Gene Hunt
Gunning for you! Photo by Gene Hunt
A town in central Ohio may be in the running for the worst place to drive in America. If you believe the traffic cameras, that is.
Heath, Ohio (population 8,527) has issued more than 10,000 tickets in a 4-week period. At $100 a pop, that's a pretty nice supplemental income for the Licking County municipality. But residents are red hot over the aggressive monitoring, as well as the slow turnaround time for mailing out the traffic summons.
Drivers complained that they did not receive notice of their first infraction until several weeks had passed, in which time they went on amassing multiple violations, unaware they were doing anything wrong. Then the tickets arrived—in a bundle.
The rules for contesting tickets only made the situation worse. For each infraction that a driver wished to challenge, a $100 bond was required—in essence forcing citizens to pay the cost of the ticket upfront, with the hope that they'd be refunded later. Sensing a revolt in the making, city officials have revised the policy to require the $100 bond be paid only on the first challenge.
According to the Columbus Dispatch, Mayor Richard Waugh was surprised at the windfall brought by the traffic cameras. The mayor said the primary purpose of the cameras was to increase safety, not the city's coffers.
The 10,000 tickets would mean an additional $830,000 in revenue for the city of Heath, once the camera vendor, Redflex, receives its share—if all of the tickets are upheld. There's little chance they will be. Waugh said the city expected to issue about 400 tickets a month from the cameras. That's a 96 percent reduction from month number one, but up from the roughly 100 tickets that police had been handing out prior to the installation of the 10 traffic cameras.
Are drivers in Heath really that bad about speeding and running red lights? Or are the cameras set to be overly strict about violations, much more so than a cop in a squad car would be? Frankly, we're not sure which explanation to hope for. One thing is for sure: if you're passing through central Ohio, slow the hell down!
Previously:
[+] Radar Gov: Speed cameras have got their lens on you