to prove that red light cameras are a revenue-producing scam?
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.
And no, people don’t seem to start shaving the red more once they adjust to the new yellow.
Six weeks later, on March 26, 2001, VDOT decided to increase the yellow timing from 4.0 back to 5.5 seconds. The impact was immediate and dramatic. Average monthly violations dropped from 250 to between 20 and 30 per month — a 90 percent decrease. The violation rate remained low until the Virginia legislature shut down red light camera programs statewide in 2005. The number of accidents dropped to a rate of 290, reflecting a 20 percent decrease. Although VDOT’s 2007 report did find that Fairfax County red light camera intersections experienced a 23 percent increase in accidents overall, this figure would have appeared far worse had the Fair Ridge yellow signal not been increased.
I may have to stopwatch the local red lights. Our fair little city is in love with those cameras.
Leave a Reply