Red Light Cameras - Safety Enhancement or Hidden Tax?
Someone in our office got a red light camera ticket. In Knoxville it’s a $50 fine and no points (doesn’t go on your record). They remembered the yellow light was “kind of short.” And they could access a video of the “infraction.”
After watching the video about 4 times I noted:
1) It was a close call. The vehicle was right at the crosswalk when the light turned red.
2) The yellow was set at about 4 seconds (maybe slightly less - I didn’t have a stopwatch and the video didn’t have a time stamp).
3) The person’s break lights came on just as they entered the intersection (when they say they noticed the light changed to red.
That got me interested in yellow light times, standards for yellow light times, and intersection safety in general.
First, I came upon this discussion page on yellow light timing on the Federal Highway Administration web site:
Then I came upon a study that suggests that red light camera’s don’t reduce accidents and refutes other studies that say that they do:
http://www.motorists.org/photoenforce/Burkey_Obeng_Updated_Report_2004.pdf
Then I found several interesting pages about red-light cameras:
http://www.motorists.org/blog/red-light-cameras-do-not-reduce-right-angle-crashes/
http://www.motorists.org/blog/6-cities-that-were-caught-shortening-yellow-light-times-for-profit/
http://www.motorists.org/blog/9-ways-improve-traffic-safety-government-will-ignore/
All this reading about improvement makes me think … Are they really addressing the ROOT CAUSES of people running red lights.
It seems to me that the T-bone accidents (high chance of a fatality) are the ones that we should be addressing.
Are these caused by “enforcement NI”?
Are people intentionally breaking the rules?
Or are they distracted, inattentive, blinded by bright lights, confused by background lights, …
It seems to me that an enforcement solution will only work if there is an enforcement NI root cause.
And if cities are shortening yellow lights to increase revenue … This is an obvious case of creating red light runners to enhance ticket revenue.
So be careful when creating corrective actions. Make sure that the corrective actions are effective (the E in SMARTER) in preventing the recurrence of the root cause. Otherwise you will be implementing corrective actions that may fit some agenda item, but won’t prevent the recurrence of the accident.
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January 7th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Okay okay… i am paying the $50 dollars but it was not me honest. i will say that the “short” yellow light was discussed and it was nice to have the video on hand to discuss it.
Now did it reduce the person’s behavior once identified…. yes at least at this light because we know it is 4 seconds now. Does it reduce most people’s behavior at other lights where there is no camera and is 4 seconds effective and safe for all conditions… no!
Many here do the rolling almost stop at the lights and stop signs and as the right of way driver, you never know who is going to pull out in front of you. So no, this would not meet the SMARTER litmus test for corrective actions nor did it identify the root causes. It would be nice to time the other lights without camera’s.
January 7th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Here is a response from a peer in safety. Eddie Wren, President & Chief Instructor, Advanced Drivers of America
If used with integrity, red light cameras are undeniably a very useful road safety tool, and this is commonly the case. But if integrity evaporates, for the purpose of revenue earning — and this is something that undoubtedly does happen — drivers are faced, quite literally, with a modern form of highway robbery.
Apparently, the most common form of mis-use, when money is the goal, is to shorten the yellow (amber) light phase so that it becomes more likely that the light will be on red before a vehicle goes through.
That said, the **safest** way always to deal with traffic lights (and I do mean for safety, not just for ticket avoidance) is to teach young people to always treat the yellow/amber light as meaning “STOP, unless it is simply not possible to do so!” This is actually the law in countries such as Canada and Britain, where police officers can report/cite/ticket a driver for going through on yellow. It is a much safer system because it does help cut down on red light runners.
January 30th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Houston red light camera controversy:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6237816.html
June 16th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Another interesting article about cooking the books to make red light cameras seem effective in preventing accidents. This time it is in Canada. See:
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/winnipeg-police-caught-manipulating-accident-data/