Speed Camera Revenue, Trash Collection Times, and Accessible Government Data
Cheers RVA!
Today will be partly sunny, with a high of 82 and a low of 64.
the juice:
At a news conference yesterday Mayor Stoney said the new speed cameras located near schools have generated $200k in fines since the launch in the spring, via the RTD.
Initially the cameras were issuing over 170 citations per day, but that number is down to roughly 70 per day currently.
Stoney noted the city has installed 473 traffic calming measures since 2017, including bike lanes, roundabouts and speed tables.
There are 11 zones around the city with speed cameras, with two more zones at Thomas Jefferson High School and Richmond High School for the Arts to receive cameras in the next phase of expansion of the pilot program.
the pulp:
City Council approved an ordinance to limit city trash collection from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm, two hours later than the previous start time of 5:00 am, from Axios. The Department of Public Works noted that some areas even started at 4:00 am to avoid congestion and tight streets.
The pilot participatory budget program officially kicked off Tuesday from the Mercury. Richmonders will have $3 million to allocate for projects of their choice.
the dive:
A new website has launched, usafacts.org, which compiles government data, and “cleans, analyzes, visualizes, and contextualizes” it before publishing.
The site states they are not trying to convince anyone of anything, only to provide easily accessible data.
How does Richmond compare to other US Cities in terms of homicide rate?
Richmond ranks 11th, with a rate of 23.1 homicides per 100k population. The overall average in the United States is 10.5 per 100k.
Homicides in the city are down this year (49 to 42) as compared to this time a year ago.
Across the country homicide rates tend to be higher in cities and lower in medium-sized and small metropolitan areas.
The not for profit, nonpartisan site was founded by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Check out the website here.
the vibe:
Have a judicious day RVA!
Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave a comment. If you enjoy this newsletter, tell a friend to subscribe!
Generating fines works, but what amount is being collected? Do we have a way of seeing the transparency of that?
Great question, something to look into. I was also wondering what % of fines had been collected.