rcecale--Your neck of the woods?

[legion]

More Wrecks after Cameras Link to Red-Light Surveillance Cited
MARIETTA, Ga. (The Atlanta Journal - Constitution)--A red-light camera system designed to increase driver safety may actually have resulted in an increase in auto accidents at the Windy Hill Road and Cobb Parkway intersection, Marietta officials said.
City officials recently collected data on the red-light camera. Since June 2004, the city has issued about 100 tickets a day, totaling more than $2.7 million in fines.

Officials chose the Windy Hill intersection because it was once deemed the most dangerous in Georgia according to a State Farm Insurance Corp. study.

State Farm stopped conducting the study after 2001 due to its expense, a company spokesman said. The company used claim data to come up with its "most dangerous" listing.

Yet increased safety at the intersection must be measured on a sliding scale. Marietta officials point out with pride that there were two fatal accidents at the intersection in 2003 and there have been none since the cameras were installed.

But the number of accidents increased by more than 50 percent between 2004 and 2005. Marietta spokesman Matthew Daily said this was due in part to drivers screeching to a halt to avoid running the light --- and receiving a $70 "fast driving award."

"We expected that would happen," Daily said. "Statistically across the country, rear-enders always come up after a red-light camera."

Daily said this actually makes the intersection safer because "these types of rear-end accidents are less serious than a broadside or angle accident."

Yet accidents in practically all categories increased. Daily said the city would work with the manufacturer, LaserCraft, to investigate film footage of wrecks at the intersection. The camera manufacturer also handles the tickets for the city.

"One of the things that we're going to do is have LaserCraft pull the photos of the accidents at that intersection. What we're going to do is look at where these accidents are occurring," he said.

Daily said some of the data captured in the city's year-end report may deal with wrecks near the Windy Hill intersection that had nothing to do with the red-light cameras.

In reporting the wrecks, police officers may write down the Windy Hill intersection as a landmark, Daily said, even though the accident may have occurred in a nearby parking lot.

"We're always wanting to look to see how it's improved the system," he said.

The city began enforcement in November with another red-light camera system at Allegood Road and Cobb Parkway. The city has not compiled data for the three months it has been in operation.

Each light costs $200,000 for equipment and installation. The city pays $285,000 per year to maintain the camera systems at both intersections.

[rcecale]

HAH! That intersection is almost too close for comfort!

Click here and you can see a traffic map of the Atlanta Area. If you click inside the box labeled "Cameras" at the top of the maps you can see ALL of the cameras they've installed all over Atlanta. Most of the people I work with will not leave work for the ride home without first consulting this page.

Here's a shot of the intersection in the article. Doesn't look so bad at the time of the shot, but give it a little while, the commute is just getting warmed up!


Randy