Bruce Simon from Palo Alto has filed a class-action lawsuit against the two largest companies who run red light cameras in San Mateo county Redflex and American Traffic Solutions. Simon says they're violating state law by including a so-called "cost neutral" provision in the contracts.  Simon says the camera makers reimburse cities when they can't make enough from tickets to pay for the monthly operational costs. It can't be a money loser for the cities and the companies will make up the difference.  Red light camera operators typically pick intersections which are going to be susceptible to the most tickets, says Simon.  We're going after the private companies that induce these municipalities to get into these contracts as revenue enhancing vehicles, Simon said.  If it's supposed to be about safety and preventing accidents, the revenue aspect shouldn't be as important.

There have been court challenges to the cost neutral clause and as a result several Peninsula cities have stopped using the red light cameras, others are in the process of dropping it, among them is Redwood City.  Another trend seems to be the growing use of right turn cameras or those intersection that monitor if you make a "California Stop".  A California stop is also referred to as a rolling right turn. 

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