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Photo Red Light Program Goals and Results

What is the goal of automated traffic enforcement?

The goal of Boulder's Photo Red Light program is straightforward: to reduce red light violations and, as a result, decrease crashes, prevent injuries, and save lives.  Since their implementation in 1998, photo enforcement cameras have contributed to dramatic reductions in red light running at the intersections where cameras are operational.  Fewer violations should translate into lower crash and injury rates among drivers, passengers, other motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists.  The cameras have the added benefit of enhancing traffic safety while promoting community policing.

Since the red light cameras provide 24-hour-a-day coverage at multiple intersections, they allow the Boulder Police Department to be more consistent, more strategic and more efficient in the enforcement of traffic regulations.  Boulder achieves these safety benefits without having to dedicate extra police resources to enhance traffic enforcement.  Instead, police officers can devote their time to other priorities, including focused law enforcement, neighborhood problem solving, and crime prevention. 

Are red light cameras effective?

 

Yes.  Red light cameras have proven effective in reducing red light violations and right-angle crashes.  Cities using these systems consistently report safer roads with fewer intersection collisions.  Documented evidence of photo enforcement's safety benefits has been recorded in the U.S. and around the world, reinforced by new reports and studies showing that cameras lead to significant decreases in intersection violations and crashes.  As a supplement to traditional law enforcement, red light cameras can bring about behavior changes resulting in more motorists obeying traffic signals and signs and avoiding the crashes, injuries, and loss of life caused by red light running.  A 2005 review of red light camera studies around the world concluded that cameras reduce red light violations by 40 to 50 percent and reduce injury crashes by 25 to 30 percent.

 

 

Reduction in accidents

The Boulder Police Department's computer aided dispatch (CAD) system tracks accidents at Boulder intersections that require a police response. This is the best source of information about accidents we have at the photo enforced intersections.  The data represents accidents at or near these intersections.  It also details the number of injury accidents at or near these intersections.  Comparing the first year of the program to the last full year there has been a 56 percent reduction in the number of accidents at the photo-enforced intersections.

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But isn't is true that rear end accidents increase at intersections with photo red light cameras?

While some cities may have experienced an increase in rear end accidents at intersections with photo red light cameras, that has not been the case in Boulder.  Comparing the first year of the program to the last full year, there has been a 5.7 percent reduction in the number of rear end accidents at the photo enforced intersections.

Moreover, rear end accidents are much less likely to be as serious as the head-on or T-bone accidents that are typically associated with red-light running. 

rear_end__accidents_at_photo_red_light_intersectinos.jpg

 

 

Isn't the main purpose of red light cameras to make money?

No.  The objective of the photo red light program is to improve intersection safety.  Signs warn motorists that photo enforcement is in use.  The system is in plain view, in an enclosure mounted on a pole.  Independent audits of red light camera enforcement across the country have found that these programs generally do not generate excess revenue. 

 

Last Updated on Thursday, 07 June 2012 09:48