When Traffic Cameras Kill (Or at Least Maim)

Nick Gillespie | November 2, 2005

A while back, Reason's Kerry Howley wrote up how the D.C. police figured that increased crashes at intersections patrolled by surveillance cameras was a sign the policy was working (come on, think about it for a minute and then...never mind).

Now Ryan Posly hips us to two instances where the DC logic is catching on. First up is Ft. Collins, Colorado, where the surveillance cameras have increased crashes (another victory for the people!). The powers-that-be wisely added an extra second to the yellow light stage of the traffic signal, which fixed one problem but possibly caused another: a decrease in fines as well as crashes.

The city added one second of yellow time to the camera-monitored movements of the intersection to see if it would improve safety. Both accidents and red light citations dropped by more than half comparing the most recent month's data to the same time last year. Daily ticket revenue also plunged from $3000 to $1125, giving officials cause to delay voting on a new camera to see if revenue will rebound.

More, including a police chief who avers the cameras have never been about $$$, here.

And then there's this interesting tale from the Yellow Fever city of Philadelphia, where the camera-caused accidents have been compounded by good old human error. On top of a 10 percent to 20 percent increase in wrecks come these sorts of automated tales of woe:

[One driver] explains he hasn't been to that intersection in a decade, his car was in the garage at the time and that his 1990 Audi Coupe Quattro is red. The car in the photo, whose license plate is not completely readable, is black.

"This is pure human error," [a Philadelphia Parking Authority spokesman] explained, after admitting that the ticket was improperly issued.

Whole thing here.

Comments

|11.2.05 @ 5:19PM|#

By the way, there's a great anti-automated enforcement website here:
http://www.ticketassassin.com/autoenf_toc.html

In addition to explaining the basics of these wonderful systems, it gives good advice on contesting tickets.

|11.2.05 @ 5:23PM|#

Hey, if we can save just $1 in revenue, it's worth a few lives.

|11.2.05 @ 8:02PM|#

What was that about when class actions are appropriate earlier?

|11.2.05 @ 10:15PM|#

I'm noticing my favorite topic just at bedtime here, so I'll just say that red-light cameras were certain to coevolve with red-lights because they are memes headed from the start down disappointing roads, like those of alligators, mosqitoes, halitosis, and such-like.
Reminds me of something I read recently: On and in our bodies, "alien" cells outnumber human cells about 4 to one.

bbridges|11.3.05 @ 12:02AM|#

After dodging the Deathrace 2000 traffic that runs through the Westwood section of LA for 7 years, I was happy to see something introduced that could possibly allow me to survive one more day of lunch.

But then after getting a ticket by one of these fascist camera cops, I saw the light. Theoretically I have no problem but when the city and the equipment manufacturers have a financial stake in the system, it corrupts everything.

Using parking tickets as a revenue generator creates enough of a cringe factor for me. To use something that is so clearly linked to real safety issues is repulsive.

I don't have the links but there were stories in the past years about cities that actually decreased the length of the yellow light to increase tickets! After 100 years of cars on the road, hasn't somebody come up with a standard yellow light period that everyone agrees is sufficient?

|11.3.05 @ 7:46AM|#

I say this all the time. All you need to do is look at the road where there are yellow-light cameras. There are at least 50 feet's worth of deep skid marks. Right or wrong, people are slamming on their brakes at those lights.

And this is about safety..?

|11.3.05 @ 8:36AM|#

yeah, the automated stop light cameras in Philly don't improve the idiots who send out the tickets.

An acquaintance of mine received a warrant a while back because he hadn't paid a ticket from Pittsburgh. Mind you, he's never been to Pittsburgh. Well, because he's politically connected, he was able to get the matter resolved - the illiterate cop had flipped the numbers on the plate. But I still shudder to think what a non-connected person would have to go through to get that resolved...

|11.3.05 @ 9:28AM|#

bbridges -

Was that a Carmegeddon reference? Nice...


For anyone that's interested and isn't aware of them, the National Motorists Association is a great organization to send some money to.

http://www.motorists.org/

Note the link right on the front page to the Washington Post's story on red light cams in DC.

-rj

Highway|11.3.05 @ 11:41AM|#

bbridges,

There is a design process for yellow light timing that uses factors like roadway classification, roadway design speed, roadway ACTUAL speed, sight distance. Mainly, it's to minimize what's known as the 'Dilemma Zone' at an intersection.

I've also heard stories (anecdotal) about reducing yellow light times at intersections to boost revenue, but haven't really seen backup to them. There was a story a year or so ago about some municipality, not changing the yellow time, but changing the activation time on the red-light camera so that people who were legally in the intersection prior to the light turning red (here it's back bumper over the stop line while the light is yellow means you are 'in the intersection' and have right-of-way to clear the intersection) would get nabbed, with the light showing red since the picture was taken after it turned.

|11.3.05 @ 1:01PM|#

Ha. I laugh at all of you. In Michigan, our cops aren't nearly so eager to increase revenue from traffic tickets because our state constitution gives that money to public libraries.