Interesting piece in today’s WSJ on the burgeoning business of traffic cameras in U.S. cities and towns. There is a Spy vs. Spy element to the battle between speeders and law enforcement, but the bottom line is it builds cities’ bottom line in touch economic times – so we will see many more of them.
Suppliers estimate that there are now slightly over 3,000 red-light and speed cameras in operation in the U.S., up from about 2,500 a year ago. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says that at the end of last year, 345 U.S. jurisdictions were using red-light cameras, up from 243 in 2007 and 155 in 2006.
One traffic-cam seller, Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions Inc., recently reported it had installed its 1,000th camera, with 500 more under contract in 140 cities and towns. Rival Redflex Holdings Ltd. says it had 1,494 cameras in operation in 21 states at the end of 2008, and expects to top 1,700 by the end of this year.
The business ramp hasn’t done anything for the stock of one its larger players however. Australia’s Redflex Holdings’ equity has been wobbling about in a fairly small range over the last five years.
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