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The Pima County Board of Supervisors has pulled the plug on the 11 speed cameras scattered around town. (A full list of them is after the jump).

The supes followed the advice of Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, who said the cameras were ineffective because were just slowing down for the cameras and then speeding up.

Supervisor Ray Carroll, who has long been opposed to the cameras, said that photo-radar enforcement is not a satisfactory substitute for flesh-and-blood deputies on patrol for speeders.

The city of Tucson still has cameras at intersections to nab people who run red lights or speed, and two vans that move around to bust speeders.

The cameras that came down:

Nogales Highway and Hermans Road (Near Raytheon & Desert Diamond Casino)
Two cams on LaCholla, north of River Road and south of River Road
Two cams on Valencia, one near Wilmot Road & one near Camino de la Tierra
Ina Road east of First Avenue
Swan Road south of Sunrise Road
River Road east of Hacienda del Sol
Alvernon Way between Ajo & Irvington roads
Ruthrauff Road near Romero Road
Mission Road south of Irvington Road

This article appears in Jan 2-8, 2014.

Getting hassled by The Man Mild-mannered reporter

21 replies on “Pima County Shuts Down Its Speed Cameras”

  1. They should shut them all down. I got behind a drunk one day while making a left , and he stops in the middle of the intersection for no reason, as there was no vehicles coming, and the light turned red and I get a ticket for running a red light that cost me $300.00. You cant win in court because the judges all say, ” Regardless of the circumstances Mr. Redlight Runner, You were in the intersection when the light turned red. “

  2. If I were the king of the world, tell you what I’d do. I’d throw away the cars and the bars and the wars, and make sweet love to you.

  3. I think they should shut them ALL down & refund the money those of us had to pay because the lights were rigged & unfair!!! There was not enough time to get through an orange light before it turned red !!! It was a bad idea in the first place!! Phoenix had them for a very short time & they were gone quickly!!! Looks like their city is run better than Tucson !!!

  4. Give me the data.
    If they cost nothing and people slow down for a while, why not keep them?
    If they cost something, then give me the incomes and the expenses. What were the speeds before the cameras and after. Give me averages and standard deviations. Then if there is a cost we can see dollars per delta miles per hour and make a rational decision.
    Otherwise it’s all political or even worse.

  5. What happens to the pending tickets? If you got snapped last month, are they still sending out citations through the mail?

  7. P Siddy, all citations issues prior to shut down day are still valid and enforceable. They will still be sending out tickets and processors for those tickets.

  8. The speed cameras that were shut down by the County have nothing whatsoever to do with the “Red-light running cameras” at locations like Oracle and River Roads. They’re just the cameras that were installed to reduce speeding at various locations. You’re welcome to your own opinion as to whether they succeeded, in my opinion they had a minimal effect other than increasing the coffers of the county and the vendor…

  9. Guy – The red light cameras are purported to “reduce the number of red light collisions”. The problem with these systems is that the timing of the yellow and all-way-red lights is too short per the 1960 and 61 traffic engineering handbooks. Formulas were worked out that eliminated 99 percent of the red light running collisions. For a 45 mph zone, a seven second yellow followed by a 4 second all-way-red provides the safest minimum timing. When you go out to the red light camera intersections, you will find that the yellow light timing is usually around 4 to 5 seconds and zero to one second all-way-red. Shaving that much time puts drivers of heavier vehicles at a disadvantage and forces them to make abrupt load-shifting stops or slide into the intersection. If it was really about safety, they would adhere to the minimum timing standards and then apply photo enforcement. The dirty secret is that keeping the timing short maintains a financially needed level of infractions.

  11. Lived here my whole life Tucson is full of Moron drivers who barley go the speed limit, never follow the left lane rule, and just are blind of whats going on around them, in my opinion of course. Just to mention anyone with a brain and thats from Tucson knows where the cameras are set up so when they speed like me every single day they will just slow down to 40 coast on threw the light then its back up to 50 55.

  12. Any public cameras placed at public intersections, medians, walkways or on any other property funded by the public entitle the public to a vote of Yea or Nay on their presence. Election time is on it’s way. This board of supervisors appears slow to respond to it’s public when it responds at all. It is almost as if a few camera companies have had more influence with them over the years than the than all the taxpayers deprived of a vote on their cameras. We will know they become responsive when the cameras are piled up at the scrapyard, and the medians and intersections have been restored. There is no substitute for the public vote and human patrol officers.

