[Porsche-O-Phile]

Here's the text. I underlined the pertinent portion. Un-freekin-believable.

In other words, "we went through the motions of collecting empirical data but our conclusions are completely antithetical to it because our conjecture is obviously more valid than the scientific methodology used".

Anyone with half a brain can interpret this further to mean, "thanks for the money for the study suckers, and we're going to force the cameras on you anyway, make intersections less safe and probably make a lot more money!"

A-holes. I swear my patience is seriously running thin with our government. If the citizens of this country had any balls at all they'd run these jackasses out of town, preferably at gunpoint.

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Red-light cameras installed at some of Houston's most dangerous intersections did not reduce the number of crashes there, according to a long-awaited study the city commissioned on the matter.

In fact, wrecks at intersections with at least one red-light camera more than doubled, the data shows. The analysis examined accident data at intersections that had at least one camera which monitored traffic in one direction, or "approach" of the intersection.

Study authors said the reason for the increase at "monitored approaches" is actually that the city has seen a major uptick in collisions during the past year, one that they believe red-light cameras helped mitigate. In other words, the study, released today, concludes that there were far fewer collisions at intersections with red-light cameras than there otherwise would have been if the cameras had not been installed.

"Collisions are going up all over the city," said Bob Stein, a Rice University political science professor and one of report's four authors. "But red-light cameras have held back that increase at approaches where they have been installed."

The results further inflamed critics of the cameras who called into question such a conclusion, given that there is no obvious reason to conclude that accidents have gone up across the city in the past year. Data from the Houston Police Department shows that crashes have declined in Houston since 2004.

The conclusion the study makes "is insane," said Randall Kallinen, an attorney who has previously challenged the installation of the cameras in court and who filed an open records lawsuit last week to force the city to disclose documents related to the study.

"In one year, the accident rate in the city of Houston has more than doubled? You can't just assume that the wild increase somehow has nothing to do with the cameras."

Mayor Bill White said the findings prove that the red light cameras are making city streets safer.

"The program is proving successful in improving public safety, which has been the goal since the beginning," White said in a written statement. "We believe the findings and conclusions provide sound evidence of that."