The red light camera conflict

By: Drivers.com staff

Date: Thursday, 28. May 2009

Louisiana state representative Eddie Lambert wants 50% of money raised in fines on motorists caught by red light cameras to go to the state and 50% to go back to local governments where the cameras were set up and to be used for road improvements and safety projects. However, the bill was rejected in a session last Wednesday night.

The bill would enable the state to regulate and issue permits for parishes and cities to operate cameras and issue tickets for running red lights. Cities and parishes would have to get permits and meet state Department of Transportation standards when setting up cameras

That could have meant requiring a longer yellow light period at camera-monitored traffic lights and a four-way red-light period before a light changed from red to green.

However, one Jefferson Parish Councilman says that Lambert's bill may infringe the Home Rule powers of parishes and possibly violate the state Constitution.

According to one report Jefferson has collected some $11 million in fines in the 18 months since it began operating the cameras. The money is being held in an escrow account until a lawsuit challenging the legality of the cameras in works through the courts.

Councilman-at-Large John Young points out that 76 percent of the proceeds from the tickets are earmarked for East Jefferson and West Jefferson General Hospitals for the next three years, and 24 percent is to be evenly split by the district attorney's office and the sheriff's office.

All of this is happening at a time when jurisdictions around the United States are being accused of favoring the revenue benefits of red light camera enforcement over safety benefits.

An article posted on the Motorists.org web site in March of 2008 cites six cities across the U.S. as having been caught shortening yellow light times in the interests of increasing profits.

"Some local governments", says the article, "have ignored the safety benefit of increasing the yellow light time and decided to install red-light cameras, shorten the yellow light duration, and collect the profits instead."

The cities cited were: Chattanooga, Tennessee; Dallas, Texas; Springfield, Missouri; Lubbock, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; and Union City, California.

Meanwhile, at the research level, a study published more than two years ago by the U.S Transportation Research Board concluded that as much as a 50% reduction in red-light-running violations could be achieved by adjusting yellow light intervals.

The best results, according to the study, were achieved by increasing yellow light intervals that were shorter than was recommended by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (i.e. set according to an equation worked out by the ITE).

The study also concluded that:

(a) an increase of one second in yellow light duration will decrease the frequency of red light violations by at least 50% and

(b) while drivers adapt to the increase of yellow light time by going through lights later "this adaptation does not undo the benefit of an increase in yellow duration."

Further comments to this article have been disabled.

---

All Comments (3)

Showing 1 - 3 comments

traffic reckoner,

don,

corek1,

---