Iowa DOT study shows effectiveness of red light cameras
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By Times online staff | Wednesday, January 09, 2008 |
The following press release was submitted by the Iowa Department of Transportation.
AMES, Iowa – A new study of the effectiveness of red light running programs in three Iowa cities shows a significant decrease in crashes in Davenport and Council Bluffs where red light running cameras were installed. Because the red light running program in Clive was not activated until June 2006, there was not sufficient data to conduct a crash analysis. However, an analysis of red light running violations in Clive was conducted, and the finding are described below.
Editor’s note: The city of Davenport has not issued citations or collected money from cameras designed to catch speeders and drivers running red lights since a judge ruled the city's camera ordinance illegal on Jan. 2, 2007. That ruling still is being appealed.
Since the cameras became operational in 2004 and the time ticketing was suspended, Davenport issued 16,878 citations and collected more than $1 million in fines. Of that, the city put $558,659 in its general fund and paid $453,000 to two vendors -- Nestor Traffic Systems of Providence, R.I., and Redflex Traffic Systems of Scottsdale, Ariz.
Results of the research funded by the Iowa Department of Transportation and conducted by the Center for Transportation Research and Education (CTRE) at Iowa State University found a 40 percent reduction in red light running crashes in Davenport. In Council Bluffs, a 90 percent reduction was found. Total crashes also decreased at intersections with red light running camera enforcement. Reductions in total crashes of 20 percent and 44 percent were found in Davenport and Council Bluffs , respectively. Additionally, while there has been some concern expressed by the public that use of red light running cameras increase rear-end crashes, the Iowa study did not find an increase in rear-end crashes.
In Clive, the effectiveness of the red light running program was evaluated by comparing the number of red light running violations at intersections where cameras were in use versus control intersections where no cameras were present. The researchers found that intersection approaches without cameras had 25 times more red light running violations than intersection approaches with red light running cameras.
Another evaluation conducted in Clive was to measure the amount of time between the point the light turned red and the time drivers continued to enter the intersection. It was expected that most red light running occurs when drivers enter the intersection just at the beginning of the red phase. However, 22 percent of left-turning vehicles, and more than 10 percent of vehicles that were traveling straight through the intersection, ran the red light two or more seconds into the red.
The completed report can be found on the CTRE Web site: http://www.ctre.iastate.edu/reports/rlr-phase2.pdf
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