By Will Collette
On May 9, the Town Council held a special workshop to see
presentations by the two companies, Redflex and Sensys, that have proposed red
light enforcement camera systems for Charlestown .
Since I don’t want to bury the lede, let me skip to the
bottom line. Both vendors are offering to install a million-dollar system in Charlestown at no cost and no risk to the town. Further, neither system is likely to give Charlestown a bad
reputation because the vendors will not control the length of the yellow, red
or green traffic signals.
In other words, they will not set up “traps” and will only
“capture” drivers who are actually running red lights. Plus, the final decision
about whether or not to issue a ticket will be made by Charlestown Police, not
the vendors.
Read their proposals by clicking here.
When I wrote about this issue a few days ago, I expressed my
enthusiasm for red light enforcement systems, but my concern that the costs are
such that it would take more than a 1000 red-light tickets per month for the
vendors to break even.
Even after listening to their presentation and hearing their
guarantees that a red-light camera system is not going to cost Charlestown
money, I still don’t understand how the money part will work for the vendors.
But it was also clear to me that (a) that’s their problem
and (b) these guys haven’t just fallen off a turnip truck – they know what
they’re doing.
Here’s the math that concerned me. Charlestown has four traffic signals. Each
camera system covers one direction, so for each traffic light intersection, you
need four camera set-ups to corner the four points of the compass. That’s 16
camera units.
Each unit costs roughly $5000 a month. So multiply 16
cameras x $5000 x 12 months = $960,000. Add the incidentals and your just over
$1 million.
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| Company website here |
A red-light running ticket costs $85 and maybe 70-80% of the
tickets actually get issued (after Charlestown Police review them) and paid. Roughly
calculated, it would take 1250 tickets a month for red-light running to
break-even.
I thought this could possibly lead to tricky enforcement –
such as timing the yellow lights to boost the number of “captures.” However,
that is not under the vendors’
control. It isn’t even under Charlestown ’s
control, since Route 1 is under RIDOT’s jurisdiction.
But either system will
catch red-light runners that Charlestown Police presently do not catch. Indeed,
Lt. Michael Paliotta who represented the Department at this meeting noted that
the police issue very few red-light
running tickets, simply because the officers are not there to catch the
offenders.
He said that he sees the installation of a red-light
enforcement system as a “force extender.”
 |
| Company website here |
CCA Councilors Boss Tom Gentz
and Deputy Dan Slattery asked both bidders the same question about the no-cost
deal for the town at least a dozen different ways to test whether there was
some trick. Each time, both vendors made it crystal clear that there is no risk
to the town. After Boss Gentz asked one vendor the question six different ways,
Councilor Avedisian piped in that “Tom, I hear him answering your question.”
Deputy Dan Slattery came to this session armed with several
dozen questions, most of them designed, in my opinion, to show off what a hot
guy he is because he has so many questions. I thought the answers to his
questions were either self-evident or covered in the vendor proposals, but hey,
this was a chance for Deputy Dan to try to make up for some of his recent
blunders.
Too bad there was no one around to see Deputy Dan do his
thing. I doubt the Clerkbase video of this meeting will be a big seller when it
goes to DVD.
In the end, Boss Gentz pretty much summed up the result of
this meeting as he seemingly realized the meeting was running way too long. He abruptly (and in my
opinion, rudely) cut off the Sensys rep by saying that the real test of the
financial terms will be the actual contract and the Town Solicitor’s review.
This item is on the agenda for the Town Council meeting on
Monday, May 14, as Item 18(o.) which is at the very end of a very jammed-packed
agenda. That makes it almost a sure bet that it will not be heard on Monday,
and will probably be carried over to the second May Council meeting on May 21.
Oh, and as for the actual systems, I’ll be honest that I
really don’t care. Both vendors have national reputations and lots of
experience, so I don’t doubt their systems do what they say.
I thought the Redflex sales rep out-classed the Sensys guy
by a wide margin. The Sensys
guy was having a very hard time getting his electronic presentation to work –
and that’s a very bad sign I think,
since reliable technology is kind of important. I also thought Redflex
had much more interesting bells and whistles – their Powerpoint presentation
and electronic gimmickry worked just fine, by the way.