On Friday, the Chicago Tribune released the results of a study it commissioned on injury crashes and red light cameras, revealing that while right angle crash incidents have been reduced, rear-end crashes that resulted in injuries went up 22 percent. The results of the study throw cold water on the booster efforts of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration and raise questions about the use of red light cameras as a whole.
Chicago is the home of the nation's largest red light camera program and encompasses 350 cameras at a variety of the city's intersections. The red light camera program has been accused of mismanagement and embroiled the mayor's office in a $2 million bribery scandal. But recently, administrators trotted out a seemingly redeeming statistic: that the introduction of the cameras had created a 47 percent reduction in the rate of right angle, or “T-bone,” injury crashes.
The Chicago Tribune in response commissioned a scientific study by two well-regarded transportation researchers, who found that the statistics promoted by the mayor's office were misleading. According to the Tribune, the authors of the study found a statistically significant, but still smaller, reduction in angle and turning injury crashes by 15 percent, as well as “a statistically significant increase of 22 percent in rear-end injury collisions.” Overall, there was “a non-significant increase of 5 percent in the total number of injury crashes” that happened at intersections with red light cameras when comparing the injury crashes that occurred there before and after the cameras were present.
On a more granular level, the researchers found that there were no safety benefits from cameras that are installed at intersections where there have already been few crashes with injuries, and occasionally, there was evidence that red light cameras actually increased injury crashes at such intersections. "When intersections experiencing fewer than 4 injury crashes per year are considered, there is a significant increase in all crashes by 19 percent after the installation of RLCs," the Tribunestudy found.
The Tribune noted that the red light camera program has raised more than $500 million off of the $100 tickets since 2002. "That program needs to be stopped. It needs to be frozen to give us time to re-evaluate everything," Chicago Alderman Anthony Beale, 9th, chairman of the council Transportation Committee, told the Tribune. "This is just more proof that this entire program is strictly to generate revenue and always has been."
Back in July, investigative work by the Chicago Tribune revealed that at least 13,000 Chicago drivers were cited erroneously through the city's red light camera program.
How can this program "generate money" if drivers stop for a red light?
ReplyDeleteOnly a fool would think otherwise, only a fool would think that this is constitutional , only a fool would allow this to continue.
ReplyDeleteReally Rene? Seriously? They generate money because the yellow light time is reduced in order to get more people going through yellow lights. That is one way, another is if you do not stop exactly at the line, you get a $100.00 ticket. If you are making a left and the light turns yellow, you get a ticket. If you think you can make it through on yellow, you get a ticket because the yellow light time is reduced. If you stop and make a right, you get a ticket if you did not stop for at least 3 full seconds. The accidents increase because drivers eventually catch on and slam on the brakes when the light turns yellow. The person behind them thinks they are going to go through the intersection and rear end them. This is a racket, it was designed that way, it is all about stealing more money from the hapless American driver. It has NOTHING to do with safety or any other BS excuse the liars use to sell it to you,.
ReplyDeleteI live in a country that is swamped with speed- and red light cameras. Yet I've never been fined. Guess why....
ReplyDeleteBecause you drive like/are a grandma? Seriously, if you drive in Chicago you are going to get a red light ticket sooner rather than later. I even know real grand mothers who never had a ticket in their life get a red light ticket in Chicago. Not to mention the increase in accidents and injuries, which prove they care not about "safety".
ReplyDeleteThe game is rigged, the timing on the yellow light is shortened to widen the net and it is all about revenue in the most corrupt, cash strapped city in the country. You really cannot compare where you live to Chicago. The running jokes about the corruption here are all based in fact, this city is all about corruption and who you know, not about any silly fantasies like public safety or doing the right thing for the citizens.
Decades of experience with speed- and red light cameras in European countries prove you wrong. And there is a slight difference between 'driving like a grandma' and driving through red lights. People like you fail to understand that difference, and are thus the cause of the red light cameras.
ReplyDeleteDrivers are supposed to brake when the light turns yellow and not "think you can make it through on yellow". The driver behind them is clearly too close otherwise it would be able to brake on time.
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