuehl Kams® could bring in nearly twice as much as Indian gaming. Another "foot in the door" is a 2007 project by the MRCA, a State agency which manages parks in the Los Angeles area, to install speed cameras on park roads - despite the fact that speed cameras are illegal in California. For more info about the MRCA, see its entry on the Camera Towns page.
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