On the Chron’s City Hall blog, Matt Stiles posts the latest information on the city’s red light cameras:
The department has issued 89,000 citations, and about 57 percent of the cited motorists have paid. This rate, however, is skewed by the fact that motorists have about three months to pay. The payment rate from the earliest months of the program is much higher. Seventy-four percent of those cited in October have paid, for example.
There have been an average of 442 citations issued per day.
The busiest intersection is West Road at the North Freeway (1,066 citations, on average, per month). The slowest is North Shepherd at the North Loop (19 citations, on average, per month).
It could be true that the cameras (and publicity about them) have achieved the “behavior modifications” Executive Assistant Chief Martha Montalvo wants. Monthly citations have declined from a height of 15,293 in April, when only 40 intersections were monitored, to 14,201 in May and 13,512 in June. All 50 cameras were operating during those two months, of course, so the decline is even more significant. We’ll see whether this trend continues.
It still boggles my mind that Council didn’t force the city to make sure all these intersections were functioning properly; specifically, that lights were timed properly and intersections were well-engineered. Recall that Chron columnist Lisa Falkenberg caught herself running red lights because of downtown’s “synchronized” traffic signals. Also recall that, back when red light cameras were being debated, Mayor White balked at the suggestion of increasing yellow light times because he thought that would reduce mobility.
The behavior modification should have begun with city and HPD officials and how they opted for the most punishing “solution” to the problem of red-light running, a problem that might well have its roots in how the city manages its intersections.
