Schaumburg is being overrun by red light cameras. Is this for public safety or as a revenue-generating device for the village? We’ll be taking a look at an emerging pattern soon!

In the meantime, ask yourself this question: Do red light cameras actually deter accidents? You might be surprised by the results of comprehensive studies on the issue.

Red Light Camera Studies Roundup
A collection of red light camera studies over the last decade shows red light cameras have serious side-effects.

Over the past decade, a number of studies have examined the use of red light cameras. The most relevant studies examined the devices in light of changes in traffic and engineering conditions made at intersections during the study period and pulled actual police reports to examine the particular causes of each collision. The following studies are the most comprehensive available.

• A 2008 University of South Florida report found:
  “Comprehensive studies conclude cameras actually increase crashes and injuries, providing a safety argument not to install them…. public policy should avoid conflicts of interest that enhance revenues for government and private interests at the risk of public safety.”
  Read a summary
  Full copy, 80k pdf
• A 2007 Virginia Department of Transportation study found:
  “The cameras were associated with an increase in total crashes… The aggregate EB results suggested that this increase was 29%… The cameras were associated with an increase in the frequency of injury crashes… The aggregate EB results suggested an 18% increase, although the point estimates for individual jurisdictions were substantially higher (59%, 79%, or 89% increases) or lower (6% increase or a 5% decrease).”
  Read a summary
  Full copy, 1mb pdf
• A 2006 Winnipeg, Canada city audit found:
  “The graph shows an increase of 58% in the number of traffic collisions from 2003 to 2004…. Contrary to long-term expectations, the chart shows an increase in claims at each level of damage with the largest percentage increase appearing at the highest dollar value.”
  Read a summary
  Full copy, 541k pdf
• A 2005 Virginia DOT study found:
  “The cameras are correlated with an increase in total crashes of 8% to 17%.”
  Read a summary
  Full copy, 1.7mb pdf
• In 2005, The Washington Post found:
  “The analysis shows that the number of crashes at locations with cameras more than doubled, from 365 collisions in 1998 to 755 last year. Injury and fatal crashes climbed 81 percent, from 144 such wrecks to 262. Broadside crashes, also known as right-angle or T-bone collisions, rose 30 percent, from 81 to 106 during that time frame.”
  Read a summary
  Full article on the Post website
• A 2004 North Carolina A&T University study found:
  “Our findings are more pessimistic, finding no change in angle accidents and large increases in rear-end crashes and many other types of crashes relative to other intersections.”
  Read a summary
  Full copy, 1.7mb pdf
• A 2003 Ontario Ministry of Transportation study found:
  “Compared to the average number of reported collisions occurring in the before period, the average yearly number of reported collisions increased 15.1 per cent in the after period.”
  Read a summary
  Full copy, 1.5mb pdf
• A 1995 Australian Road Research Board study found:
  “The results of this study suggest that the installation of the RLC at these sites did not provide any reduction in accidents, rather there has been increases in rear end and adjacent approaches accidents on a before and after basis and also by comparison with the changes in accidents at intersection signals.”
  Read a summary
  Full copy, 2.4mb pdf
• A 1995 Monash University (Australia) study found:
  “a simple correlation analysis was undertaken for red light running data in the current study and revealed no significant relationship between the frequency of crashes at RLC and non-RLC sites and differences in red light running behaviour.”
  Read a summary

Also here’s a report on Chicago’s Red Light Camera program. A local professor from University of Illinois-Chicago found that red light camera intersections experienced a 6% increase in accidents in the year after a red light camera was installed.

