Red light camera studies

[puggit]

The guys at www.thenewspaper.com have collated a load of US/Aus camera studies in to a handy page [url]here|http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/04/430.asp[/url]

Now, I'm not naive enough to assume that there aren't any studies in favour of red light cameras!

I think we all agree that in principle they are a far better proposition then speed cameras - but according to this info, they increase accidents!

[Jewhoo]

Northumbria SCPs own figures show that their red light cameras have had no effect whatsoever on accidents, they are literally exactly the same, three per year, every year for the last five years

[pdV6]

Not really that suprising, as I doubt there's that many people that deliberately run red lights.

Those very few that do probably come a cropper eventually & have an accident and (I'd wager) don't do it again.

For the rest of us, "accidentally" running a red just leads to a NIP & fine. The camera doesn't actually prevent you from running the light.

I'd imagine that, if anything, the accident rate would rise slightly, as folk will slam the anchors on in situations where they might have (perfectly safely and correctly) carried on through an amber, potentially collecting the numpty tailgater behind.

[supraman2954]

Jewhoo said:

Northumbria SCPs own figures show that their red light cameras have had no effect whatsoever on accidents, they are literally exactly the same, three per year, every year for the last five years

Assuming this statement is correct; were these particular RLCs installed randomly/systematically, or in response to previous clusters of accidents at these locations?
If it’s the latter, it proves that these cameras are actually causing more accidents (kind of like ‘regression from mean’). I guess this data isn’t available

[Jewhoo]

No it's not, IIRC from the report, it just gives tables for accident numbers. Given that they are obviously painting as good a picture as possible, you may well be correct, although it would be a trend increase rather than regression from the mean (but your point is correct!) as you can't 'tend towards' away from something (if that makes sense)