Despite the threat of a $25 million lawsuit, Houston officials voted to shut down the city’s unloved and controversial red-light camera program. In doing so, the city council breaks a contract with American Traffic Solutions that has three years remaining on it.
The council’s 13-1 vote on Wednesday also repealed the 2006 law that permitted the cameras in the first place.
“It is now illegal for the city to operate the cameras,” said the city’s mayor, Annise Parker, in an interview with a local television station.
The lone vote against turning off the cameras came from a councilwoman, Sue Lovell, who wanted the city to compromise with American Traffic Solutions, the company that installed and maintained the cameras. Under her plan, the city would turn off the cameras in 2013 rather than 2014 as the contract originally stipulated.
Houston is the second-largest city this summer to shut down its red-light cameras. In July, the city council of Los Angeles voted to discontinue that city’s program, also administered by American Traffic Solutions.
| 
|