Red light districts: revenue vs. safety.

• Author: Balko, Radley
• Position: Citings

CRITICS HAVE long contended that traffic light cameras don't increase motorist safety so much as generate revenue for local and state governments. In 2008, for example, the Florida Public Health Review published a research paper that concluded the cameras "actually increase crashes and injuries, providing a safety argument not to install them." In particular, there has been a dramatic increase in rear-end collisions, suggesting that people are slamming on their brakes to avoid a ticket.

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Similarly, a 2005 Washington Post report found that after the city installed its traffic light cameras, collisions at the camera-equipped intersections went up rather than down. But the cameras brought the city $32 million in revenue. So rather than halting the program, the city chose to expand it.

A number of researchers have shown that lengthening yellow lights at crash-prone intersections is much more effective at preventing collisions than issuing automated citations. (The North Carolina Urban Transit

Institute, for example, came to that conclusion after an extensive study funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Other studies along those lines have been conducted by the Virginia Department of Transportation, the Texas Department of Transportation, and North Carolina A&T.) But lengthening yellow lights doesn't add cash to city coffers...