PhotoEnforced.com has just started using Google+ in an attempt to engage further with readers and red light camera database contributors.  Please feel free to post links and articles that might be helpful to our database or for changing laws.  You can find PhotoEnforced.com Google+ here and don't forget to add us to your circles.  I also encourage you to follow Jeff Cohn Google+ as well.  PhotoEnforced.com Twitter and PhotoEnforced.com Facebook should also be followed if you use them for actively as well.

I am pretty impressed with what I’ve seen so far in the launch. Its faster and less cluttered than FaceBook. One of the key points for me though is that it is very intuitive and more flexible for filtering views. I think Google+ will eventually become the platform for business networking and Facebook will become the standard for friends and family networking. 

Google+ is not a Facebook killer but simply a supplement. If you are a heavy Google users for search, email and advertising like we are then enjoy it for the future.

 SpeedTrapUSA.com Now What? 

Escort has introduced its SpeedTrapUSA.com website for speed-trap and red-light camera location sharing. The web site gives registered users the ability to receive early-warning notification of approaching speed traps, speed cameras, red-light cameras and other high-target traffic citation areas.  The site is free to use I think if you have a "Defender Account".  Are they trying to go against Congressional requests to remove DUI checkpoint apps from the App store?  Mobile speed traps are the same thing.

I am still amazed these radar detector camera companies like Cobra and Escort are still in business.  Why doesn't Escore or Cobra publish their data sources unlike PhotoEnforced.com who crowdsources?  Do they copy data from us?  Why don't they publish the number of locations in their database?  Makes you a little suspicious doesn't it?  Are these companies afraid of publishing their data for fear that they might be caught stealing data?  We have reached out to these companies several times but they will not return phone calls or emails.  So our quest for non-legal transparency and honesty continues.

PhotoEnforced.com was started 5 years before any other company in 2000 with the vision of creating a public open free database.  We had the vision to make the web site advertising supported from day one because we knew that data would soon become a commodity and we wanted users to contribute to it.  Five years after the radar detector business started to "dry up" due to navigation applications running on smartphones and GPS navigation devices started taking off.  Companies like Cobra and Escort became desperate for a new business model and decided to copy Europe's business model of selling subscriptions to a database they claim is proprietary or selling expensive devices giving away the database.  One huge difference is that Europe has 10X more speed cameras than the US.   How is that data subscription business going competitors when our database is free and we have thousands of monthly contributors?  

The telematics, mapping and mobile applications industry is growing and so are crowdsourced traffic companies.  The race to build or acquire the biggest crowd data has taken hold with the first acquisition of Trapster by Nokia / Navteq. Navteq reportedly out bid by five other potential acquirers. Trapster attracted a large app following putting it ahead of TCS / (Networks in Motion) with about five million probes, but behind Telenav, with more than 17 million. Who else is in the game? Onstar, RIM, Google, TomTom, Inrix, Waze, Telmap who track mobile phone and device location speeds.  Read more in the article The Race to Scale Crowd-Sourced Traffic Data is On.

How do map companies get traffic data?  These hardware and software companies have access to the GPS feeds associated with your mobile device or phone and use it to map traffic on maps.  They also accept reported incidents from users and have tools to filter the information before publishing.  Trapster had many locations reported by users but it was never very clear how the filtering process worked and how many false positives they had by spammers using the app.  These are some of the filtering challenges to companies like this face as they source data on the handset.

 NAVTEQ would rather drive test and send expensive bodies out to verify. Example given: What if you looked at a map and it had a hotel listed 3 times. They dont get it and fear changing their old school ways. This cost structure is inneficiant as filters like PhotoEnforced.com get better for curating data. Nokia is the largest consumer based phone company yet the company has no intension of leveraging this footprint to capture data. Wow, this is a major management oversight and may soon be the demise of a Nokia and Navteq divorce. There just isnt any synergy or cross platform collaboration.

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NAVTEQ wants to become a media company but has no intentions of selling directly to consumers. I scratch my head hearing the contradiction? I was at the Navteq Connections Conference today and heard some contradictions in strategy and customer focus. As long as they continue to have a developer centric approach they will continue to fall behind.  Developers need a platform that has wide adoption like Android.  I am not sure that just a platform encourages developers to use it without some unique content.

Google Maps realizes its about unique content and Navteq is far from a media company.  Media companies are all about unique content creation similar to what it had Traffic.com.   However, it seems to want to morph this organization into an ad network. What's missing to become a media company? Content and eyeball creation.  Navteq needs to take a more aggressive stance in the online publishing world if they truly want to become a media company.  They should be buying companies like PhotoEnforced.com and GasBuddy.com and provide proprietary content for its customers. Navteq seems content trying to court the large automotive car companies like Ford who are 5 years behind in the content business from smart phones.

Here is a continually updated list of cities that have removed or partially removed red light camera locations recently.  Subscribe to our red light camera locations database to get a full list of detailed locations.  Keep in mind some States and County jurisdictions have passed laws preventing the use of red light cameras but Cities and Municipalities continue to use them illegally.  To remove a location please provide a link to a local newspaper article highlighting the City Council decision to remove the cameras.  We are only concerned with locations that have been permanently removed and not those that have been deactivated temporarily.

