http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S2030196.shtml?cat=500

Albuquerque loses money on red light cameras

Posted at: 03/22/2011 9:00 PM | Updated at: 03/22/2011 10:35 PM
By: Jeff Maher, KOB Eyewitness News 4; Taryn Bianchin, KOB.com

Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry could decide whether to scrap the city’s red-light camera within the next 30 days. The city is losing money on the program because of a recent change made with the timing of the yellow lights.

In January, the city changed the yellow lights to last longer at red-light camera intersections because a UNM study suggested it would lower the amount of crashes.  http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S1931386.shtml?cat=0  That turned out to be true.  But now there are less tickets being issued, meaning less revenue for the city.

City councilor Dan Lewis says the city’s red-light camera fund that pays for the program has about $700,000 left and it’s costing about $100,000 a month to run it.  That gives the city seven more months of funding before the mayor would have to start dipping into the city budget to pay for it, a budget that is already facing a $40 million shortfall.

“We will either be able to restructure that contract so it pays for itself or the mayor has made it clear, we may have to end the red-light camera program,” said Chief Public Safety Officer Darren White.

White says the city continues to negotiate with Redflex, the company that runs the cameras. If Redflex doesn’t agree to a smaller cut, the program could end in May.

“If there are alternatives like extending yellow lights that work just as good or better than having the cameras themselves, then it’s a good case that the cameras should go,” said Lewis.

Kira McCully recently moved to Albuquerque from San Diego, where yet another contentious debate is underway over that city’s red-light camera program.

“I don’t believe in red-light cameras personally,” she says.  “Nobody is ever there to see you go through, it’s not an actual witness, it’s just a picture of what happened at that microsecond.”

Monday night, the city council voted to extend the Redflex contract through May. But the mayor’s office expects to know in 30 days if the city will have come to a viable financial agreement with Redflex.

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