The Norcross, Georgia City Council voted Monday to end its relationship with LaserCraft Inc., a red light camera company whose US headquarters lie just three miles down the road from city hall. LaserCraft’s troubles began last year when the Georgia General Assembly enacted a law requiring a one second increase (over the minimum national standard) in the yellow signal warning time at any intersection equipped with a red light camera. City documents show that once the law took effect, the accident and red light violation problem in Norcross virtually disappeared.
“With House Bill 77 we are now required to add one second to that . . . yellow light time,” Norcross Police Chief Dallas Stidd wrote in a memo to the city council. “We along with other jurisdictions have seen a significant decrease in citations. This will cause a shortfall in our budget for this program.”
A pair of red light cameras operated throughout 2008 with the shorter yellow yellow time, allowing LaserCraft to mail an average of fifteen tickets per day on the city’s behalf. After the yellow was lengthened on January 1, 2009, that figure dropped eighty percent to just three tickets per day—with devastating effect on the program’s bottom line.
In 2008, motorists paid $259,083 in citations. According to Stidd’s calculations, the longer yellow meant the automated ticketing program would lose $145,000 in 2009.
“The addition of one second has made a significant reduction in red light violations,” Stidd wrote. “We have realized a reduction in accidents at the two intersections.”
According to a Texas Transportation Institute study, the reduction in accidents and violations from an additional second of yellow was to be expected (view study). This is so because red light cameras do not typically issue very many tickets to blatant red light runners.
The vast majority of “violations” happen when drivers misjudge the end of the yellow light by less than 0.25 seconds—literally the blink of an eye (view TTI chart). According to a report by the California State Auditor, nearly 80 percent of that state’s tickets were issued for violations that took place less than one second into the red. By adding the second back into the yellow, that 80 percent disappeared in Norcross.
The extra second also brings yellow signal times closer to those that would be appropriate under the 1976 Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) standard. Around the time transportation officials began experimenting with photo enforcement, ITE began to change the timing formula so that it would consistently produce shorter yellows. As data from Fairfax County, Virginia show, the benefit of reversing these changes and lengthening yellows does not diminish over time.
Stidd’s work was not done, however. He saw the loss of the Norcross red light camera program as an opportunity to expand his police department.
“Traffic safety and enforcement go hand in hand, being one of the highest priorities for the city,” Stidd wrote. “However, I believe we can continue to accomplish this objective without losing money, especially in these difficult times…. I have compiled some traffic statistics and have come to a conservative number of projected revenue of the additional two traffic officers. The monthly revenue that could be realized is $11,578.00 or $602,056.00 yearly (see attached estimated weekly fines).”
In an attachment, Stidd calculates how much revenue each officer would be expected to bring in on a weekly basis from twelve categories of traffic ticket, ranging from driving with expired tags and speeding to driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) (view ticket quota). These numbers are very important to Norcross, as traffic tickets account for one-fifth of the city’s entire budget.
“Fines and Forfeitures are 21 percent ($2.4 million) of the revenue,” the fiscal 2008 budget stated. “Revenue from fines and forfeitures has been projected by trend analysis and expert consensus. There is a six percent increase over 2007. The increase is due to the Public Safety Department installation of an additional red light camera. Although the additional camera generates additional revenue, its main purpose is to act as a traffic safety device.”
Losing the Norcross contract is an embarrassing blow to LaserCraft, which is owned by the UK firm Public Safety Equipment Ltd. When the Australian photo enforcement company Redflex Traffic Systems similarly lost its contract to operate red light cameras in Scottsdale, Arizona—home base for its US operations—it packed up and moved to Phoenix.
OH THANK GOD.
Now I can run red lights with impunity.
The most painful thing for the revenue collector sheriff to admit:
“The addition of one second has made a significant reduction in red light violations,” Stidd wrote. “We have realized a reduction in accidents at the two intersections.”
Nice work Georgia! End the fallacy that red light cameras make intersections safer!
This is just several miles away from me. Glad to hear it. The studies back up what many of us suspected – the red light camera companies are just little cash registers for municipalities. When the installation comes with a corresponding decrease in yellow times, of course there will be more “violations”. Place the time at what the legitimate transportation engineering studies have determined it should be and things are fine.
I’d rather see the money spent, as Norcross will do, on additional officers. Maybe it’s too much to ask that we focus more on getting a handle on the left-lane dwellers, those who don’t use their signals, those who are too clueless to turn on their headlights in the rain, those who tailgate and drive aggressively – Dodge Rams, Ford F-150s and such not even a car length away from someone at 75 MPH when they couldn’t stop as short as the passenger car anyhow. Oh well, I’m getting off topic.
