Cars proceed along Route 18 at Tices Lane in East Brunswick, where a red-light camera system went into place in 2011. Many people debate whether such cameras have made the roads safer or more hazardous. JEFF GRANIT staff To its supporters, the red-light camera is a safety tool, cutting down on deadly broadside accidents. To its detractors, it is little more than a cash grab for the town and prompts drivers to slam on their brakes, resulting in rear-end crashes.
In the three years since the cameras — which capture images of cars running red lights so tickets can be mailed to the car owners — first went up at intersections in New Jersey, they have continued to stir debate about whether they accomplish the stated goal of making the roads safer.
As of 2012, there were 83 intersections in 25 towns using red-light cameras as part of a New Jersey Department of Transportation (DOT) pilot program, a five-year initiative established to determine the effectiveness of the systems. The DOT recently published a report examining 24 of these locations, using data collected through December 2011.
The total number of crashes at these intersections increased by slightly less than 1 percent, from 577 the year before the cameras, to 582 in their first year. Broadside or right-angle crashes, which tend to be more severe, were down 15 percent, from 60 to 51. Same-direction or rear-end crashes increased 20 percent, from 286 before the cameras to 343.
The DOT report also looked at crash-severity cost, including vehicle damage and repair, emergency response, medical care and other costs. Total crash-severity costs at red-light camera intersections were up nearly $1.2 million, including an increase of $444,800 for right-angle crashes, despite the fact that there were fewer of them.
Citations issued at red-light camera intersections, ranging from $85 to $140, decreased over time — dropping 85 percent between the first and 24th months of the cameras, apparently as drivers became more aware of the operation. The report did not include data regarding the fiscal impact of citations.
State Assemblyman Declan J. O’Scanlon Jr. (R-Monmouth, Mercer), a vocal critic of the red-light cameras, has prepared two Assembly bills — one to shut down the pilot program and eliminate the cameras, the other to modify it. The latter bill, which O’Scanlon plans to present to the Assembly Transportation Committee next month, would increase yellow light timing by a second; prohibit ticket issuances until a driver is farther into the intersection during a red light; and reduce fines for a right on red to $20.
“Probably 70 percent of the tickets written shouldn’t be written. [They’re] being written to people who are not doing anything hazardous,” O’Scanlon said. He added that he believes
the yellow lights are calibrated incorrectly. Such concerns prompted the DOT to briefly suspend citations last summer while a majority of participating communities recertified the timing of their yellow lights.
O’Scanlon — noting an increase from 21 to 31 broadside crashes with evident or possible injury in the first year of the cameras — said safety has not improved with the cameras.
“The program is making our roads more hazardous and ripping people off,” he said. “The data [in the DOT report] strengthens my contention that these cameras do not improve safety.”
In East Brunswick, a red-light camera has been in place at Route 18 and Tices Lane since March 2011. Though some officials there have touted it as a success, pointing to a decreasing number of red-light citations (from more than 1,100 the first month to fewer than 800 the 12th month), not all are satisfied.
Councilman Michael Hughes said he believes the cameras are not the answer to making the roads safer. Hughes, who also serves as policy director for O’Scanlon, said the net cost of accidents has risen as a result of the cameras.
“I’m against them. We have one now, but I won’t let us have another one,” he said. Other officials have discussed adding a camera at Route 18 and Rues Lane.
“I think obviously everyone wants to be as safe as possible, but there are other ways you can look at it — through engineering, through education, and the last piece would be enforcement,” Hughes said. “Citations have gone down in East Brunswick, but to me, accidents are what I want to stop.”
Assemblyman John S. Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), who co-sponsored the bill creating the red-light camera pilot program, cautioned a reliance on statistics and said the goal remains to curtail unsafe driving practices.
“The use of statistics to make a decision on the success or failure of a program is really dependent of the quality of the statistics,” Wisniewski said, noting that the DOT data did not address variables such as weather, increases in traffic or changes in traffic patterns.
“So the statistics are perhaps informative, but by no means instructive,” he said.
There is no justification for a driver to violate traffic laws, he said. He noted that motorists do not incur points on their license when they receive a ticket in the mail for running a red light.
“The goal in the program is to get people who are driving to change their habits,” Wisniewski said. “There’s no motor vehicle statute whose goal is punishment. The statutes are there to be a deterrent.
“Are there aberrations where the traffic light is timed by a mechanical timer and because of some mechanical error, it’s not as long as it should be? Sure. Those should be fixed,” he added. “But because there are those glitches, it does not seem to address the issue that people should not run red lights.”
Wisniewski said the notion that the cameras should be done away with because municipalities are receiving revenue from them is “absurd at best.”
In Edison, red-light cameras operate at three intersections along Route 1, and officials there recently authorized three more camera locations. Mayor Antonia Ricigliano and Bill Stephens, her management specialist, said the program has been a success.
“I think they’ve been quite successful in Edison,” Ricigliano said. “I know that we’ve read that some municipalities have had problems. However, in Edison … they have been calibrated and tested and they’ve been found to be well within the norms and functioning well.”
Stephens said accidents are down at all three intersections, though he didn’t have figures.
“Our program is above reproach,” he said. “It’s all about getting everybody to be safer on the roads. That’s really the bottom line.”
Stephens said Edison police have exercised discretion in issuing summonses, citing about 16,000 of the approximately 22,000 alleged violators captured on film by the township’s vendor. Township Business Administrator Maureen Ruane said in January that the township had netted approximately $800,000 to $900,000 from the tickets since the cameras began operating in April 2011.
The DOT will continue to monitor the red-light camera intersections over these final two years of the pilot program.