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Red-light cameras mean big money for their host municipalities

(JOHN O'BOYLE/THE STAR-LEDGER)

Red-light cameras' supporters like to say their ticket-writing robots "change driver behavior." That's true. But that doesn't mean they're making our roads any safer.

Do the cameras teach drivers to navigate intersections safely? Or do they teach them to avoid the expensive tickets mailed out by New Jersey’s robocops?

A spokesman for American Traffic Solutions, one of the top red-light camera vendors in the United States, told The Star-Ledger that red-light tickets are down 60 percent since New Jersey began its pilot program in 2010, and that nine out of 10 drivers who get a red-light ticket never get a second one, “proof” that driver behavior is changing for the better.

What does that prove?

PolitiFact, in July, summarized a decade's worth of studies of red-light camera programs across the country. Here's what they found: At camera-patrolled intersections, the number of serious, right-angle crashes did indeed drop. But overall accidents, including rear-end collisions — the kind that happen when drivers slam on their brakes to avoid a costly ticket — went up.

So what’s the lesson? Steve Carrellas, head of New Jersey’s chapter of the National Motorists Association, says driver behavior has changed — drivers are learning to avoid tickets. If a driver is ticketed at a camera-covered intersection, he’s probably going to avoid that intersection in the future.

Here's what we do know: Red-light cameras mean big money for their host municipalities. According to a report by The Star-Ledger's Mike Frassinelli, a single red-light camera in Cherry Hill generated more than $1 million in fines in just the first 10 months of this year.

The cameras were meant to be safety tools. But they’re worth millions to the towns that have them. Will they want to stop cashing those checks, or will they keep talking about “changing driver behavior”?

New Jersey’s pilot program is still too young for sound conclusions. But once the program concludes and the data is analyzed, let’s hope the decision-makers see what we do: It’s a money grab, using techno-cops to pick drivers’ pockets while doing little that makes the roads safer.

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