Texas Red Light Cameras Generate $100 Million in Tickets

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12/12/2009

Texas Red Light Cameras Generate $100 Million in Tickets
Privately operated Texas red light cameras issued $100 million worth of citations over a twelve-month period.

Hurst red light camera

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

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