Anchorage, AK
Arlington, TX
Avondale, CA
Burlingame, CA
Brooksville, FL
College Station, TX
Costa Mesa, CA
Lilburn, GA
Loma Linda, CA
Lubbock, TX
Melbourne, FL
Monterey Park, CA
Moreno Valley, CA
Naperville, FL
Norcross, GA
Peoria, AZ
Phoenix, AZ
Redlands, CA
San Carlos, CA
Scottsdale, AZ
Springfield, MO
Snellville, GA
Suwanee, GA
St. Peters, FL
Union City, CA
Wilmington, NC
Yucaipa, CA

As always, please email us if we are missing any cities on this list or still have locations listed in our public database that should be removed.

Related Articles:
How Many US Cities Use Red Light Cameras
Arizona Freeway Speed Cameras Go Bye Bye
Moreno Valley Dumps Red Light Cameras
Avondale Arizona Shuts Down Red Light Cameras

PhotoEnforced.com's crowdsourced database is the largest and most complete US database as we raise the awareness of our open platform to share information about red light cameras, right turn cameras, speed cameras or anything that is enforced using camera automation.  Our locations and fines database has been growing at a rate of 25% per year and last year we added near 2,000 new locations totaling 8000+ total:

• Red Light Cameras – 6500
• Speed Cameras – 371
• Illegal Right Turn Cameras – 119
• Combination Cameras - 381
• Both Red Light & Speed Cameras – 354
• Red Light & Illegal Right Turn Cameras - 19
• Red Light, Speed & Illegal Right Turn Cameras - 9

Our database has the first mover advantage having been founded back in 2001. Unfortunately, a number of entrepreneurs & corporations have tried to copy our data and used it to start their own POI data service. Our long term vision is to be the standard brand and source for photo enforced information and locations. Thanks to the community for your continued support!

Bogus GPS Business News Report

PhantomALERT Nears $1M Revenue with Speed and Red Light Cam Database

This is a complete lie and if its true the company will soon crumble for having crap data. Too many companies are copying our data and selling it for free. If you notice in the article it says the company was started in 2008 and does not disclose how they acquired their database. PhotoEnforced.com was the first company to even think about sourcing this information and started the database four years before anyone else back in 2001. I wish licensees would do their homework as ask the tough and credible questions. How did you source your data and can your history be verified?

I have to laugh every time I see one of our competitors claim: "Our red light camera database is the best because OUR  locations are verified."  Its a big fat lie and a half truth.  Here is a recent quote by a "no name" company in their press release:   "Unlike other safety cameras that use inferior databases which often depend heavily on unqualified and frequently incorrect user input, or old, expired data, the database contains data points that are continually verified through research and a network of professionals. The new camera locations are not just added in, earlier data points but are verified for continued relevance and are removed if they are found to be no longer in force. Our database was named the most accurate safety cam database in a recent category test."

10 things you should substantiate before licensing data from competitive red light camera database:

1) Verification of 3,000-7,000 locations with all 500+ cities, municipalities and county's is a LIE.

2) No sources or history for their data being added, removed and/or methodology for gathering data (thieves)

3) No info on the number of locations in the database (fear of being incomplete)

4) No volunteers on the ground in the hundreds of municipalities (no goodwill)

5) No press coverage and blogger or user credibility (because they copy)

6) Refusal to have a "bake off" competition to substantiate their data (fear of being wrong)

7) We were the U.S. pioneers in 2001 which is 3 times longer than any competitor (late to the game)

8) PhotoEnforced.com has had well over one million people visit our site (brand recognition)

9) Google Street maps pictures are old and cannot verify new cameras (nice try)

10) Business models borrowed from Europe which has 40K (5x) locations (Google Ads changing the game)

We have by far the most complete database of 7000+ locations contrary to what the companies with deep pockets and PR will try to promote. What our competitors don't know is that we have a public database and a private database for our customers. Our public database is 95% accurate but there are some phantom locations purposely inserted to keep thieves from copying the entire database which has been done many times. Just to be clear we encourage individual users to download and use the data in their local markets and give us accuracy feedback for free.

Over time we eventually ferret out false locations because of our enormous consumer reach of nearly 1,000 ticketed drivers per each day visit our web site. We think more than half of people who think they receive tickets look online at our site for sources to verify the locations and come to our site first from a Google search engine query.  Also, we have had numerous former employees from each company tell us that they in fact they use Photoenforced.com as their primary source of data.

If any competitors would like to post a rebuttal to my accusations please do so below.

