Red light cameras study leaves many questions

New Mexico State University researchers presented many new details about the Safe Traffic Operations Program, better known as the red light camera program. They also left the city council with many big questions.

Many city council members are left wondering if the program is doing its job or making things worse.

“It still seems not all that conclusive especially not on everything like there are still increases here and decreases where there are no cameras so that’s kind of not something you can base a good solid decision on,” city council member Olga Pedroza said.

Researchers presented results from examining six years of data. They compared numbers from three years before and three years after red light cameras were installed in various intersections in Las Cruces.

According to researchers, three out of four camera intersections actually saw an increase in rear-end crashes after cameras were installed.

Researchers said there was not enough evidence to conclude that was a direct result of the cameras.

“That’s something we have to keep in mind.Is there something obvious in that intersection that is distracting tothe drivers? Flags waving or some flashy sign or something like that,” said city council member Gill Sorg.

Results also showed cameras do not reduce the number of red light runners. Every intersection with a camera maintained the number of red light violations before and after the cameras were installed, according to the study results. Researchers said the intersection of Walnut Street and Lohman Avenue actually saw an increase in red light violations.

City council member Miguel Silva attributed that to human nature.

“They’re still going to run the redlights. I found that very interesting. Although it did say it stoppedcertain crash types so either they’re being cautious when they’rerunning through or I don’t know. Again, I think there’s a human factorelement in there,” Silva said.

Researchers said the number of speeding violations has gone down since the program started. Four out of five active cameras saw a significant decrease in speeding violations.

Results did show there was a positive impact on traffic at the intersection of Lohman and Walnut. Researchers said the severity of crashes as well as the number of rear end crashes both went down after cameras were installed.

The study also showed at the two intersections where cameras have been turned off, the number of red light violations has spiked.

An interesting find was that the most violations occur at the noon and 4 p.m. hours. City council members suggested putting more police officers on patrol at those hours since that’s when problems seem to occur.

At this point, council members said they are not making any decisions to add or take away cameras.

“I think that we all are concerned abouttraffic violations because of the injuries to people because of thedamage to property and so on because of the safety of the city but atthe same time maybe the red light cameras was too simplistic of aneffort,” Pedroza said.

Several councillors suggested the solution could be adding more engineering devices such as the crosswalk countdowns that show when the lights will turn red.

Researchers made the following preliminary conclusion: “It’s hard to say reductions or additions in crash rates resulted from cameras. Other factors such as construction, traffic management and intersection improvements could be partial cause.”

They are already working on future studies that will look deeper into outside factors that could affect crashes and drivers who run red lights.