Matt Stiles has the latest figures from HPD’s red light cameras, and this month he noticed something strange:
The latest numbers detailing the Houston Police Department’s red-light camera program show significant increases in citations at several intersections.
Take northbound Wilcrest at the Southwest Freeway, for example. There were 140 citations in March and 1,261 in April — an 800 percent increase. That’s also a significant spike over the six-month average before April.
Other intersections saw dramatic increases, too, while numbers declined elsewhere. Overall, citations increased 10 percent from March to April. Here’s a list of all monitored approaches, sorted by percentage increase.
We called Houston police, who said the numbers were accurate, but they aren’t yet sure what caused the spike. We’re hoping to hear back from them soon with a theory.
Hmmmmm. One intersection goes from 140 tickets to 1261 tickets in one month? Talk about odd!
From Stiles’ list, I noticed the most heavily ticketed intersection (aside from the strange instance above) is the one at FM 1960 and the northbound 249 feeder road, over by Willowbrook Mall. I drive through that intersection most days, and there’s a reason it’s a problem: short green time, medium yellow time, longer red time — I should try to time it one day. If a driver isn’t familiar with that light, the driver stands a good chance of being caught unaware when the light turns red. Also, those “rolling red” right-turn tickets are probably a boon for the city at that intersection as people try to get onto 249.
