Invasion of the traffic cameras

By Ben Stone

As the economy continues to struggle, governments are turning to the use of traffic cameras to help make up for lost tax revenue.

Sioux City, Clive, Council Bluffs and Davenport for some time have contracted with for-profit corporations to operate traffic cameras. Cedar Rapids and Des Moines are in the process of installing cameras for both speeding and red light violations, and Marshalltown is studying the issue.

Sure, city managers all claim this is only about safety, but evidence indicates otherwise. The revenue generated by these schemes is grossly disproportionate to any marginal safety benefits they may bring.

It is assumed by most that the majority of tickets generated by these devices are mailed to dangerous red light runners blowing through an intersection. In reality, the vast majority of infractions around the nation are for drivers who have entered the intersection just a split second too late, or, more commonly, for people who make “illegal” right turns on red.

In many jurisdictions, fines are issued not only to those who do not come to a complete stop before turning right, but - incredibly - to drivers who have stopped, but have done so with the front of their car over the wide, white stop line. Violators are fined even if they stopped behind the line, but then pulled up in order to see better before actually turning!

Such fines are completely unjustified when one considers that accidents resulting from drivers turning right on a red light make up 0.03 percent of all accidents, according to one U.S. Department of Transportation study.

Another truly disturbing practice involves the manipulation of yellow light interval times for the purpose of increasing revenue. In the past year alone, four U.S. jurisdictions were caught doing that.

Ironically, it is known that increasing yellow light interval times significantly improves safety at intersections. In Georgia, which requires cities to add one second of yellow time to any intersection with a traffic camera, there was an 80 percent reduction in violations. There is evidence that this safety benefit largely remains even after people have become accustomed to the longer interval.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa in October sent an open records request to the City of Clive for data on the operation of its red light cameras. It is hoped that this and perhaps other records requests will provide lawmakers with information they need to understand that their constituents do not deserve to be victimized by these insidious, Orwellian devices that ultimately provide little, if any, safety benefits.

Ben Stone is executive director of American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa.