Red Light Robber

Red Light Camera Entrapment for Starters

I recommend attorneys to understand this one-page document and to follow its links. While doing that, ask yourself, "How does one prosecute/litigate the white collar crime of bad physics in Court?" This web site answers that question.

(This link is the same one as the "scam" link at the top of every web page.)

Professional Engineers Statute 542b

This document states that engineering plans must be certified (542B.16) by an Iowa licensed professional engineer. The engineering must apply (not misapply) the mathematical and physical sciences (542B.2-9a)

Engineering Code of Conduct of Engineers and Engineering Firms

To offer engineering services, the firm must regularly employ a Iowa licensed professional engineer who has responsible charge for the firm's work. The engineer cannot be hired on an as-needed basis. (193C-4.7)

Cedar Rapids Automated Enforcement Cameras Installation Plans

These plans are certified by an Iowa licensed professional engineer.

Gatso Certificate of Authorization as a Business

Gatso is the automated-enforcement firm that installed and now operates the cameras in Cedar Rapids. Gatso is registered as an Iowa business, but not necessarily as one that offers professional services (in this case professional engineering services). By rulings from the boards of engineers in Washington, Colorado, North Carolina, California and other states, the design of red-light cameras installations and speed-camera installations are both engineering works and land-surverying works.

Iowa Professional Corporations

Iowa DOT Traffic and Safety Manual

Setting speed limits is in chapter 5.
Automated enforcement is in chapter 8.

The Iowa DOT does not disclose to the public its official practice on setting the yellow change interval. The Manual discloses many other aspects of traffic engineering in the Manual, but noticeably absent is its practice on setting yellow change interval.

Cedar Rapids Automated Traffic Enforcement Ordinance

As opposed to most jurisdictions, the Cedar Rapids ordinance always blames the owner of the vehicle for running a red light. Most other jurisdictions allow the vehicle owner to mail in an "affidavit of non-responsibility" which identifies the driver of the car--the person who the owner believes actually committed the crime.

Gatso does not know that I was driving the car. So Gatso blames Hart Leasing Inc, the owner of the car. There is no evidence that Hart Leasing is driving either. I was renting the car from Avis, and Avis uses Hart Leasing. Up to 8 people can drive my rental.

The legal problem is described by Adam MacLeod, professor of law at Faulkner University. Look here. Essentially, the citation blames a person, not the car and the citation goes after a person. In legal speak, the proceeding is not in rem; that is, the legal proceeding does not go after the car, but a person. And because it goes after a person, Gatso must identify the person.

Yellow Light Flaw in One Page

Iowa DOT Yellow Light Timings

The Iowa DOT uses ITE's Traffic Devices Handbook to the compute the duration of the yellow light. The duration is called the yellow change interval. Iowa DOT follows the old ITE formula. ITE admits that his formula forces drivers to unintentionally run red lights. ITE replaced the old formula and practice in March 2020.

Iowa SUDAS Yellow Light Timings

The Iowa DOT gives cities and counties autonomy when setting yellow change intervals. Many Iowa cities use the SUDAS Design Manual. SUDAS means Statewide Urban Design and Specifications. SUDAS, in turn, uses report NCHRP 812 page 6-3. NCHRP means National Cooperative Highway Research Program. NCHRP 812 uses ITE's old formula.

ITE confessed that its old formula forces drivers to unintentionally run red lights. ITE replaced the old formula and practice in March 2020. (The new practice is better than the old but the new practice perpetuates other significant physics mistakes which make innocent drivers run red lights.)

Traffic Signal and Red Light Camera Data Required for Analysis

FOIA your city clerk for this information. This is the information you need to analyze a red-light camera program. Be confident that all red-light camera programs are based on engineering malpractice. (You do not need crash data because red-light cameras measure the legal motion of traffic, not crashes. Legal motion of traffic and safety are two different concerns in traffic engineering. One does not imply the other. Though this fact is traffic engineering 101, the public is not aware of it.)

First, FOIA your city clerk for the "red light camera installation plans". The clerk should have these plans available. It usually takes 3 -5 days to get this information. After you receive the installation plans, then you may FOIA the clerk for the rest.

As for the installation plans, be mindful that the longer it takes your city clerk to respond, the greater the odds that the red-light camera firm or city knows it is running an illegal engineering operation. Most of the time (about 80% of the time), the installation plans are not certified by a licensed professional engineer, the camera firm does not have the legal authority to offer engineering services in the State, or the engineer who certified the plans did not have "responsible charge" of the project. All are deliberate crimes.

Second, as for the red-light camera event data, most red-light camera firms no longer disclose event data. The firms do not want outsiders to possess this data. That is because event data damns red-light camera programs. Having the data gives you the power to reveal the nature of red-light running. The nature of the vast majority of red-light running and crashes boils down to systematic engineering failures, not bad driver behavior.

A quick analysis of the data reveals giant disparities in red-light running counts from one intersection to another. Because drivers drive no differently from the east part of town to the west part of town, the only explanation of the disparities is that the engineering or traffic volumes must differ between the intersections. But you will see higher counts at some lower volume intersections.

On closer analysis, the data reveals giant disparities of red-light running counts over periods of time at individual intersections. The differences are caused by traffic engineers, not varying driver behavior. Engineers periodically adjust the signal timing. With the event data, you can literally see the results of their adjustments by noting the increase or decrease in red-light running counts. You will even see that a 0.1 second decrease in the yellow change interval permanently increases red-light running by 50%.

To verify that the change in counts is caused by the engineer, ask the clerk for the "traffic signal plan" or "signal timing chart" for the intersection. These plans and charts must be certified by a professional engineer. Most of the time, they are certified. But there are giant exceptions to this--like in Suffolk County, New York.

Disparities are always explained by engineering changes--for good or bad. Driver behavior is a direct result of engineering, not drivers' ability to drive. When you know the math behind the yellow light, you realize that the disparities, red-light running and crashes are tethered to the traffic engineers' systematic misapplications of physics. You see that red-light running is predictable. You now realize the nature of the red-light camera business. It is a charlatan fraud scheme rooted in misapplications of physics.