Television images of cars being T-boned at intersections are impossible for viewers to ignore. That’s great news for shows such as ABC’s Good Morning America, which aired such video a few weeks ago in a story about the auto insurance industry’s study claiming automated “red light cameras” saved lives. These devices activate if a vehicle enters an intersection when the traffic light turns red, record the license plate, and mail the vehicle owner a citation with a substantial fine. A percentage of the proceeds from each ticket goes to private companies who sell the devices to local governments and then operate the devices. This percentage is typically one-third of the ticket revenue, which can annually total $1 million even in small municipalities.
In reality, however, the incidences of cars speeding through intersections when the light is red is rare; just two percent of all highway fatalities occur during red lights in intersections, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. Fewer are caused by cars intentionally running red lights.
This small slice of traffic enforcement, though, is creating big headlines. There is a fervor in many state legislatures and in regional referendums to ban “red light cameras”. The reason is that in some cases the devices seem to cause an increase in accidents at intersections.
How’s that? Most of the cars ticketed by the “red light cameras” are those that entered the intersection when the light was yellow and on the verge of turning red, many state legislators from Washington state to Florida have discovered. When motorists fear a photo ticket in these intersections, they tend to slam on their brakes, increasing the number of rear-end collisions, and possibly deaths.
The state of California suggests that yellow light duration be no shorter than 4.2 seconds, while the national highway constructors industry says 3.8 seconds should be the shortest duration.
In cases of shortened yellow light duration, more motorists are then photographed and ticketed, producing more revenue for the private “red light camera” operators, claim citizen groups organized to ban the devices. As a result, the citizen groups charge, more motorists become trigger-happy with their brake pedals at these intersections, and accidents increase. In 2004, a Texas Transportation Institute study found that increasing the duration of yellow lights by 1.0 second reduced intersection accidents by 40 percent.
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