Rebuttal on red-light cameras: Voters are not in driver’s seat
After reading the Orlando Sentinel’s “Justices rightly leave local governments and voters in the driver's seat on red-light cameras,” I wonder whether the Editorial Board was aware of several facts about red light cameras and crashes.
First, American Traffic Solutions videos show serious crashes happen when cars violate the lights even after they have been red for several seconds. Cameras don’t prevent these crashes; they just memorialize them. Most of those drivers were heavily distracted or impaired; sending bills to them for the violations in the mail weeks later had no effect on preventing the crashes.
The Florida Department of Transportation has forbidden most cities from setting the yellow intervals long enough for the actual approach speeds of at least 85 percent of the cars since September 2013: Before July 2011, yellow intervals were set for the actual 85th percentile approach speed or the posted speed limit, whichever was greater, because posted limits are often improperly set lower than the safest 85th percentile speed levels. This makes many yellows lights about 0.2 to 0.8 seconds too short for the actual conditions. As a result, many tickets go to safe drivers who violate the red light by less than one second; these drivers clear the intersections during the all-red phase and before the cross traffic can arrive. These drivers present zero crash risks.
Ticket cameras lost 36 of 40 public votes in the United States so far. Ninety percent of the time voters have said no, if they are allowed to vote. But it is very hard to get a vote on a local ballot, so the voters are not actually in the driver's seat as the Sentinel editorial suggests they should be.
Cities ticket safe, slowrolling right-on-red turns that almost never cause injuries or fatalities. Federal research shows right-on-red turns were involved in only six one-hundredths of 1 percent of crashes with injuries or fatalities. Most camera tickets for slow-rolling right-on-red turns go to safe drivers who endanger no one.
For three years, the Florida House has voted to ban redlight cameras, but the bills were stopped in the Senate, usually by committee chairs refusing to even hold hearings. If the bills had reached the Senate floor, they would almost certainly have passed, as they did in the House. Once again, the voters have not been in the driver's seat; a handful of Florida senators have occupied the seat and blocked access to it.
The 2010 bill to authorize red-light cameras in Florida gave 52.5 percent of the funds from each ticket to the state government. The state is not on the hook for paying a penny for red-light cameras. The state leaves it to cities or counties to pay the vendors’ cost. The real purpose for the cameras was to boost revenues.
At least two annual reports in Florida show crashes increased at red-light camera intersections, leading many people to conclude that increased crash rates are not an indicator of a successful "safety program."
Red-light cameras are mostly about money for government, not safety.
If the voters actually were actually in the driver's seat, as the Editorial Board suggests they should be, the cameras would be long gone.