Related Reports and Studies

The importance of the yellow warning signal time in reducing the instances of red light running is found in the following reports:

• A 2004 Texas Transportation Institute study found:
  “An increase in yellow duration of 1.0 seconds is associated with a [crash frequency] of about 0.6, which corresponds to a 40 percent reduction in crashes.”
  Read a summary
  Full copy, 1.5mb pdf
• A 2001 report by the Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives found:
  “The changes in the yellow signal timing regulations have resulted in the inadequate yellow times. And these inadequate yellow times are the likely cause of almost 80 percent of red light entries.”
  Full version with summary

Photo Enforcement Studies

Study Shows Right Turn on Red Crashes are Rare
The most common type of photo ticket issued for a practice that rarely causes accidents. A review of US Department of Transportation statistics shows that an average motorist could drive a billion miles — the distance from Earth to Jupiter and back – before being involved in an accident that resulted from a motorist making a rolling stop on a right-hand turn.

Virginia Accidents Increased After Ticket Camera Installation
The Virginia Transportation Research Council released a report expanding upon earlier research into the safety effects of red light cameras in Virginia. It showed an overall increase in crashes after cameras were installed.

A Long Term Study of Red-Light Cameras and Accidents
The conclusion of this Australian study was that RLCs are not an effective countermeasure and that they can increase the number of rear end crashes.

AAA Michigan Study Shows Cameras Aren’t Needed
AAA Michigan partnered with a number of communities to improve intersection safety. Their inexpensive structural changes resulted in a 47-percent decrease in crashes and a 50-percent decrease in injuries.

Red-Light-Running Behaviour at Red-Light Camera and Control Intersections
Monash University study showing red-light cameras have no effect on reducing violations.

A Detailed Investigation Of Crash Risk Reduction Resulting From Red-Light Cameras In Small Urban Areas
A study prepared by the North Carolina A&T State University found that red-light cameras increased the number of accidents at intersections.

A Response to Unfounded Criticisms of Burkey and Obeng (2004) Made by the IIHS
The North Carolina A&T University study above was criticized by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). This is a rebuttal of IIHS’s claims by the authors of the North Carolina study.

Impact of Red-Light Camera Enforcement on Crash Experience – A Synthesis of Highway Practice
A recent study by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) illustrates the lack of evidence supporting the effectiveness of red-light cameras.

Evaluation of the Red-Light-Camera-Enforcement Pilot Project
This report from Ontario, Canada’s Ministry of Transportation’s concluded that jurisdictions using photo enforcement experienced an overall increase in property damage and fatal and injury rear-end collisions.

Development of Guidelines for Identifying and Treating Locations with a Red-Light-Running Problem
This Texas Transportation Institute study highlights the efficacy of increasing yellow-light times. An extra second yielded a 40-percent reduction in collisions.

Effect of Yellow-Interval Timing on Red-Light-Violation Frequency at Urban Intersections
This study shows that an increase of 0.5 to 1.5 seconds in yellow-light duration will decrease the frequency of red-light running by at least 50 percent.

Virginia DOT Study on Red-Light Cameras
The Virginia Department of Transportation released a biased report in favor of the cameras that still documented an increase in accidents, including more rear-end collisions and injuries.

Critique of IIHS 2001 Oxnard Study
California Senate Committee on Privacy critiqued the Oxnard study. The results show that IIHS’s study is flawed on many levels.

The Red-Light-Running Crisis: Is It Intentional?
This report was prepared by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey’s staff. It looks at the problems of red-light cameras and how to really deal with traffic-light violations.

Yellow-Light-Timing Myths
Proponents of red light cameras claim that increasing the yellow light time is not a solution because motorists will adjust to the lengthened yellow light time. These studies prove the proponents are wrong.

Driver Behavior Characteristics at Urban Signalized Intersections
This study shows that providing adequate all-red clearance intervals can significantly impact intersection safety by reducing the probability of occurrence of right angle crashes, even if drivers run the red light.

Misleading San Diego Report
Although the report clearly credits the most significant reduction in violations to an increase in yellow time — a fact buried on page 78 — the report nonetheless credits these benefits to the red-light cameras everywhere else in the report, especially in the summary.

Yellow Light Duration Impact On Driver Response
This report from the Institute of Traffic Engineers Journal examines how drivers react to differing yellow light durations.

University of South Florida Criticism of Oxnard Study
University of South Florida researchers uncovered fundamental flaws in the first US study to claim red light cameras decrease accidents.

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