October 04, 2005

Knoxville's Traffic Camera Issue

For our friends to the east in Knoxville who, it seems, are about to be getting a nice dose of Orwell, I'd like to link to a timely story in yesterday's Washington Post which shows that the number of traffic accidents have gone up at intersections with traffic cameras. In fact, the cameras don't seem to be making any difference in the number of accidents at all.

The District's red-light cameras have generated more than 500,000 violations and $32 million in fines over the past six years. City officials credit them with making busy roads safer.

But a Washington Post analysis of crash statistics shows that the number of accidents has gone up at intersections with the cameras. The increase is the same or worse than at traffic signals without the devices.

Three outside traffic specialists independently reviewed the data and said they were surprised by the results. Their conclusion: The cameras do not appear to be making any difference in preventing injuries or collisions.

I'd also like to point you to a March article from the Cato Institute regarding the troubles with traffic cameras....

There's nothing wrong with city or state government taking measures to keep our roadways safe. But the measures they take should be effective. If they are punitive, the measures should give motorists due process; and there should be minimal potential for abuse. Traffic cameras fail on all three counts.

As usual, citizens get the short end of the stick whether it be through lack of due process, being milked for revenue or through outrageous abuses of the system. Our friends in Knoxville need to start asking serious questions and holding their elected officials accountable.

No word on where Nashville's police department stands on installing cameras. They've been pretty quiet since we made quite a big deal out of Metro's plans to install surveillance cameras on our streets. There were also talks of installing traffic cameras, but they've been pretty quiet about that as well.

Actually, I think it's time I did a little check up to see what they've been up to lately.

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