Posted on 03/11/2009 8:20:07 AM PDT by Ken H
Lilburn, Georgia suspends red light camera program after extended yellow time cut violations by 80 percent.
On January 1, a new Georgia law kicked in forcing a one-second increase in the duration of the yellow warning light at intersections with red light cameras.
The result has been devastating for red light camera makers as violations -- and revenue -- immediately plunged for the months of January, February and March. Last week, the city of Norcross dumped photo enforcement. Now the UK-owned red light camera maker Lasercraft is offering its customers a 90-day suspension of service to prevent cities from dropping their automated ticketing contracts. The cities of Lilburn and Snellville accepted this offer yesterday and suspended their red light camera programs.
"With the passage of House Bill 77, effective January 1, 2009, there has been a precipitous decline in the number of citations issued through the program," Lilburn Police Chief J.B. Davidson wrote in a memo to the city council.
The mandated increase in signal time created dramatic and instant results. In 2008, Lasercraft issued an average of 1,559 citations each month. In January, that number dropped 80 percent to just 313. Norcross also saw an 80 percent drop in violations.
According to a 2001 report by the Office of the U.S. House Majority Leader, the findings in Lilburn and Norcross are not coincidental. The report argued that changes in national signal timing guidelines systematically reduced the amount of warning time available to motorists. It argued further that those with a financial incentive in using enforcement to deal with the additional violations created may have played a role in the changes (view report).
"This strongly suggests that inadequate yellow time is the major cause of red-light entries," the Congressional report stated. "If the vast majority of red light entries occur in the first second after the yellow light expires, it is reasonable to assume an additional second of yellow time on that light will yield a nearly 80 percent decrease in red light entries."
To date, Lilburn's three red light camera intersections have issued 57,528 tickets worth $4,026,960. Thanks to the longer yellow, however, monthly income from the program dropped $80,000 forcing Lasercraft to pause to discover what more might be done.
"The program vendor has proposed a plan to suspend the program for a ninety-day period, and the vendor will waive all Lasercraft charges during the suspension period," Davidson wrote.
Lilburn voted to accept the suspension to give Lasercraft time to come up with a plan to increase the number of citations. In a letter to Davidson, Lasercraft officials hinted that deactivating some cameras and presumably moving them to higher volume intersections could be part of the solution.
"In ninety days, on or before June 7th, the city and Lasercraft will meet to review the most current citation counts and make a decision as to reactivation of approaches, continuation of the suspension period, or de-commission of the program," Lasercraft Regional Director Ty Sellers wrote.
Lasercraft's letter also implied that violations may increase as drivers adapt to the longer yellow. This has not proved true in places such as Fairfax County, Virginia where the benefit of an increased yellow time appeared permanent. A 1985 report by the Institute of Transportation Engineers summarized the best opinion of experts as confirming the permanence of the benefit view report in PDF, see page 8).
"Research has consistently shown that drivers do not, in fact, adapt to the length of the yellow," the ITE report stated.
Although it is too early to draw any conclusions, accident data for January and February appear positive for the intersections with longer yellow. A copy of the Lasercraft letter and the police chief's memo to city council are available in a 325k PDF file at the source link below.
Source: Details on Suspension of Red Light Camera Program (City of Lilburn, Georgia and Lasercraft, 3/10/2009)
I wonder what a one-second increase of the delay between when a light turns red to when the opposing light turns green would accomplish?
We know it would accomplish less ticket revenue.
Illegitimate reasons for traffic laws:
3. Increase government (and their agents) revenues.
4. Intimidate the general public.
Extended yellow lights may decrease violations, but if you want to decrease accidents, the best way is to delay the green lights.
While there was never any doubt that the Red Light program was about money, not safety, I am concerned about arbitrarily adding one second to yellow lights. However, this is a lost cause in the long run. It is a done deal. What people should be worried about now is “congestion pricing”, which is not yet a done deal.
There is a formula to calculate yellow times. It takes into account, traffic speed, width of the intersection, whether it is going uphill or downhill, etc. MANY studies have shown that making the yellow light one second shorter OR LONGER than then what the formula came up with causes MORE accidents.
The yellow lights should be set at the proper length and should not be changed for political (or revenue) reasons.
A rare example of useful legislation.
Lilburn voted to accept the suspension to give Lasercraft time to come up with a plan to increase the number of citations.
Maybe they'll try falsifying the photos.
A few years ago, I was driving though Brecksville, Ohio. As I came to the light at 82 and 21, there was a cop standing there with a little box in his hand. He was running the signal by hand just to catch people. I guess he didn’t like the looks of my work van, because he flashed the yellow for no more than a second before turning the light red. I slammed on my brakes, and did not get a ticket. I glared at the cop. Jerk stood there and laughed at me.
That policy is even worse than cameras!
“Extended yellow lights may decrease violations, but if you want to decrease accidents, the best way is to delay the green lights.”
Agree, after a light turns red, wait about 2 seconds before the other light turns green. This would help prevent accidents for drivers that enter the intersection after the light turns red, and also for dealing with the legitimate residual traffic that entered when the light was green or yellow, but had to wait to make a left turn.
This is, in fact, the case in every installation. Signal programming is often turned over to the contract camera provider so the local officials can have plausible deniability.
Democrats will probably start pushing to eliminate the yellow light. ;-)
A tip 'o the derby to those Georgia politicians. This should be passed in every state of the Union. The "for public safety" hypocrisy is particularly galling when they take an in-your-face approach in defending the use of the cameras.
Ping
If the concern is REALLY about safety, then every intersection in the US should immediately lengthen the duration of the yellow lights.
Unless it really isn’t about safety.
Note it isn't the city that is concerned about dropping revenue as Lasercraft is. I wonder if they are like other red light camera vendors, getting 50% of each violation payment (and probably a greater percentage of the fine, per contract, when a reduced fine is struck as a compromise between a community and a delinquent driver who initially declines to pay).
Didn’t Michael Dukakis try to eliminate right turns on red?
“Every time in my entire life I have been pulled over by a motorcycle, I have gotten a ticket of some sort.”
One night, I watched a guy make a (normally legal, if done safely) U-turn into the southbound lane about 150 ft. in front of a police motorcycle going about 30 mph in the same lane southbound. (Collins Ave., Miami Beach) The driver got stopped. IMO episodes like this explain why motorcycle cops don’t give warnings;)
b
These cameras were NEVER about safety ... revenue generation was and is the goal.
Protect and Serve my A$$. The vast majority of cops in my neck of the woods are now just glorified Revenue Enhancement Officers (REOs) with guns, badges, and attitudes. I pass the same spot every morning and most days there is a motorcycle cop with someone pulled over making a forced withdrawal from the human ATM occupant who was trying to make their way to work on time. Just wait until they force this whole GPS road tax stuff down our throats, then we’ll just get tickets in the mail since GPS can tell them where you were, what the speed limit is at that location, and how fast you were going. Cha ching.
What’s even worse is that so much of the punishment revenue goes to private corporations. It’s highway robbery. But apparently legislators like the lobbyists for these things.
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