Traffic cameras: Help or hindrance?
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In theory, the idea sounds reasonable: You run a red light in Santa Fe, a camera takes a picture of your car and you get a ticket.
At least that's the way Santa Fe City Councilor Ron Trujillo sees it. The freshman councilor is pushing for the city to install cameras at busy intersections throughout the city.
But not everyone supports the idea.For the past week, Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano has been opining about the issue on his blog (
www.sheriffgregsolano.blogspot.com
). Solano says traffic cameras in other cities have created more rear-end collisions when drivers slam on the brakes before the camera clicks.
Moreover, Solano says a Nov. 17 test run of a traffic camera at the intersection of St. Michael's Drive and Cerrillos Road, which showed 205 red-light violations during a 16-hour period, needs to be examined with a grain of salt.
"I don't trust the statistics that the private companies who install the cameras put forth," Solano says of the numbers collected by Nestor Traffic Systems and reported by local media.
Solano's blog links to critical studies on traffic cameras. One, conducted in 2004 by the Urban Transit Institute at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, focused on red-light cameras in small, urban areas and found such cameras caused increases in accident rates, particularly rear-end collisions, sideswipes and crashes when cars were turning left.
Nonetheless, Deputy Police Chief Raye Byford believes the cameras make the roads safer.
"If I had my choice, I would much rather investigate a rear-end collision than one where somebody failed to stop," he says.
Trujillo wants the traffic cameras up and running here by March 2007, and is examining the impacts of Albuquerque's program. According to Albuquerque Police spokesman John Walsh, there has been a 40 to 60 percent reduction in traffic citations since 11 cameras were incrementally installed, beginning in May 2005. Walsh also says there's been a 50 percent decrease in crashes at those intersections, with no noticeable spike in rear-end collisions.
Walsh downplays incidents where offenders have sued the city of Albuquerque alleging the program eliminates their rights to due process.
"We've been successful in making this a good public safety program." Walsh says. "It's something that's extremely popular around the country."
Solano, however, is not convinced. He says he wants the city to take a long, hard look at the impact of traffic cameras across the country before making a final decision.
Says Solano: "I think this is an issue we need to debate. It's something I've just started to research, and it's something that's becoming increasingly important around the country."
