Red Light Camera Could Save Town, Taxpayers $1.1 Million
American Traffic Solutions concludes that camera will save Wayne residents an average of $231,000 annually.
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According to a study, the red-light camera at the intersection of Hamburg Turnpike and Black Oak Ridge Road could save the township and taxpayers more than $1.1 million between now and 2015, an average savings of $231,000 annually.
American Traffic Solutions (ATS) commissioned a cost-savings study of red light safety cameras in 25,000 municipalities in the United States, including Wayne.
The study factored the amount of money saved by preventing motor vehicle crashes and the reassigning of law enforcement officials to other assignments and dangerous intersections.
ATS calculated part of the savings by applying the total costs throughout an accident victim’s lifetime and the number of expected crash reductions from the camera.
According to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, an average of 885 people died and another 165,000 were injured in red-light running collisions annually between 2000 and 2009.
The camera was installed at the intersection last year. Since that time it has captured more than $86,000 in violations at the intersection.
Police temporarily stopped issuing summonses for drivers who run red lights at the intersection earlier this year. Authorities need to determine if yellow lights at the intersection are being displayed for the proper length of time.
The camera remains operational and police are collecting violators’ information, but no summonses are being issued.
Summonses will be sent out once the light is tested and certified to be compliant by the state Department of Transportation (DOT).
Police Chief John Reardon said that the light complies to all of the DOT's operational standards.
"We're just waiting for the go ahead to start issuing summonses again," Reardon said.
Reardon said the target date to begin issusing summonses again is in early August.
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eyes wide shut
3:02 pm on Wednesday, July 18, 2012
How about saving us taxpayers money and NOT the town..maybe a camera in council chambers would be better??? No matter how much it saves the town WE are not going to see any type of reductions at ALL...
Emanon
3:31 pm on Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Where will the cameras be? Will they be posted on line , like the speed traps?
Business Competition
12:32 am on Thursday, July 19, 2012
Wait a minute, all the speed trap locations are posted online? Can someone please share where I can find this information?
eyes wide shut
3:33 pm on Wednesday, July 18, 2012
@Emanon:........................................
According to a study, the red-light camera at the intersection of Hamburg Turnpike and Black Oak Ridge Road could save the township and taxpayers more than $1.1 million between now and 2015, an average savings of $231,000 annually.
First paragraph
Observer
10:46 am on Thursday, July 19, 2012
The "savings" includes the vendors estimates of the costs of POSSIBLE medical costs of PSSIBLE injuries from POSSIBLE accidents they ASSUME are prevented. These are not real dollars in savings to either the town, or it's residents or taxpayers - see paragraphs 3 & 4 of the article.
Then, as cited by Brian and Jim below, areas that were early adopters are finding NO significant decrease in accident rates, and in fact most of those early adopters are dropping their programs,
Bottom line, it's about the revenue. As in almost ANYTHING, when they tell you it's not about the money, IT'S ABOUT THE MONEY.
Jim
5:33 pm on Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Camera vendors can cite all the bought-and-paid-for-studies they want, but I am more inclined to believe the candid opinions of police chiefs and city managers in cities that have had hands-on experience with cameras. This one, from a California city that had cameras for six years, is typical:
"Our research in Gardena has revealed there is no significant traffic safety impact as a result of the use of the red light cameras. At almost every intersection where we have cameras, collisions have remained the same, decreased very slightly, or increased depending on the intersection you examine. When combining the statistics of all the intersections, the overall consensus is that there is not a noticeable safety enhancement to the public."
Police Chief Edward Medrano, in report prepared for Feb. 9, 2010 council meeting.
Bill
6:12 pm on Wednesday, July 18, 2012
There are class actions regarding these cameras in other municipalities in NJ.
Pad
7:08 pm on Wednesday, July 18, 2012
This is just another moneymaker for the Township. It has more to do with revenue then traffic safety. Without identifying the driver I believe issuing a summons to the registered vehicle owner is not only unfair but probably unconstitutional. All systems like this are prone to failure and misprograming. Maybe the police officer monitoring the camera should be out on the road on patrol doing what he should be doing. This is only another way for the Township and the vendor to collect revenue.
Nose Wayne
9:54 pm on Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Another friggin study ? What the town saves will go to pay for the study ?
Brian Ceccarelli
10:30 pm on Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Do you want to see the raw data? Do you want to see that it is 100% short yellow lights that cause red light running? Here you go. The Town of Cary, North Carolina has played with yellow light durations while Redflex tallied the citation counts. Here's the plots of citations vs time. I marked the time points where Cary changed its yellow light durations. See that spike where Cary set the left turn yellows to 3 seconds? That 3 seconds is the federal standard.
http://redlightrobber.com/red/links_pdf/How-Yellow-Intervals-Affect-Red-Light-Running.pdf
Chris Schillander
1:05 am on Thursday, July 19, 2012
bottom line: dont break the law.
Brian Ceccarelli
9:20 am on Thursday, July 19, 2012
Correct. Cities should not break the law.
Chris, you are approaching a green light at 45 mph. You are 10 ft from the intersection when the light suddenly changes from green to red. No yellow.
You assert, "Bottom line: don't break the law."
Well . . . you have no choice but to run that red light. You are a lawbreaker. Do you not have a problem with that?
The need for a yellow light and the amount of time given the yellow light are hard-wired into the universe. Given speed and safe deceleration rate (the latter being a fixed constant by measurement), the laws of physics demand the yellow light be 6 seconds + the time you need to perceive the signal change. For all driving scenarios, a driver requires at least 7 seconds to safely stop or safely proceed into the intersection.
The city gives you 4.5 seconds.
Chris, do you have a problem with this?
Given the federal standards of setting yellow lights, in order to obey the law as we so desire, we have to break laws--unbreakable laws of physics.
That is the reason why there are 100,000 crashes and 1000 deaths per year at signalized intersections in the USA. It is also the reason why the red light camera companies are in business.
There is a blunder in the formula traffic engineers use to set yellow. The blunder is obvious to the physicist, but engineers do not know physics. I am a physicist.
Emanon
8:15 am on Thursday, July 19, 2012
Yes another money making scheme designed to reach into the taxpayer's pocket. No One condones breaking the law, but sometime the light may change from yellow to red as you go through ......and THIS is where the camera will probably issue a summons. I am sure the town will be "BANKING" on this scenario repeating it self many times.
Folks here is something Verrrrrrrry Interesting , supposedly a device to prevent those photo tickets , and it comes with a , "No Ticket Guarantee" Just Google "Photo Mask Cover" .....AMAZON sells it.
Another BS problem tackled. LOL from the "Eman"
Roger
9:15 am on Thursday, July 19, 2012
The same fuzzy math would yield the same dollar savings just by adding 1 second to the minimum yellow light time. In fact, at a busy intersection it would save additionally hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines being paid. Money which would stay in the local economy and have a regenerative effect. Money which mostly goes to the camera vendor now.
Emanon
6:23 am on Friday, July 20, 2012
"SAVE MONEY" and "SAVE THE CHILDREN" are 2 excuses constantly used to RAM THROUGH unpopular legislation by politicians. Remember when the state income tax was rammed through to help education and make it fair for all students? The money has been squandered and some of the children are still dumb as corn cobs!
Ronnie Rodriguez
12:40 pm on Friday, July 20, 2012
Those cameras are unconstitutional and a violation of your civil rights. Light, Camera and Timing are off just like the rest across the country. The yellow at Hamburg and BORR is a trap. As my stepdad used to say, " in Jersey yellow lights are red lights". That rule of thumb you should be fine. If you get a ticket contest it.