• Company history 2001-2010
• US database coverage
• Total records in database as of January 31, 2010
• Types of locations in database and fines
• Red light cameras 
• Speed cameras
• Illegal right turn cameras
• Combination cameras
• Sample Los Angeles heat map of locations
• Sample Los Angeles pin map
• Screen shot of our subscriber platform
• Why partial crowd sourcing works
• How we get database updates
• News coverage
• Contributor web site form
• Home page screen shot
• Photos of signs and cameras on the street
• Monthly web site visitors chart
• Data syndication formats available
• Our advantages over competition 

We are also pleased to announce that we have executed an agreement with a major manufacturer of mobile phones and mobile navigation products to include the AURA (TM) database in their North American and European navigation products that will be released early next year." said Jim Bazet, Cobra's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

"This is a significant step in our plan to make AURA the preeminent provider of photo-enforcement alerts globally and is expected to contribute to revenues and earnings in the second half of 2010. Moreover, PPL generated an increase in sales due to the strength of their new product introductions - mobile navigation products tailored to the needs of the professional driver and the recreational vehicle owner. Cobra has recently launched in the U.S. a mobile navigation product for the professional driver that utilizes this successful PPL platform. We are aggressively pursuing new opportunities and expect a substantial improvement in fourth quarter results."

Cobra Electronics (Ticker: COBR) Reports Third Quarter Results | Reuters: 

How much due diligence did the "licensee" (Navteq owned by Nokia Ticker: NOK) do on where Cobra acquired the AURA database information and how they plan to keep the information fresh?

See related articles:

10 Questions about NAVTEQ's Speed and Red Light Camera Database
Red Light & Speed Cameras POI Database

Crowd sourcing has become a hot investment topic lately having seen a number of presentations in the last week at Demo and TechCrunch50. There seems to be a nice ecosystem of mobile applications and data syndication partners building who all have one thing in common, freemium business models. I see a bright future for companies like Aha Mobile who begin to shape next generation navigation driving experience on Smart Phone devices.
in reference to: AHA Mobile Inc. (view on Google Sidewiki)

We would like to alleviate some of the confusion in the marketplace. Navteq is NOT currently a customer of PhotoEnforced.com and we have no idea where they have acquired their data from.

However, PhotoEnforced.com has been the #1 sole source and pioneer of gathering red light camera and speed locations in a free open database since 2001. There are many databases in the market described above who copy our data and use this data and sell it. If you are considering licensing or using the NAVTEQ speed and red light camera locations database you might want to ask them the following questions first . . .

1) Why are you missing about a 1000+ locations?
2) What sources for acquiring the original 5000 locations?
3) Are your sources for the data stealing content?
4) Sources for updates on new locations and changes?
5) Proprietary research (?) when PhotoEnforced.com is free?
6) Any right turn and red light camera / speed combo cameras?
7) Why did it take you so many years to release a product?
8) Can you deliver updates to the locations in real time?
9) How do you charge for the database?
10) Publishing fines with the location be a copyright violation?

NAVTEQ, the leading global provider of digital map, traffic and location data for in-vehicle, portable, wireless and enterprise solutions, announced today at Telematics Detroit 2009 speed and red light camera locations are now available for the NAVTEQ(R) map of North America. NAVTEQ Camera Alert(TM) includes up-to-date information about the exact location of speed limit cameras, red light cameras, as well as combined speed and red light cameras in 5,000 locations throughout North America.

"Automated cameras are proliferating across North American cities," stated Cindy Paulauskas, vice president Americas map and content products, NAVTEQ. "And our proprietary research indicates that these types of warnings are a highly valued feature in countries where this navigation system functionality is available. Providing our customers with quality North America camera location information helps enable solutions that give drivers better knowledge of maximum speeds and traffic signals - with alerts at the right place and at the right time."

See related posts:
Cobra Electronics Licensing Data to Navteq?
Red Light & Speed Cameras POI Database

As of today we have a fresh new version of the database on the site that has taken into account all of our user updates and new locations. Thank you again to our loyal users who regularly supply updates. A number of cities have revised their fines upward in 2008 and some have taken down cameras. Our database currently has 3,700 active red light camera and speed camera locations in the database. Stay tuned for an exciting new map technology that we are in the process of implementing. We are considering using these new maps along with our database. See www.deadcellzones.com for a preview of the look an feel. We also have a number of local web sites who are using our data and we are happy to see it.

Automated Stop Sign Photographic Systems will have cameras mounted at certain intersections that will record all vehicles that pass through. Unlike red light cameras, where a flash goes off when a car runs a red light, no flash will occur when a violation is committed at the stop signs. Instead, the tape will roll and at a later time be viewed by a police officer who will look for individuals going through without stopping. The fine is currently $100-200 and our database is now setup to accept these locations.

Wikipedia is the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Wikipedia, also started in 2001, has rapidly grown into the largest reference website on the Internet. The content of Wikipedia is free, written collaboratively by people from all around the world. This website is a "wiki", which means that anyone with access to an Internet-connected computer can edit, correct, or improve information throughout the encyclopedia, simply by clicking the edit this page link. PhotoEnforced.com operates under the same "wiki" principals however it uses a database to easily contribute and edit the information.

Photo Enforced is a user contributed database of photo enforced street intersections and speed camera locations. Automated enforcement laws vary significantly from state to state; some authorize enforcement statewide, whereas others permit it only in specified communities. The use of red light cameras is used to "help" communities enforce traffic safety by automatically photographing the vehicles of drivers who run red lights. There are many differences in automated enforcement laws in each state and most locations are unpublished. It is our mission to locate and track photo enforcement areas and violation trends. Search the FREE database here