LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
                              Austin, Texas
                                     
                    FISCAL NOTE, 76th Regular Session
  
                              March 11, 1999
  
  
          TO:  Honorable Bob Turner, Chair, House Committee on Public
               Safety
  
        FROM:  John Keel, Director, Legislative Budget Board
  
       IN RE:  HB1152  by Driver (Relating to the authority of a
               municipality to implement a photographic traffic-control
               system; providing for imposition of a civil penalty.),
               Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
  
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*  No fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.                    *
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Local Government Impact
  
Local Government Impact

A municipality that would chose to implement a photographic
traffic-control system could incur costs associated with the purchase,
installation, maintenance and administration of the system. The cost
would depend on the number of intersections a municipality would chose to
equip with monitoring devices. The equipment cost per intersection is
estimated at $50,000 to $60,000.

A municipality implementing a photographic traffic-control system would
be expected to collect additional fine revenue from red light violators.
The revenue would depend on the volume of traffic at an intersection, the
rate of violations at a particular intersection, the percentage of
violators resulting in the imposition of a civil penalty and a
municipality's civil fine collection rate. Based on test site data from
the City of Richardson, as many as 1.9 percent of vehicles violate a red
light.

Assuming only 0.1 percent of vehicles would violate a red light upon
implementation of the photographic traffic-control system, assuming 50
percent of violators would be ticketed with the maximum fine of $75 being
imposed, and assuming a collection rate of 50 percent, an intersection
with 20,000 vehicles per day could yield $136,875 in fine revenue per
year.  The amount of revenue could be higher, depending on the number of
third-time offenders paying penalties up to the maximum $200 per
violation.
  
  
Source Agencies:   601   Department of Transportation
LBB Staff:         JK, MD