Friday, March 15, 2013
A new report released by the police department details how many citations have been issued by speed camera vans around the county. We've used that data to figure out where the most tickets per hour were issued.
The Howard County Police Department recently released a report detailing speed camera usage in the county in school zones. Currently, the county uses two speed camera vans, posted in school zones, to issue citations to speeding motorists. Using the data in the report, we've created this list below and the interactive map above that details the locations where police have caught people speeding in school zones most frequently. The time period covered is between November of 2011 and the end of 2012, according to police. Top School Zone Speeding Locations in Howard County 1. Long Reach High School – Tamar Drive at Old Dobbin Road, Columbia - 287.47 total hours - 3,655 citations issued - 12.7 citations per hour 2. Hollifield …
Thursday, March 14, 2013
The county has netted nearly $28,000 for traffic safety projects, and police said that drivers are slowing down.
The Howard County Police Department is “exploring” an increase in its speed camera program by adding two portable speed cameras in areas too small to fit the two vans currently in use in school zones. In its one-year report, which is required to be submitted to the County Council, the police department went over dollars and cents and numbers of citations issued during the 5,840 hours on the roads in the first year of the program, which began issuing citations in November 2011. According to the report, before speed camera enforcement began, the department conducted a five-year review of collisions that occurred in school zones. Before the cameras were installed, the county averaged 166 collisions per year over the five years studied, …
Monday, December 31, 2012
Howard County's speed camera vendor said timestamps on photos are not an accurate method for calculating speed.
Over the past few months, the Baltimore Sun has been cataloguing what may be errors in speed cameras in Baltimore city. Reporters have used time over distance calculations with timestamps on citiation photographs rounded to the thousandth of a second to determine drivers' speed. In Howard County, it's not possible to use timestamp information to determine speed because the timestamps are rounded to the nearest second, which is not precise enough to make a calcualtion, according to the Sun. However, even if it was down to the thousandth of a second, citizens would still not be able to calculate their own speed at the time of the infraction, according to a spokesperson for Xerox State & Local Solutions Inc., Howard County's speed camera …
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Currently, residents receiving a Howard County speed ticket are unable to figure out how fast they were traveling based on photographs.
Howard County Police said the company they work with to operate speed cameras are researching ways to include more information on the photographs they provide on speeding tickets. The research is being undertaken to increase motorist confidence in the program, according to a police spokesperson. Questions have been raised about the accuracy of speed camera systems in the state after the Baltimore Sun reported on flaws in speed camera systems in Baltimore City. The paper reported inaccurate speed-readings on tickets after calculating vehicles' speed using timestamps to the fraction of a second provided on photographs included with citations, and by measuring the distance vehicles traveled in the photographs. Currently, Howard County’s …
Monday, December 10, 2012
A state delegate wants speeding tickets dismissed in cases where it's unclear the motorist was in violation.
A recent report published by the Baltimore Sun points out an issue with speed cameras in Howard County—citizens who receive a ticket can't check the accuracy of the camera based on the photographs provided. Because Howard County speed cameras round the times each photograph is taken to the nearest second, motorists who receive a ticket are not able to calculate the accuracy of the camera's radar gun based on the distance their vehicle travels between photographs, according to the Sun. In Baltimore County, a state delegate is calling for a state audit and possible reboot of the speed camera program in Maryland. Del. Jon Cardin told Patch Monday he would like judges to throw out tickets when it's not clear that the driver was speeding. He …
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
But not all red-light cameras are.
Comments on an article about new technologies popping up that help drivers to avoid speed camera citations took issue with one of the claims: a new technology wouldn’t work in Howard County because the cameras don’t use flashes. Ostensibly, that's because the newest gadget – noPhoto – uses its own flash to blind speed cameras. The noPhoto license plate cover has a built-in flash that is triggered as soon as it detects a flash from a speed or red light camera; it obscures the plate, distorting any picture captured by the camera. In the article, published on Friday, officials said noPhoto - as well as other product that depend on the flash of a camera to work – were useless against cameras that don’t use a flash “such as those in Howard …
Monday, November 12, 2012
But the latest technology is no good against cameras used in Howard County.
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Monday, November 12, 2012
By Aisha Azhar, Capital News Service COLLEGE PARK -- As the number of speed cameras and red light cameras on Maryland roads grows, frustrated drivers can turn to any number of technologies to avoid automated tickets. Drivers have used sprays, reflective license plate covers and even car waxes to circumvent traffic cameras, even though authorities in Maryland and other states have banned them. The latest technology is noPhoto -- a license plate cover that uses the same mechanics built into traffic cameras to fool them, and, unlike older products, could be more difficult for the authorities to detect. In Maryland, red light cameras were introduced in 1997 and speed cameras in 2007. Both have been unpopular with drivers, often criticized as …
Friday, August 24, 2012
Howard County Police will focus on traffic safety around school zones for the first couple weeks of the school year.
Students return to school on Monday, and Howard County Police will be increasing their presence around schools for the first couple weeks of the school year, according to a department press release. Officers will target drivers speeding in school zones, enforce seat belt laws and trail school buses to make sure vehicles stop when the red lights are flashing during a drop off–-a violation that can earn drivers a $570 fine. "We hope that police presence around the schools will send a message to drivers to slow down," said Police Chief William McMahon in a statement. "Students throughout the region will be walking and driving to and from school and we want to make sure every one of them arrives safely." In addition to increased patrols around…
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Since the program began, 455 drivers have received two or more citations.
In areas where Howard County's speed camera vans are parked more often, records show vehicles tend to slow down after a few weeks, said Fred Von Briesen, administrator for the speed camera program. But when the vans return to those same areas after a brief reprieve, “I’m always surprised at how quickly those [high] numbers return," he said. Since the program began last fall, Von Briesen said there have been 455 repeat offenders. So far, he said, the fastest vehicle cited was traveling 82 mph in a 40 mph zone. Once a citation is issued, police department personnel review it. About 2 percent of citations printed are discarded because the photographs do not conform to the department's standards. Two tickets have been dismissed, Von Briesen …
Friday, April 6, 2012
Think speed cameras take a vacation when school is out? Think again.
The news that speed cameras would be stationed on Old Washington and Old Montgomery roads this week raised eyebrows among greater Elkridge citizens. "Aren't the cameras supposed to be for school zones? Why are they in use during spring break?" asked Leslie Kornreich of Hanover on the Elkridge Patch Facebook page. Howard County has continued to issue citations to drivers going more than 12 mph over the speed limit in school zones, even while students have been away for spring break, according to the Howard County Police Department (HCPD). Both county and state laws allow for school zone speed camera enforcement from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., and school does not need to be in session. Howard County public schools are on spring break April 2 to …
Sally Forth
9:40 am on Wednesday, April 3, 2013
You're an a**hole if you speed through school zones. more ›