Crashes down at red-light camera intersections

[proud2BlibKansan]

Two weeks after the red-light cameras appeared, a driver in front of Amanda Westerheid suddenly slammed his brakes for a yellow light at U.S. 71 and 59th Street.

Her vehicle plowed into the back of his.

Critics of the cameras predicted that such collisions would increase after the cameras went up in Kansas City last year. But that hasn’t happened, according to a Star analysis of wrecks at the city’s first 13 intersections with cameras.

Rear-end collisions actually decreased 20 percent at those locations, the newspaper found after studying 450 wrecks from 2008 and 2009.

Wrecks overall declined 26 percent. Injury wrecks fell by 42 percent. And wrecks caused by drivers running red lights plunged 67 percent. Those declines contrast with a slight increase in wrecks citywide during that same time period.

more . . . http://www.kansascity.com/2010/02/20/1762580/crashes-are-down-at-most-of-kcs.html

[Turbineguy]

1. But they have to write enough tickets

to pay for them.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Can't help but wonder if they are worth the expense

[Turbineguy]

15. I understand the town nearby

spends $1400 per month per intersection for monitoring services.

[laughingliberal]

3. They had them here in Nevada for a while. It was obvious they had shortened the yellow light time at

the intersections with cameras. This was during a time when I drove 100-200 miles per day seeing hospice patients and it could not have been a more obvious attempt to entrap people. Thank goodness, our state outlawed them after a brief time in operation. They did not cut down on collisions here.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. I noticed that as well

Thought I was imagining it at first.

[laughingliberal]

11. They tried to deny it but I drove so much for so long in this area it was

obvious to me. A person gets to know the intersections they cross up to 10 times per day pretty well. I remember a hearing in the House or the Senate on these a while back. Didn't listen to much of it but there was one elected official who raised this concern (surprisingly, it was a Republican). I remember thinking they would never get away with that. But I noticed the difference before I even knew they had started to use them. Then, my husband made me aware they had gone into operation. That's when the light dawned on why the yellow lights had gotten so fast. I don't remember all the reasons our state outlawed them but they found no evidence that collisions at intersections had gone down and, in some cases, they went up (the example of rear end collisions from the article was pretty rampant, here). I do believe there were, also, privacy issues raised about them.

[lib2DaBone]

4. I think the cities and counties get the systems for free....

.. and then the company that supplies the cameras splits the profits with the city. I could be wrong.. but that is what I read.

Now if they could invent an anti-texting camera.

Or how about a taser device that shocks people who park in the hammer lane at 40 MPH and refuse to move?

[Fumesucker]

7. Plenty of posters on DU support going slow in the fast lane..

I've seen arguments over that here more than once..

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. They spent a couple million dollars on them here, IIRC

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

18. That's what lights and sirens are for.

[Fridays Child]

6. Here in Tucson, I saw two vehicles in succession get photographed, today.

Both cars made left turns, after the arrow had already expired. I think this particular intersection may have been listed as one of the most dangerous in the state, at one time. I don't know how it ranks now, though.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. How could you tell they were being photographed?

[Joanie Baloney]

13. there is a blinding flash of white light n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. Thanks, I am going to start looking!

I had no idea and was wondering just the other day as I sat at an intersection and looked at one.

[Fridays Child]

17. Yep, you can see the flash.

:)

[frazzled]

10. Not so in D.C.: the accidents at red-light camera intersections have increased

The District's red-light cameras have generated more than 500,000 violations and $32 million in fines over the past six years. City officials credit them with making busy roads safer.

But a Washington Post analysis of crash statistics shows that the number of accidents has gone up at intersections with the cameras. The increase is the same or worse than at traffic signals without the devices.

Three outside traffic specialists independently reviewed the data and said they were surprised by the results. Their conclusion: The cameras do not appear to be making any difference in preventing injuries or collisions.

"The data are very clear," said Dick Raub, a traffic consultant and a former senior researcher at Northwestern University's Center for Public Safety. "They are not performing any better than intersections without cameras."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/03/AR2005100301844.html

Maybe in the very beginning, people are more cautious because they don't want to be ticketed. But many, many studies have shown that, long-term, these cameras have nothing to do with safety enhancement. They are, however, great revenue generators. I've told the story many times, but my husband got a fake red-light ticket from one of these: the traffic judge looked at the video, agreed he'd done nothing wrong, and dismissed the case. It was no accident, in my estimation: I think many people receive the violations in the mail, don't bother to look at their videos or challenge the tickets (thinking they must have done something wrong), and pay the hundred bucks.

[Duckhunter935]

12. Went down in El Paso

[Robb]

16. When they started sprouting up in Denver

...the proponents espoused not safety, but traffic improvements: people wouldn't run the light and get stopped on the other side in the middle of the intersection as often, blocking cross traffic and generally snarling the downtown system.

I understand that part of it worked. :shrug:

[KonaKane]

19. Maybe we need cams in restrooms to cut down on toilet deaths.

Just following the logic here....