New Analysis Shows More Crashes at Chicago Intersections With Red Light Cameras
Updated: Monday, 07 Jun 2010, 9:27 PM CDT
Published : Monday, 07 Jun 2010, 7:50 PM CDT

By Jeff Goldblatt, FOX Chicago News

Chicago - The Chicago Department of Transportation says the City's 188 red light cameras have made intersections safer.

But as FOX Chicago News reports exclusively, a new UIC report finds that accidents at red-light intersections have actually gone up five percent.

Using data provided by the Illinois Department of Transportation, Assistant Professor Rajiv Shah compared the total number of accidents the year before the cameras were installed and the year after. What surprised him most is that car accidents have declined city-wide, except at red-light intersections.

"The clearest thing is the red light cameras have not changed driving behavior in any significant pattern," he said.

Brian Steele with the Chicago Department of Transportation argues Shah's numbers are misleading. He claims IDOT's numbers are disproportionately high because the state considers any crash within 250 feet of the traffic light to be an intersection accident.

"There is no question that in the city of Chicago, drivers are safe because of red-light enforcement," Steele said.

Steele says a city analysis shows the streets are the safest they've been in years, and that preliminary results show a 20 percent reduction in red-light crashes at intersections that have red-light cameras and a 10 percent reduction in overall crashes.

Red light cameras have had a controversial history since the first one went up in Chicago in 2003.

Earlier this year, FOX Chicago News was the first to report on a YouTube video that showed yellow lights at red-light camera intersections were shorter than the federal guidelines of three seconds. We could never find any under three but we did find the yellows are significantly longer in the suburbs than in Chicago.

There's a clear bottom line here, according to Professor Shah.

"They've vastly overstated the benefits of the red-light cameras," he said.
 

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