Study: Chicago red light cameras provide few safety benefits

&gt;get rid of the red light cameras because they increase rear crashes.<p>A better solution would be enforcing a sane minimum yellow light timing on camera intersections. Shortening the yellow to the point where the normal traffic sometimes brakes hard to avoid entering the now yellow, soon to be red camera intersection is the reason for this increase in rear-ends.<p>Per the article, this is something Chicago was guilty of, in addition to placing the cameras in areas that had no problematic history of accidents.<p>The real problem with these things is that they are used as another way to milk money out of the populace, rather than as a way to modify behaviour and improve safety.<p>These cameras ( and short lights ) are something that really really annoy me as a motorcyclist. I can stop fast any time but the SUV-clad soccer mom texting behind me probably wont. I sometimes find myself dropping a gear and hammering through a yellow I could easily stop for because of this.<p>&#x2F;rant

Was it ever actually about safety? The whole point of it seems to be just to create another revenue stream for thousands of corrupt local governments all across the country.

The other massively understated thing about Chicago&#x27;s red light cameras is that Chicago, compared to other areas with similar or even much lower traffic volumes, has very few left turn lanes, and even fewer left turn arrows when they are there. As a result, the general population is habituated to only being able to turn left at the last second on a yellow signal, which complicates the short yellow timings even more.

The problem is that there are lots of other choices to make an intersection safer than cameras.<p>Generally, the psychology of the timing matters. Most of the intersections that I see people crash aggressively are busy intersections and have lights that take <i>forever</i> to cycle. So, there is a huge time penalty for missing the light (something like 4-5 minutes).<p>If you cycle the light faster, it may let fewer cars through, but it tamps down the aggressiveness with which people are willing to crash the light.

I don&#x27;t know how common these lights are around the world (I have never seen them in the US but have not been EVERYWHERE), but in China I regularly saw lights that also had a timer to the side of it counting down so the change from yellow -&gt; red was more easily expectable. I think this would work rather well if we were all really concerned with safety.

In almost 3000 words, this article didn&#x27;t see fit to mention the effect on pedestrian&#x2F;vehicle collisions. I wonder if this is due to lack of data? I would check the Chicago Open Data Portal (<a href="https://data.cityofchicago.org/" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;data.cityofchicago.org&#x2F;</a>) but it&#x27;s down right now for maintenance!

This article seems to make a point that we should get rid of the red light cameras because they increase rear crashes.<p>Ignoring for a moment that T-bone crashes are likely to produce much more severe injuries than someone crumpling up the rear of another car, this should suggest that we instead need ways to monitor motorists for keeping proper distance and attentiveness.<p>The solution can&#x27;t be to stop monitoring for one offense because it causes incompetent motorists to cause more offenses of another sort.

Is the actual study available anywhere? I am wary of trusting a journalists interpretation of data, especially when it comes in an article that gives the impression &quot;this study our paper funded demonstrates exactly what we thought it would!&quot;

Phoenix has red light cameras as well, because of numerous scofflaws from south of the border. I have no idea how effective they are, but there are still a lot of horrible accidents.<p>To reduce if not halt such incidents, we should simply build crossing gates as at railroad crossings. When the light is turning yellow, a gate lowers, with flashing red lights and clanging bells. When the light cycles to green, the gate lifts. Problem solved.<p>Alternatively, hire more traffic cops to enforce the laws. It costs money, but the carnage on the roads calls for some kind of a real fix and not just a cosmetic patch like cameras that merely bring in more revenue.

Url changed from <a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/12/major-chicago-study-finds-red-light-cameras-not-safer-cause-more-rear-end-injuries/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;arstechnica.com&#x2F;tech-policy&#x2F;2014&#x2F;12&#x2F;major-chicago-stu...</a>, which points to this.