Red Light Camera News Cameras for revenue or safety?
http://www.thedenverdailynews.com/article.php?aID=12796
Cameras for revenue or safety?
Photo red light critics look to Calif. in making municipalities prove safety need
Peter Marcus, DDN Staff Writer
Thursday, May 19, 2011
A citizens group fighting photo red lights in Aurora has expressed interest in a proposed California law that would hold government accountable before installing the speed traps.
Citizens for Responsible Aurora Government has taken note of the popular California bill, which would require municipalities in California to prove a safety need for the cameras before proceeding with installing them.
Concerns have been raised that such photo red light cameras are installed not to protect the public, but instead to raise revenue.
For example, in Denver, the city generated more than $721,000 from its photo red light system in 2010; in 2009, the city generated just under $1.5 million. The total for the program since it took full effect in 2009 has been more than $2.2 million in added revenue for the city.
Concerned that municipalities are only claiming that the systems are for a public safety need, but that the cameras truly serve to raise revenue, Citizens for Responsible Aurora Government has launched an effort to eliminate the cameras in Aurora.
Ballot initiative?
The group is exploring a ballot initiative for 2012 in Aurora that would prohibit the use of the cameras in the city.
“The city is touting this as strictly a safety feature, and that revenue thing is just kind of a side line,” said Jim Frye, spokesman for Citizens for Responsible Aurora Government.
The group ran a comparison of before-and-after traffic statistics at the four original intersections in Aurora with the photo red light system and found that accidents at the intersections remained stagnant. Aurora city officials are still expanding the program to 14 intersections.
Frye says municipalities should have to prove that accidents decrease as a result of the photo red light system in order to install them.
The Denver Daily News asked Denver officials for before-and-after traffic comparisons at the four intersections in Denver where the photo red lights exist: 36th and Quebec, 6th and Kalamath, 6th and Lincoln and 8th and Speer. The City Council earlier this year backed a one-year extension of the program.
But Denver city officials say it is too early in the program to provide before-and-after comparisons. Traffic engineers only conduct such comparisons every three years, and the photo red lights in Denver were installed in 2008, say officials.
Frye doesn’t like the argument.
“That’s kind of telling right there,” he said. “I mean, I assume the logic they’re using is that this is a safety thing, but if you don’t have data to backup your assertions, how can you do that?”
Safety officials maintain that the purpose of the program is to decrease accidents and increase safety.
“Photo red light enforcement is designed to improve the safety of our streets, not as a revenue generator,” Mary Dulacki, records manager for the Denver Department of Safety, said in an e-mail. “Intersections where photo red light enforcement is deployed were chosen based on a critical analysis of accident data at the highest accident locations that are within the jurisdiction of the Denver Police Department.”
In fact, accidents are for the most part decreasing in Denver, though safety officials are unable to say whether the decrease is directly linked to the photo red light system.
In 2006, 24,370 accidents were reported; 23,256 in 2007; 22,390 in 2008; 22,027 in 2009; and 22,199 in 2010.
Accidents still increased by 172 between 2009 and 2010 Ń the first full year of the red light program.
Meanwhile, the proposed California law has wide support, having passed the Senate 36-0. It now heads to the Assembly for consideration.
In addition to requiring municipalities to prove a safety need, the legislation would also require municipalities to post signs alerting motorists to photo red light systems, and prohibit municipalities from considering revenue when installing the system.
Frye says he might consider speaking with Colorado lawmakers to address a similar law in Colorado.
“Approaching it from a state level is kind of interesting,” he said. “It makes me kind of think it would be worth my while to talk to some state legislators and see if they might pursue it via the State House.”
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