  13. Anyone who says the cameras are no substitute for an officer obviously haven’t talked to someone in the Motor Patrol units. They LIKE the cameras, because they don’t have to worry about catching one guy while 40 others fly by…the camera gets ALL of them. With a systematic network of photo enforcement cameras, the Motor Patrols could concentrate on special areas, where people are DYING because they’re going too fast.

    The original intent was to provide a safety benefit with a monetary gain. Take the monetary gain part out of it. Safety is not free, there is always a cost. The safer you make it, the more it costs. The cameras WERE effective because they got people to slow down, with more cameras along the road, there would be no length of roadway to speed, thereby everyone would receive the safety benefit. Besides, the State took more than 50% of each ticket, a County Ordinance related to the cameras would make process serving sticky, but would put more $ into the coffer to pay for more officers.

  14. The cameras are money making machines. They are NOT for accident safety at all. I saw one of the biggest wrecks on the Nogales-Valencia intersection. Remember, cameras are NOT drivers. The officers on the road have lots to do and take care of, then to worry about cameras. They do NOT get any money from these camera citations at all. The city council needs to be replaced in the Novemeber ballot. The decisions made should be on a ballot for the voters to vote on such issues. The city council makes their own rules without the tax payers voting on them. Please get these people out of office.

  15. Ok snob, first of all of coarse the cops like them, they are lazy and those cameras do their job. secondly accident reports and statistics are biased to make them look benificial, everyone with half of a brain knows that, the cams dont make anyone safer they only steal money from hard working citizens. Everyone slows down for 150 feet where the cams are placed just to not get a ticket, then speeds right back up to what they were at to begin with. the focus should really be on people going too slow, especially in the left lane because thats what really causes congestion frustration short tempers and accidents. and just so everyone knows you never really had to pay those tickets as long as you dont call or go to the website they can never prove you ever really got it, secondly they were issued by a private company not the govt, i threw away about 4 of them.

  16. REMINDER – All the same old cameras are still mounted there, just like the politicians that favor camera company rights above the voting rights of an offended public.

  17. It’s a scam …and the city council is to blame. Replace the city council and lets see what the new council in November brings us. The city council makes rulings we the tax payers can’t vote on. These lights are money makers and not for safety at all. We are to blame also for electing these people. Anything to make money and suck the tax payers dry. The economy is not coming down at all. Our wallets and purses are smaller. These are gastapo tactics by a political committee. Wish we could impeach them all.

  18. Today, I was behind a truck on Oracle and River when the light turned green and several cars went through. When I got to the corner, the light had just turned orange and the truck in front of me turned left and so did I. Half way across, the light turned red and my husband saw a flash. I thought it was o.k. to make a turn on orange but perhaps it’s not. Now will have to wait to see if I get a ticket in the mail next week….never had one before in my life and I’m 75!!!

  19. this is not anymore free land AMERIKA… U CANT DRIVE FREE, ROBOCOP RED LIGHT CAMERA IS NOT SAFE FOR US DRIVERS…U NOT DRIVE U CAR KLM IN HOURS U U DRIVE IN MILES WHICH IS SPEEDI 2 TIMES MORE US IN EUROPE… NIJE VAS SRAMOTA. STAVILI STE TO SRANJE DA NAM UZIMATE PARE..POSTAVI POLICAJCA SA PISTOLJEM DA SNIMA NASU BRZIU, TO A NE POSTAVLJATE GOVNA..TA GOVNA KAMERE IZAZIVAJU VISE STRAHA ..I NESRECE I USPORAVANJA SAOBRACAJA.. I JOS VISE BRZINU VOZILA DA BI SE PROSLO DA GA NE UHVATI ZUTO ILI CRVENO SVETLO..OVO VAM PISE JEDAN CIKA KOJI BOLJE ZNA OD VAS STA JE REDLIGHT CAMERA.. TO POSTOJI U EVROPI 30 GODINA, TAMO SU MANJE BRZINE I NORMALNO JE ..OVDENA U AMERICI,, VTONIJE NORMALNO ..ZASTO..ZATO STO SE VOZI NA MILJE NA CAS BRZINA VOZILA JE DUPLO VECA.. I TREBA SE ZAKOCITI A DA NE GOVORIM ZA NESRECE I POGIBIJE U TOKU PRELASKA STATI ILI ZAKOCITI.. GADOVI JEDNI LOPOVI..

  20. The city council needs to be replaced soon. We need new blood that care about not exploiting our citizens . They are trying to raise property taxes now and don’t care about low income families at all. They have bonds to use and the lottery of Arizona also. When it comes to voting, we the citizens of Tucson will vote for a new city council that enforces laws we can abide with.

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