Firsthand account of Chapel Hill and red light cam fight [priv]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2004 15:20:33 -0500 (EST)
From: Paul Jones <pjones () metalab unc edu>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Subject: Re: [Politech] Chapel Hill reconsiders red-light cameras [priv]
In-Reply-To: <6.0.0.22.2.20040203134413.0298b3a8 () mail well com>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0402031514540.21856-100000 () tribal metalab unc edu>

my wife was one of the council persons who voted to oust the lights. Will
Raymond is the hero here. there are a lot of stories out, but of
particular interest to readers will be how ACS handled their astroturf
campaign which is pretty well described in this article by Fiona Morgan
http://indyweek.com/durham/current/triangles.htm

[a couple of interesting excerpts]

"When Councilwoman Dorothy Verkerk had an information session last week to
defend Chapel Hill's red light camera system, she came armed with free
videos, pencils, coasters, pens with plastic signal lights at the top, and
posters featuring sports stars, free to all comers. Backing her up was the
Washington-based public relations group that had produced all those
freebies, the National Campaign to Stop Red Light Running, and Affiliated
Computer Systems, the Dallas-based information technology firm that runs
the cameras."

[if you were a stock holder in ACS, what would you say about this?]

"I don't care about making money," said Joe Clark, chief operating
officer of ACS, when  asked at a public meeting Saturday about the revenue
ACS has collected from Chapel Hill tickets. "It's a safety program."

if politech readers would like more, we have plenty. the orchestrated show
by acs and their flacks was amazing.

==========================================================================
                             Paul Jones
 "Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation." Alasdair Gray
                    http://www.ibiblio.org/pjones/
  pjones () ibiblio org   voice: (919) 962-7600     fax: (919) 962-8071
===========================================================================

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To: declan () well com
From: me () richard org
Subject: RE: [Politech] Chapel Hill reconsiders red-light
X-Sent-From: me () richard org
Date: Tue, 03 Feb 2004 15:56:01 -0500 (EST)
X-Mailer: Web Mail 5.6.0-2_sol28

Many jursidictions have rejected red light cameras and photo
radar. Most recently, the state of Hawaii rejected cameras
after they were put in place for just a few months.  Earlier
than that, The New Jersey legislature banned them. The state
of Alaska rejected them by referendum, court rulings and by
a vote of the legislature.

In other words, a lot of jurisdictions have come to their
senses.

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Reply-To: <admin () consumer net>
From: mail () consumer net (admin)
To: "'Declan McCullagh'" <declan () well com>
Cc: <ftcoptout () yahoo com>
Subject: RE: [Politech] Chapel Hill reconsiders red-light cameras [priv]
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2004 20:12:54 -0500

>I've seen several Politech articles on RLCs.  It
>appears, at least if you believe ACS, that Chapel
>Hill, NC is the first community to reject RLCs.

The State of NJ rejected the speed cameras  I think it was in the early-mid
90's when the proposals were put forth and rejected.  Not sure if the RLC's
were ever considered.
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