12/12/2009
Texas Red Light Cameras Generate $100 Million in TicketsPrivately operated Texas red light cameras issued $100 million worth of citations over a twelve-month period.
Red light cameras in the Lone Star State generated $95,799,675 worth of tickets in a twelve month period according to reports filed with the Texas Department of Transportation. Private vendors based in Australia, Arizona, Dallas and England used a total of 333 cameras installed across 36 Texas cities to mail 1,277,329 tickets between July 1, 2008 and June 30, 2009.
On average, each camera approach generated 3835 citations worth $287,625 in the space of a year. Some intersections, however, issued tickets far beyond this rate. At Danieldale Road and US 67 in Duncanville, Australia's Redflex Traffic Systems issued 25,717 tickets worth $1,928,775 -- the highest figure in the entire state. The intersection is known for ticketing motorists who may have stopped on red, but not at an arbitrarily marked white pavement line that has an obstructed view of oncoming traffic.
Big cities naturally pulled down the most revenue, with Houston's tickets reaching $17,760,900 in value and Dallas citations following behind at $9,981,450. Duncanville's notorious intersection, however, helped the city land sixth on the list of most lucrative programs, despite being only the sixty-sixth largest Texas city in terms of population.
The Texas numbers are particularly significant because, according to Redflex figures, Texas is one of the four most important states for the photo enforcement industry. Arizona, California, Illinois and Texas taken together account for more than half of the entire market for automated ticketing machines (view Redflex chart).
The cities of Denton, Marshall and Mesquite did not include citation counts in their reports and are not included in any figures given above. College Station figures are included, but the city deactivated its cameras after being forced to do so by a public referendum last month. View a list of how much revenue each city generated from red light camera tickets.
Article Excerpt:
City Tickets Profit Amarillo 18,186 $1,363,950 Arlington 81,598 $6,119,850 Austin 10,347 $776,025 Baytown 37,310 $2,798,250 Bedford 6,023 $451,725 Burleson 10,954 $821,550 Cedar Hill 20,630 $1,547,250 College Station 26,858 $2,014,350 Coppell 24,901 $1,867,575 Corpus Christi 19,468 $1,460,100 Dallas 133,086 $9,981,450 Diboll 4,845 $363,375 Duncanville 59,751 $4,481,325 El Paso 32,005 $2,400,375 Farmers Branch 17,521 $1,314,075 Fort Worth 83,160 $6,237,000 Frisco 520 $39,000 Garland 15,473 $1,160,475 Grand Prairie 38,166 $2,862,450 Haltom City 7,893 $591,975 Houston 236,812 $17,760,900 Humble 51,980 $3,898,500 Hurst 1,445 $108,375 Irving 41,528 $3,114,600 Jersey Village 35,625 $2,671,875 Killeen 46,072 $3,455,400 Lake Jackson 3,351 $251,325 Lufkin 25,496 $1,912,200 McKinney 524 $39,300 North Richland Hills 17,946 $1,345,950 Plano 77,844 $5,838,300 Richardson 45,183 $3,388,725 Richland Hills 14,800 $1,110,000 Roanoke 1,589 $119,175 Rowlett 7,680 $576,000 Sugar Land 14,951 $1,121,325 Terrell 5,808 $435,600 Grand Total 1,277,329 $95,799,675