Nice work Georgia! End the fallacy that red light cameras make intersections safer!
The fallacy is not that red light cameras curtail serious accidents in otherwise dangerous intersections. The fallacy is that red light cameras are installed for purely altruistic reasons. These cameras can’t seem to generate a profit unless the timing is rigged to screw with those of us who never trade paint.
Brilliant! And a great use for the state to get around greedy jurisdictions….
Rather disturbing they have traffic quotas for DUI…serious criminal offense, including jail time and lifetime employment issues afterwards….quotas are understand when you are talking about civil violations but not when you are talking about criminal violations.
So let me get this right, I don’t have to worry about the cameras now. The roads are safer. This means we need more cops around here? Why? Well at least the traffic is slow enough around here where I will never need to worry about a speeding ticket.
Don’t expect this to become the norm, folks. Can’t let good sense or actual safety improvements be used to slaughter a perfectly good cash cow.
@AWD-03: The sheriff is looking at this from a purely revenue-neutral perspective: “we can continue to accomplish this objective without losing money”. I think his point is that the officers can write tickets for LOTS of different infractions. Hell, they can go out roaming the county looking for speeders, DUI’s, and other scofflaws. Much more efficient ticket-writing machines! Thus the county won’t be out a dime.
Flashpoint – I don’t think the Texas study results – fewer accidents by 40%, not more accidents, is consistent with your comment. There is such a thing as perception/reaction time. I wouldn’t find it surprising if some of the red light camera intersections were timed such that drivers could be doing a legal speed and yet couldn’t react in time to avoid a ‘violation’. If you are a youngster – and paying attention instead of texting while driving – then you may be able to stop in time while your 35+ year old self (at a later date) couldn’t. Take your pick, revenue enhancement or fewer accidents.
Added – flagrant red light runners are like criminals with guns – laws don’t constrain them and red light cameras won’t either
RetardedSparks So the police are the county tax men now too. So that makes the motto, “To protect, to serve, and to rape your wallet if you step out of line punk!” The police serve a protection function not a revenue generating function. In a system where their job depends on how much money they bring in, it changes that focus and leaves us all less safe. Should cops help keep people safe on the roads, yes. Should they focus on issuing revenue generating tickets for every infraction, no, but that is what they are seting this up for. Think about it like this, how much cash do cops rake in for catching a burglar? Does catching a rapist, put money in the town coffers? So his idea is to hire more cops to write more tickets, not to increase safety.
@AWD-03: Exactly!
A counterpoint has crossed my mind… If the whole city of Norcross was using a specific time for yellow and then recently added a second to the yellow time on only the intersections with cameras, does it not stand to reason that the typical Norcross driver is accustomed to how long the yellow usually lasts and makes a decision to stop or go according to this old, shorter time? So, if only those intersections were changed, wouldn’t the typical drivers be making a stop-go decision based upon the old yellow time instead of the new yellow time? After all, drivers typically make that decision when they see the light change from green to yellow, not some time after the light has turned yellow.
So, I guess I am saying, this should be studied for a longer time, giving the drivers a longer time to potentially adjust their stop-go decisions for these particular, extra-yellow intersections.
There was a big stink on the Atlanta local news about a correlation between red light cameras and relatively short yellow lights. A change in the law resulted.
A rare victory for common sense and logic. Bravo!
Noreserve, dont apologize for getting off topic. Safety IS the topic, remember? Or was it revenue? Now I cant remember.
@lightford: This already has been studied at great length. Read the article again, particularly the part that says As data from Fairfax County, Virginia show, the benefit of […] lengthening yellows does not diminish over time and supports the assertion with a direct link to the relevant study.
And what’s the harm in having overlapping red lights after lengthened yellows? Accidents should never have to happen because otherwise conscientious people make bad split second decisions from time to time. Overlapping reds would protect the innocent from all but the most flagrant scofflaws.
Check out the excellent analysis on yellow light timing and stopping distance on the Canton Red Light Camera Blog complete with charts and math equations and everything!
Oops! Did the legislature solve the problem the sheriff was hoping to perpetuate?
Too bad for LaserCraft their income plunged! It is mind boggling how a single second can equate to very large amounts of money. But more importantly, that one second can also equate to more lives saved. It’s amazing for them to finally have that kind of decision.
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