OFF THE WIRE
Here at the National Motorists Association, we’ve long worried about the apathy of the average driver when it comes to fighting traffic tickets. Many people just bite the bullet and pay their tickets without going to court at all.
However, with the spread of ticket cameras across the country, it looks like that apathy is starting to disappear.
For example, look at what’s happening in Lynnwood, Washington according to KIRO Radio:
So many drivers in Lynnwood are challenging tickets from traffic cameras, it’s causing a backlog in the court system.
There just aren’t enough courtrooms to hear the appeals. The city’s court administrator says right now they’re scheduling hearings all the way into September.
Lynnwood isn’t the only city where there has a been a huge number of drivers fighting back. Kansas City’s ticket camera program has generated a large backlog of court appeals as well.
The good news is that the increased in court challenges has a measurable effect on the profitability of ticket camera programs — it makes them substantially less profitable. And when there’s no profit, the ticket camera programs will disappear.
With fifteen states already banning ticket cameras, court challenges increasing, and lawsuits associated with most cities’ ticket camera programs, we’re well on our way to ridding our streets of these automatic ticketing machines for good.
