Red-Light Fines |
|
State | Penalties |
Alabama | $110 |
Arizona | $165/ 2 points |
California | $490/ 1 point |
Colorado | $75 |
Delaware | $110 |
District of Columbia | $150 |
Florida | $158 |
Georgia | $70 |
Illinois | $100 and/or traffic education class |
Maryland | $100 |
Missouri | amounts vary by city |
New Jersey | $85 plus court costs |
New Mexico | amounts vary by city |
New York | $50 |
North Carolina | $75 |
Ohio | amounts vary by city |
Oregon | $260 |
Pennsylvania | $100 |
Rhode Island | $75 |
Tennessee | $50 |
Texas | $75 |
Virgin Islands | $25 |
Virginia | $50 |
Washington | $250 |
SOURCE: Governor's Highway Safety Association, Insurance Institute For Highway Safety |
In fiscal year 2013, the state of Florida collected about 53 percent of the revenue from red-light cameras in 76 jurisdictions across the state, a total of $52 million. That is three times what the state collected in 2011. The 148 red-light cameras in the city of Miami alone pumped more than $6 million into the state’s coffers.
The rest of the money went to cities’ general funds and to traffic camera vendors.
"If the state needs additional tax revenue, the legislature needs to be fair and honest about how it gets that revenue," said Brandes.
He and other opponents say the diversion of camera revenue into general state and city budget coffers is proof the programs are about money, not safety. In a policy paper from the Transportation Research Board at the National Academy of Sciences, researchers recommended that camera revenues be used exclusively for transportation projects.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police recommends the same thing. "Red-light cameras should be implemented only to benefit public safety," Richard Ashton of the group recently wrote in Police Chief magazine. "Unfortunately, too many jurisdictions have obtained red-light cameras to generate revenue."
Still, it's not as though everyone is getting the tickets, said Charles Territo, spokesperson for American Traffic Solutions. "There are any number of excuses individuals will use to explain why they break the law," said Territo. "But at the end of the day, there is no revenue generated from red-light safety cameras if drivers obey the law and stop on red."
Safety Depends on the Corner
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has found that intersections with red-light cameras have fewer severe collisions, such as "T-bone collisions" in which a driver or passenger takes the full impact of an oncoming car.
But new research from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute shows that red-light cameras do not reduce all kinds of accidents in every location. After studying 254 intersections in 32 Texas towns, researchers observed that when cameras were placed at intersections where drivers frequently ran through red lights, the number of serious crashes declined by up to one-third. But there was an increase in dangerous rear-end collisions.
Meanwhile, at intersections where red-light violations were infrequent, installing cameras just increased rear-end collisions, without reducing the number of other kinds of accidents.
A seven-year study of red-light cameras in six communities in northern Virginia found similar results: collisions that occurred because drivers ran red lights were down by about 42 percent in all six areas, but the cameras caused a 27 percent increase in rear-end collisions. The increase in rear-end collisions meant that the actual total number of crashes went up during the seven years.
Instead of cameras, some advocate longer yellow lights, which would give drivers more time to slow down and not have to make a snap decision about whether or not to accelerate through an intersection. Increasing the length of a yellow light by even a half-second can dramatically decrease the number of crashes at an intersection, according to researchers at Virginia Tech.
The Florida Department of Transportation will lengthen yellow light times at all intersections with red light cameras by the end of the year and at all intersections by June 2015, said Fred Heery, deputy state traffic operations engineer. Yellow light times will be increased from 3 seconds to 3.4 seconds on roads with speed limits of 25 miles per hour and increased from 5 to 5.5 seconds on roads with speed limits of 55 miles per hour.
Transportation officials said the move will promote safety – and quell suspicion that cities have shortened yellow light times to boost ticket revenue.
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