All Philadelphia Red-Light Cameras Being Replaced By New Vendor
By Steve Tawa
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Philadelphia Parking Authority is bringing in a new vendor to handle the red light camera program in the city. It will be installing a new system -- at the same intersections -- from the ground up.
The city began its red light camera program in 2005 and now has 111 cameras at twenty-five intersections.
Xerox State and Local Solutions is taking over from ATS, which has been the vendor since the program's inception, according to Vince Fenerty, executive director of the Parking Authority.
"We came up with a very good price, which saves the Parking Authority almost $4 million over the life of the 54-month contract," he tells KYW Newsradio.
The Parking Authority, which administers the red light program, is paying a negotiated price of $3,825 per month per camera, versus the current $4,445 to ATS.
PPA deputy executive director Corinne O'Connor says Xerox will replace everything:
"They're going to replace the poles, every camera, and the strobes."
And she says radar triggers will replace the current in-ground proximity sensors.
"Radar is more specific in detecting red light violations -- you have less false triggers," she explains.
PPA officials say Xerox's radar should help differentiate between red light violations and vehicles stopping slightly beyond the stop line, which in the past had required human intervention to determine that no violation had occurred.
Red light citations yielded $9 million in collected fines in the last fiscal year. The new contract, costing $5.4 million per year, runs through 2017.
