Traffic
Cameras May Be on the Way to an Intersection
Near You
By
Insurance Journal
A
new study released by the Insurance Institute
for Highway Safety (IIHS) and supported by new
statistics from the Washington, D.C. police
department, points to red light cameras as a
tool to make drivers slow down.
Institute
researchers measured travel speeds on seven
D.C. streets before the cameras were installed
and six months after deployment. The number of
drivers traveling more than 10 mph over the
speed limit dropped dramatically at every
site, with reductions ranging from 38 to 89
percent.
As
a comparison, researchers also measured speeds
at eight sites in Baltimore, Md., where
cameras are not used. Speeds there remained
about the same or increased slightly.
Statistics
from the D.C. police department bolster those
findings.
Police
statistics show that the percentage of
vehicles aggressively speeding on D.C. streets
and highways has declined by more than 58
percent since the photo radar program started
in July 2001. During the July warning period,
31 percent of the vehicles monitored by photo
radar exceeded the program's speeding
threshold. In March 2002—when a record
number of 538,470 vehicles were monitored by
photo radar—the figure had dropped to 13
percent.
Speeding
is a major player in motor vehicle crashes,
which are the leading cause of death for
people under 34 years of age.
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