And they are going to continue to receive the photo enforcement citations.” “But because there’s a human factor involved, of people not willing to change their behavior or that they can’t develop the skill. “The photo enforcement system has absolutely had an impact, a positive impact, on safety in the city of Lynnwood,” Coffelt said. (Prior to 2017, Lynnwood counted collisions differently.) The city operates both red-light and speed cameras at 11 locations. Tickets and crashes both trended up between 20, according to city data. The goal of the cameras was to improve safety, he said, by reducing red-light running which in turn would curtail collisions.ĭata from photo-enforced locations is showing a different story. It wasn’t just the busiest intersection where drivers were running red lights it was happening all over the city, according to Paul Coffelt, Lynnwood’s traffic engineer. Lynnwood, one of the first cities in the state to adopt automatic enforcement, turned to the cameras to curb red light running in 2007. Many others that continue to rely on the automatic systems – and in Seattle’s case expand what traffic laws the cameras enforce – are seeing varying levels of results. A handful of cities, including Auburn and Burien, removed the systems after councilmembers decided data didn’t show the cameras were improving safety. National studies have found similar results. The impact of traffic enforcement cameras on safety around Puget Sound is conflicting. Since the state allowed the use of automatic traffic enforcement more than a decade and a half ago, nearly two dozen cities have installed the cameras at busy intersections and outside schools with the goal of modifying driver behavior. It’s also a tool many city leaders hope will improve safety amid a rise in road deaths locally and nationally. The cameras are viewed by officials as a way to decrease instances of police officer bias during traffic stops while monitoring vehicles continuously.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |