Red Light Camera News Pharr gives red light to red light cameras (ATS)
(Thanks to www.wrongonred.com for the link)
http://www.themonitor.com/articles/pharr-56597-red-light.html
Pharr gives red light to red light cameras
November 15, 2011 9:16 PM
Elizabeth Findell
PHARR — Residents here won’t have to worry about the dreaded ticket in the mail from sneaking through an intersection a moment too late. City leaders voted Tuesday to rescind an ordinance directing the Police Department to install a photographic system to enforce traffic laws.
After several years of debate and multiple traffic studies, commissioners decided that so-called red light cameras are too unpopular with citizens without producing enough of a discernable safety benefit.
“The red light cameras, I think, are good in theory, but could complicate public relations,” City Manager Fred Sandoval said at a workshop to address the matter Thursday. “I don’t know if it’s worth it.”
Commissioners also voted to end a contract with camera company American Traffic Solutions. City staff said the company had undertaken the cost of the traffic studies and the city had not paid anything for the contract or the studies.
The city first started talking about a photo traffic enforcement system in 2007 and began researching companies the following year. In 2009 city staff met with American Traffic Solutions and in 2010 underwent a study to evaluate 14 city intersections.
Of those, engineers picked five as potential candidates for cameras, each at locations where more than five people ran red lights in a 12-hour period.
City leaders passed the ordinance calling to adopt the camera system in October 2010 but got spooked the following month when citizen pushback in cities like Houston did away with cameras. They decided to wait for a while.
Harlingen, which had red light cameras at five city intersections for about three years, removed them in June 2010.
In March 2011, Pharr did a second study that finalized the potential camera sites as Ferguson Avenue and Cage Boulevard eastbound and westbound, Nolana Loop and Jackson Road eastbound, 83 and Jackson Road eastbound and U.S. 83 Frontage Road and U.S. 281 eastbound.
But an advisory board that met over the summer did not approve of the sites and recommended that the program be discontinued.
City leaders and police Chief Ruben Villescas agreed.
Villescas noted that most accidents at intersections are caused by factors other than rushing through lights and that, when people are afraid of red light cameras, stopping too suddenly for yellow lights can cause an increase in collisions.
“Few, if any, accidents are for running a red light,” he said.
City leaders noted that many cities have had negative press after installing red light cameras and that no data indicates running red lights is on the rise.
“If the data doesn’t give us the support, what’s the point?” Commissioner Adan Farias said.
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