Saturday, March 06, 2010

Red Light Cameras Reduce Collisions 34%

Springfield, Ohio introduced red light cameras in 2006. It monitored about 1700 violations a month. That is down to about 660 now. Crashes are down 34% overall. That's significant because a reduction of 20% was expected & severe "T-Bone" collisions are frequently offset by a slight uptick in minor rear end "fender bender" collisions.
The cameras also allowed officials to determine that a leading cause of collisions at one intersection were not due to red light running but illegal turning.
Unfortunately, we can't do this in Cincinnati due to the successful fear & smear campaigns from COA T & NAACP.
The videos have been useful in hit-skip investigations or crashes where both drivers claimed to have a green light.
“We’ve gone back and been able to review things and get the right person cited,” Radanovich said. “So it’s helped us on quite a few crashes.”

The cameras might have also helped (or hurt) the case of The Dean of Cincinnati, another staunch opponent of the technology, when he tried to pass a truck on the right in a narrow intersection.
link.
He denounced the technology & demanded human intercession but then didn't care much for the human intercession that he got.
The solution? I guess The Tribulation.

Noose Son story here.

2 comments:

Mark Miller said...

"Bodenmiller attributes the decline to drivers adjusting and state legislation requiring longer yellow lights at intersections with cameras."

It's a whole lot cheaper and less big-brotherish to simply adjust the yellow light timing and leave out the cameras. Other cities who have done that have seen similar accident reductions.

Quimbob said...

I guess that, to be "fair & balanced", I should have mentioned that extending the yellow light duration was cited in the article as being a contributing factor. Studies have shown, of course, that red light runners just adapt to those changes & any benefits are short lived.