On Tuesday, November 29, 2011, the Montgomery County Council will introduce the bill shown below to permit the Montgomery County Police Department to operate cameras on the exterior of MCPS buses.
But, no worries. The bill already has 4 sponsors so it should pass without a problem. Council President Valerie Ervin had already lobbied for this bill to her fellow councilmembers in a November 22nd memorandum.
The cost of this project is not disclosed by the Council memorandum.
But, we already know that it's about $500 per bus to install an exterior camera to photograph drivers. How do we know that? MCPS has already bought 202 exterior cameras.
But, the Council memorandum states that the MCPS exterior cameras might not be compatible with the Montgomery County Police Department requirements. So, the 202 exterior cameras already purchased might not be usable.
Not disclosed in the Council memo is that MCPS has 1,273 school buses.
1,273 buses at $500 per exterior camera will be about $636,500.
Update: Frederick County Public Schools has purchased exterior cameras for 11 buses at a cost of $1,350 per bus.
Police to place Exterior Cameras on School Buses
The plan to use a camera system for school bus signal compliance has not been well thought out. Stopping for a moving vehicle is dynamically far more complex than stopping for a red light. Unlike the situation with red light cameras, where there is a minimum yellow light time of 3 seconds, there is no mandatory minimum yellow light time with school buses. Instead, state law requires the yellow lights to be (manually) activated at least 100 feet before bringing the vehicle to a full stop. Is the camera-based enforcement system going to measure the distance that the yellow lights were on? Are school buses going to prevent activation of the red flashing lights until the yellow lights have been on for at least 100 feet? I doubt it.
ReplyDeleteIf the school bus cameras go into operation, we better prepare for some intense rear-end collisions when cars suddenly stop as soon as they see the yellow lights.