Red-light cameras useful option

Editorial

Bills have been introduced in the Florida Legislature to take away the right of cities and counties to install cameras at intersections to catch red-light runners.

Thousands of drivers across the state are being recorded, ticketed and fined. Locally, the dangerous attitude that it's OK to violate a second or two of the red signal is beginning to change, and flagrant offenders who never even notice the light are getting $158 reminders to wake up.

But the public is divided on whether the electronic crackdown is good or bad. We believe the cameras, when operated responsibly, make roads safer. Accusations that police agencies and elected boards install them just to raise revenue are unfounded, at least in this area.

The Legislature should leave the 2010 law alone. The decision is best made and managed at the local level. Anywhere that fast, busy roads intersect and bone-breaking crashes are a daily occurrence, support for enforcement will be stronger than in relatively safe neighborhoods.

We don't see why Sen. Greg Evers of Baker County and Rep. Scott Plakon of Longwood want to eliminate an enforcement option that works at no taxpayer expense 24 hours a day, every day.

The map of camera-monitored sites shows most of the cameras are in the state's big cities and suburbs. Both Tampa and Hillsborough County use them.

A vocal minority calls the cameras a violation of privacy and a gimmick to raise both revenue and insurance rates. Because they suspect yellow-light times have been shortened, they say the cameras increase rear-end collisions.

Implementing agencies in some parts of the country have cheated on yellow-light times, says Steve Polzin, a member of the HART board and director of mobility research at the Center for Urban Transportation Research at USF. He says he knows of no evidence it has happened here, and that camera enforcement appears to make drivers more cautious at all signaled intersections, whether a camera is in use or not.

Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Cpl. Troy Morgan says that the yellow-light times conform to strict state engineering standards to maximize safety. If the speed limit is 45 mph, the amber time is 4.3 seconds, he says. No one is shortening the times to boost violations.

The county's 10 cameras at six intersections are paying off. The total number of crashes is down, the number of crashes with injuries is down, and the number of red-light violations fell from 30,507 in 2010 to 28,123 last year, Morgan says.

Tickets, if paid on time, do not affect a driver's record or come to the attention of an insurance company.

You don't have to drive long in Tampa traffic to see aggressive lane-changing, speeding, cars turning right on red without stopping and blatant red-light running.

If you don't get out much and want to see what you're missing, take a look at this video on YouTube taken at the intersection of Fowler and Nebraska avenues on Jan. 6 at 6:14 a.m. It's at http://www.youtu.be/aez7uRBke9Y. A pickup truck driver ignores a red light and nearly hits a school bus. Without a camera, there would be no evidence of the close call and no accountability for the irresponsible driver.

If you want to see more, check the video the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office has posted of flagrant red-light violations at http://www.hcso.tampa.fl.us/Articles/Articles/Red-Light-Runners--Round-6.aspx.

One insightful complaint, made by the National Motorists Association Foundation, is that red-light cameras can only remain profitable at poorly engineered intersections. If they keep producing revenue for years, something is wrong.

If the cameras work as intended, they will gradually cease to make money. That's the trend here. When violations become rare, the camera program will go away, Moran confirms.

To force cities and counties to remove cameras now, just so large numbers of violators can escape being fined, would be a deadly mistake.