(Newswire.net — October 17, 2014) — Red light cameras in Chicago are shooting photos a bit earlier than in the past, filling the city’s account with an additional $8 million, according to the city’s Inspector General. The more violations caught by the the red light cameras, the more money the city stood to make.
It is not a fraud, they simply set the yellow lights to turn red a fraction of a second shorter than the three-second city minimum. Apparently, this small change resulted in approximately 77,000 tickets more than before.
These red light camera systems are an increasingly controversial tactic for policing roadways. Critics say the cameras have become just another way for municipalities to funnel money into their bags, evem though cities claim the camera’s are deployed in the name of public safety
Joseph Schofer, a professor of transportation at Northwestern University, says that “if the machine is set to catch more people and generate more revenue, then it does not really seem to be about safety but about revenue”.
In 2011, the Florida Department of Transportation secretly reduced its policy on the length of yellow lights, funneling millions of dollars in additional revenue to city coffers.
There is no Federal rule for how long a yellow light should stay illuminated, however, the US Department of Transportation recommends three to six seconds. Nationwide, a minimum of three seconds is considered standard.
Hani Mahmassani, the director of the Northwestern University Transportation Center said that the initial motivation was safety. However, there are plenty of those who oppose this move.
“I don’t think you’re ever going to get a public official on the record saying, ‘We shortened them to make more money’, but I think that clearly goes on”, said John Bowman, a spokesperson for the National Motorists Association.
Bowman says the organization routinely gets calls from people saying they received a red light camera ticket, believing that the yellow light was too short.
None the less, studies conducted by IIHS, shows that crashes have not only decreased in intersections equipped with red light cameras, but that vehicle-related deaths have declined in those cities as well.
Other research, however, has shown that the cameras actually increase rear-end collisions because motorists tend to brake harder to stop when the light changes from green to yellow.
Red light cameras are currently banned in seven states, and others are considering outlawing them.