Red-light cameras losing support as new report show they cause more accidents
Critics of red light cameras have a lot to rejoice as a Florida Judge tossed out hundreds of cases on Wednesday, a Thursday decision in Kansas City may give hundreds of thousands refunds and a new report confrims that the program increases accidents.
According to a new study, researchers from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute analyzed accident data from 90 intersections in the city of Chicago, which runs the largest red-light camera program in the United States. Rather than reducing accidents, they found there were more crashes at intersections once they were equipped with cameras.
The number of overall crashes at the red-light camera intersections included in the study was 1,064 over a three-year period, about 5 percent more than would have otherwise been projected.
A West Palm Beach magistrate, Ira Raab, made good on his November promise and tossed out over 250 red-light camera cases.
The battle in Missouri wages on with American Traffic Solutions, the company that operated the cameras, agreeing to a settlement that included a 20 percent refund for those ticketed after errors in the system were revealed. The legal challenge is headed to the state’s Supreme Court.
Automated traffic enforcement becoming a controversial topic and the “safety” argument just doesn’t hold water.
Texas A&M’s Chicago findings are in line with a 2005 study conducted by the Federal Highway Administration, which found red-light cameras delivered a 25-percent decrease in T-bone crashes while increasing rear-end collisions by 15 percent at 132 intersections analyzed across multiple jurisdictions.
Red light cameras were always about money, not safety. The for-profit camera companies and their for-profit government business partners do not care at all that the cameras often increase total crash rates at camera intersections. MONEY was the first, last, and only reason to use the cameras.
Red light and speed cameras need to be banned by law in every state, as they are in some already. They are always money grab devices, not safety programs.
James C. Walker, Life Member – National Motorists Association