Red Light Camera News Editorial: RLC, They're for raising money, not improving safety
http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100603/EDITORIAL/6030329
(Ban the cams note: I believe they mean the USF report, which has called RLC DANGEROUS!)
EDITORIAL
Thanks to state for going slow on red-light cameras
They're for raising money, not improving the public's safety.
Score one for common sense, Hoosier style. Indiana has been so slow to act on authorizing “red-light” cameras that Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., an Arizona-based company that operates in 21 states, has given up its lobbying efforts after spending almost $55,000 in the last two years. That makes us the only state in the union where Redflex has canceled its lobbyist registration.
The company began working to pass a state law after former Attorney General Steve Carter issued an August 2008 opinion saying red-light violations broke state law, not local ordinances, so the General Assembly would need to explicitly grant local governments the authorization to regulate those violations. The opinion struck down a Hammond ordinance allowing red-light cameras to be used in giving out tickets instead of having a police officer issue a moving violation.
Hammond, Gary, Lafayette, West Lafayette, Crown Point and Gary have all asked the legislature to pass such legislation. Fort Wayne, among other cities, has flirted with the cameras. Luckily for motorists, efforts have stalled, perhaps even died.
The original justification for the red lights was that they would improve public safety by reducing accidents at intersections. Even many advocates of the cameras have now given up that argument, because studies increasingly fail to support it. Such cameras might reduce T-bone crashes, but they tend to increase rear-end ones, especially in jurisdictions where yellow-light intervals are shortened in conjunction with camera installation.
A recent study by the University of San Francisco's College of Public Health concluded that the cameras actually make intersections more dangerous. Furthermore, the cameras give insurance companies an excuse to increase rates for those who get tickets.
As such studies cast doubt on the safety aspects of the cameras, some jurisdictions are rethinking them. Several states have passed legislation either banning or limiting the cameras.
Some places, including many in Indiana, just don't want to give up, though, for a very simple reason: The cameras are cash cows. Chicago alone takes in more than $40 million a year in red-light camera revenue. And most violations are issued to drivers turning right on red without first coming to a complete stop, not exactly a major cause of accidents.
Such easy money is hard to resist in tough economic times, when cities are facing severe budget shortfalls. But politicians should not be victimizing the very people they purport to serve with their budgets. So far, thanks to the General Assembly, they can't.
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