East Valley police agencies are taking a wait and see approach to a proposed law that would limit when their photo radar systems could ticket drivers who run a red light.
The law has the potential to reduce citations, along with revenue to programs that generally are money-losers for police.
The bill would require the sensor that triggers a camera to be moved back from the intersection, more than a car length.
Photo radar opponents Shawn Dow said that because 90 percent of tickets are issues to drivers within one-tenth of a second after a signal turns red, the change would significantly reduce citations.
“Moving it a little bit will buy some time for the drivers,” Dow said.
Dow, of Arizona Citizens Against Photo Radar, said the economics of the change could make photo radar less attractive to Arizona communities.
In the East Valley, photo radar is used by police in Mesa and Chandler.
Mesa police said they typically don’t comment on pending legislation, and a Chandler spokesman said the agency didn’t know enough to comment.
Photo radar advocate Joannna Peters said the bill could reverse progress Arizona has made in reducing deaths resulting from red light runners. Arizona was No. 1 in red light running deaths when the Red Means Stop organization formed in 1998, Peters said. She attributes increasing use of photo radar, along with a publicity campaign, for Arizona improving to No. 6 nationwide. She fears drivers would be less careful with the legislation that could result in fewer citations.
“If it reduced tickets, I think it would increase fatalities,” Peters said.
Photo radar has reduced deaths in some cases.
A 2011 study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found red light fatalities in Chandler dropped 79 percent because of photo radar. It found photo enforcement in 14 large cities across the nation reduced fatal red light crashes by 24 percent.
However, collisions dropped slightly after Tempe suspended its photo radar in 2011. Intersection crashes fell from 101 to 93, when comparing the first six months when the cameras were off to the same period a year earlier.
Dow said flashing cameras startle or blind drivers, leading to more crashes. He argues photo radar is unconstitutional and a cash cow for cities. However, East Valley cities have typically lost money because a significant portion of each citation goes to the Arizona Supreme Court and to the vendor that operates the system.
Mesa lost about $800,000 in a three-year period. Chandler lost about $22,000 in the 2009 fiscal year, but made nearly $150,000 the previous year.
Tempe lost $15,000 a year when it suspended photo radar in 2011 amid a legal fight with Redflex Traffic Solutions. Redflex sued, claiming the city owed an additional $1.3 million in fees during the past three years, which would dramatically boost the city’s loss.
The proposed photo radar law would change how Arizona defines an intersection. Now, it is defined as an area within what would be imaginary lines extended from each curb. Drivers can be cited if the rear bumper of their vehicle crosses into the intersection after a signal turns red.
HB 2557 would define the intersection as the painted stop line, or the first crosswalk line, that a vehicle crosses when entering an intersection.
The bill is sponsored by Sen. Frank Antenori, R-Tucson, who has proposed multiple anti-photo radar bills.
Contact writer: (480) 898-6548 or ggroff@evtrib.com
ralpho posted at 9:18 am on Wed, Mar 28, 2012.
It use to be if it was green or yellow when the front went in you could continue through.
now these lights that use to have long greens and yellows have very short ones.
Example is a left turn with two lanes that hold about twenty cars but green is only long enough for the first two cars of each lane. Anyone would think and everyone does think it will be longer, it is theft by deception.
Like at Warner and Dobson.
Zeigh posted at 11:26 am on Wed, Mar 28, 2012.
This bill is only a bandaid to a bigger problem, which are the cameras themselves. However, it will help level the playing field between honest drivers and cash-hungry municipalities. According to separate reports done by the states of California, Texas, and Virginia, nearly 80 percent of those state's red light camera tickets were issued for violations that took place less than half a second into the red. These violations went to average drivers and not the "deadly red light runners" that we are threatened with whenever the issue comes up.
Take Mesa for example. In 2001 the city claimed a 22% drop in red light camera violations after installing ticket cameras. The intersections contained very inadequate 3 second (federal minimum) yellow lights. Yellow light timing was accidentally increased by a worker using proper calculations to 4 seconds and overnight, violations dropped 73% (Arizona Republic, February 6, 2001). The camera vendor lost about $300,000 that month and forced a renegotiation with Mesa to recover their financial loss. The ticket camera program was suspended over money squabbles or lack thereof in the meantime. Hey, isn't it all about safety? Similar incidents have replayed themselves again and again across the USA.
The multi-million dollar photo traffic camera industry is extremely good at the spin they propel themselves with. They are also shameless in how they have deceived us with a sense of false safety. The cities of Los Angeles, Houston, and more have found out the hard way and it has cost taxpayers to chase the cameras away. Until Arizona citizens get a chance to vote on the issue (a recently failed bill by one single vote), HB 2557 is sorely needed in the debate about red light camera safety vs. money. Please contact your politicians and urge them to vote for this bill!
downtownresident posted at 2:11 pm on Thu, Mar 29, 2012.
You whiners make me sick! Don't run the red light and you won't get a ticket, period.
Any concessions of moving the sensors are rubbish and stupid.
Leave things the way they are, and drive sanely and you'll never get a ticket. Cheat and you pay the price.
Grow up, you babies and drive like an adult.
Here's an idea. Just turn off ALL those bothersome stop lights, and let courtesy dictate who goes through the intersections first. We all knnow how that would work, don't we.