Evaluation of the safety effects of red light cameras: A case study
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Abstract
Red light running results in approximately 260,000 crashes annually in the United States. These crashes have resulted in an average of 907 fatalities and 165,000 injuries annually from 2000-2008. Red light running crashes are a safety concern due to the increased likelihood of injury compared to other types of crashes. Automated enforcement in the form of red light camera systems has been found to be an effective way to reduce these crashes.
The city of Cedar Rapids installed red light cameras at eight intersections across the city starting in February of 2010. The following study looks at changes in various metrics in order to determine the effectiveness of the cameras in increasing safety at the intersections. These metrics included violation rates; the time vehicles entered the intersection into the red, time and percentage of vehicles which entered the intersection during the yellow phase and the headway between vehicles.
Most of the findings support the claim that the cameras are effective in increasing the safety at the intersections studied. The violation study saw decreases in the violation rate at approaches in the range of 6 to 91%. Vehicles entered into the intersection earlier during the yellow phase and appeared to give each other more space as they approached the intersection due to the decrease in the percentage of drivers traveling with headways in the 0-1 second bin. The findings of the percentage of the vehicles entering the intersection during the yellow phase as well as the red phase study were inconclusive with both increases and decreases being seen.