Red Light Camera News Politicians deaf to benefits of adding second to amber lights
http://www.winnipegsun.com/news/columnists/tom_brodbeck/2010/08/11/14996651.html
News Columnists / Tom Brodbeck
Safety or money?
Politicians deaf to benefits of adding second to amber lights
By TOM BRODBECK, Winnipeg Sun
Last Updated: August 12, 2010 9:57am
If adding one second to amber traffic lights in other cities has reduced the number of collisions at busy intersections, wouldn’t it be a good idea to try it here?
The group WiseUp Winnipeg has been trying to send that message to politicians over the past few months after longer yellow lights in other jurisdictions in the U.S. have proven to reduce collisions.
Trouble is, the group’s message has fallen on deaf ears in Winnipeg.
Neither city council nor the provincial government have shown any interest at all in the collision-reduction strategy, despite repeated attempts by the group — founded in part by retired Winnipeg traffic cop Larry Stefanuik — to engage them on it.
WiseUp Winnipeg even went as far as bringing Georgia congressman Barry Loudermilk to town to make a presentation on how his government passed a law that all red-light camera intersections must have an extra second added to the length of the yellow light.
The longer yellow lights there and in other U.S. cities such as Mesa, Ariz., substantially reduced the number of collisions and red-light running infractions.
It proved that giving motorists an extra second to stop made for safer intersections.
Unfortunately, none of the invited politicians attended Loudermilk’s presentation in March and the event got very little media attention.
A major study on red-light running and collisions by the Texas Transportation Institute in 2004 found, among other things, that lengthening the time of the amber significantly reduced collisions.
“The data indicates that there is a trend toward fewer red-light-related crashes when the observed yellow duration is longer than the computed duration,” the report concluded.
So why are our politicians so reluctant to look into this?
Why not conduct a pilot project at one of the original red-light camera intersections in Winnipeg by lengthening the amber light and see what happens? The city has mountains of historical crash data to use for a comparative analysis.
Red-light runners would still get ticketed. And the city would be able to determine if lengthening the yellow light actually helps.
Right now the city claims amber lights are set at a minimum of four seconds.
Try it at five seconds and see if it reduces infractions and collisions.
The city would have nothing to lose by trying, unless they’re worried about losing money from their lucrative red-light cameras.
Mayor Sam Katz has always said that photo enforcement is about safety, not money.
Well, if we can reduce collisions and maybe save lives by lengthening the amber light, isn’t it worth a try?
This isn’t some wild, unproven strategy to reduce collisions at intersections. It’s been tested in other cities and there is evidence that it works.
Naturally some people are going to blow through red lights no matter what. And they should be fined heavily for it.
In fact, we need more police presence at intersections to catch the serious red-light runners so they can hit them with demerits. Red-light camera infractions don’t result in demerits because police can’t identify drivers from a snapshot.
No doubt increasing amber light times would make red-light cameras less profitable. It may even cause them to lose money.
So what? If photo enforcement is not about the money, that shouldn’t matter.
I think the city should give it a shot.
For more, visit Brodbeck’s blog Raise a Little Hell at winnipegsun.com. Reach Tom by e-mail at
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Subscribe to this comment's feedwritten by Roger Jones , August 13, 2010
Here is an excerpt from a commentary published last month in San Francisco Bay Area. It concerns extending yellow light times.
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"You would think that after 10 years and over 90,000 tickets, that violations would be down, way down. Not so. Of the cameras where straight-through violations can be measured, these violations have increased 20 times, year over year. The totals did go down 29 times; hardly compelling evidence that cameras are changing driver behaviors. The numbers of violations go up; they go down. Never consistently. Always about the same, on average.
What can we do to reduce red light running? Simply extend the yellow light intervals like what was done last year state-wide in Georgia and in Loma Linda, California. With astounding results. Towns in Georgia reported an immediate 80% reduction in violations by adding one second of time to their yellow lights: Loma Linda – 92% by doing the same. Data from camera companies show 40-50% of straight-through violations occur in the first half-second of a red light and 80-90% occur within the first second.
Accident reductions are starting to be reported in Georgia since the yellow light extensions 15 months ago. The downside, however, is that revenue from fines is far short of what it costs in fees to operate these cameras. Towns are either scrapping the cameras or renegotiating their fees with camera companies. Some are looking at new ways to increase camera citation revenue again.
Extending yellow light times has been suggested to our city council members as well as to the engineering and police departments. The most common reason for denial of a test is that Fremont's yellow light times are in accordance with the state mandated minimums. There is nothing in the state code, however, that says we cannot increase the yellow light durations. Some additional conjecture has been offered that any test of this engineering change might confuse motorists or expose the city to some liability. The claim is made that benefits will be short-lived; that motorists will once again try to beat the light and violations will rebound to previous levels. These opinions have been refuted in various studies. The benefits are lasting.
Let's conduct a test here in Fremont. Add a half-second to one second of yellow to a photo enforced approach. Results will be measurable after one month. Include another intersection. Much to gain and nothing to lose. I am speaking of the very same safety improvements touted by the camera companies: reduction of red light running."
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