The red light district

2006.07.07 — Culture | News | by Derek Jensen

Last June I debunked some basic myths about speed limits and speeding in a USA Today article. On July 5, USA Today published another article on speeding... with some interesting facts. Being the gullible press-release gobbling newspaper it is, the paper didn't delve too deeply into the figures it reported. But let's take a closer look, and compare some additional facts from elsewhere.

The article is ostensibly about Redflex Traffic Systems, the Australia-based makers of camera systems that enforce speed limits and traffic lights. USA Today reveals that Redflex "in many localities helps process the tickets, too," meaning that the company benefits not merely from the sale of equipment but from each individual infraction. After all, every infraction is another payday for them.

Redflex therefore has a vested interest in putting the cameras where they'll do the most business, not where they'll do the most good. And you can bet the company's consultants can tell you where to situate the cameras to catch the most violations... and how to maximize revenues by lowering speed limits in those areas or shortening yellow lights to increase red light infractions.

Redflex made $26 million in revenues last year, the article says, and has stated publicly that it sees a potentially multi-billion-dollar business in photoradar and traffic-light camera systems. This is because Redflex is at the forefront of the effort to push camera systems on municipalities. They have been very popular in Britain and Australia for some time, but have only made real inroads, so to speak, in the US in the last ten years. There are now 160 cities and towns that use Redflex systems or those from their competitors, Affiliated Computer Services and Nestor Traffic Systems. More than 40% of all traffic cameras installed in the USA are Redflex.

And what is the reward Redflex gets for its troubles? People hate them. Company executives are so concerned about the safety of their employees from irate motorists that their Scottsdale, AZ offices are unmarked and receptionists screen visitors before buzzing them in thru a locked door. That makes sense: they receive about 5 angry or threatening messages a week. Irate motorists have even got their legislatures to ban the camera systems entirely in New Jersey and Wisconsin.

And Virginia tried them and then gave up. Why? USA Today gives a rather telling statistic:

The Federal Highway Administration credits traffic cameras with reducing front and side crashes by 25% in a 2005 study. The benefit was offset some by a downside: rear-end crashes increased 15%. "The research shows red-light cameras reduce crashes," says Russ Rader, spokesman at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

So, when cameras are in use, drivers often create dangerous situations by stopping suddenly to avoid blowing a red light and getting a ticket. What is hidden in this statistic is that actual number of accidents. Rear-end collisions are more common at stop lights than front and side collisions because the accidents tend to occur when an inattentive driver hits a car that is waiting to turn or that has stopped suddenly at a red light. So if there would normally be 75 front and side collisions and 100 rear-end collisions, we could now expect 19 fewer front and side collisions and 15 more rear-end collisions—that's still a reduction, all right, but far less of a positive impact than Redflex or the insurance industry would have you think.

And this logic holds true in the real world. The Governor's Highway Safety Association's report on speeding includes statistics on traffic light cameras. Washington DC by far leads the nation in speeding and red-light citations. But their half million citations a year aren't doing much good. A Washington Post article details how intersections with cameras have seen the same general rise in collisions as intersections without cameras (owing to more dense traffic overall).

The reason why is simple: people don't run red lights on purpose. It's dangerous, and they try to avoid it. But since, by definition, you can't control what you do by accident, punishing you extra harshly with a citation every time is not going to help.

There is a proven way to reduce accidents at traffic lights, however: increase yellow light times by about 1 second. That's the method recommended by the National Motorist Association. Reengineering an intersection to make traffic flow better—even if it's something as simple as adjusting the timing of lights—means fewer accidents and shorter trip times.

But Redflex and the state treasury don't make a dime off that solution.

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