Letter to the Editor: More Time Needed to Study Effects of Red Light Cameras

Dear Editor,

Recent press coverage about Lawrence Township’s experience with red-light camera installations at the Brunswick Pike/Franklin Corners/Baker’s Basin Roads intersection, in our view, fails to accentuate two significant positive first-year results – reductions over time in violations and total crashes at the intersection.  

Based on our study of red-light camera installations in six New Jersey municipalities and research of national studies of red-light camera programs elsewhere, we found that, over time, the observed uptick in rear-end collisions at the Lawrence Township installations can be expected to lessen as local drivers become accustomed to them and make fewer short stops and other drivers follow less closely.  We anticipate that the results will ultimately be positive in all categories.

Moreover, a two- to three-year monitoring period is needed to adequately determine the effects a red-light camera system has on driver behavior and crashes. Lawrence’s program, having begun in November 2011, is barely cutting its teeth on year two. Overall, the results represent a promising start and a hopeful sign for the future. But clearly, more data is needed.

Among the positives that should be highlighted is the decline in the number of violations that occurred at each side of the Brunswick Pike intersection from the first seven months November 2011 – May 2012) to the second seven months (June 2012 – December 2012).  

The violations declined most noticeably at the intersections entering Brunswick Pike (35 percent and 22 percent). This indicates that drivers are heeding the crucial safety message to stop on red and to slow down and prepare to stop, not speed up to avoid the red, when the light turns yellow.

Red-light safety cameras are specifically deployed to prevent right-angle or “T-bone crashes,” which are proven to be the most dangerous often resulting in serious injury or death. Minimizing the risk from these crashes is done by changing driver behavior and getting motorists to slow down on yellow and stop on red.

Just as drivers adjust their behavior when a police officer is present, red-light safety cameras help police enforce traffic laws and improve safety. The marked decrease in violations at the Lawrence Township installation from an earlier 7-month period to a later one shows drivers are conforming their behavior as hoped.

Another measure of the program’s early success is the reduction in crashes at this intersection, which leads all locations in crashes in the Township.  Crashes declined by 29 percent from 76 in 2011 to 54 in 2012. By comparison, total traffic crashes in the Township fell 9.2 percent, a mere third of the decrease experienced at the Brunswick Pike intersection.

Both these numbers indicate red-light cameras at this location are improving safety, as the dangerous “T-bone” crashes have declined. This decrease is noted despite the increase in rear-end crashes recorded during the program’s start-up year.

We believe that Lawrence Township should continue to participate in the State’s red-light camera program pilot program.  As more data becomes available over the next few years, the net safety benefits of using this technology to address a serious safety problem will become even more apparent not only in Lawrence Township but the other 24 municipalities participating in the program.

- Martin E. Robins & Pam Fischer

Martin Robins is director emeritus of the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University and a resident of Westfield.  Pam Fischer is a Washington Township-based (Morris County) transportation safety consultant and former director of the NJ Division of Highway Traffic Safety.