Turning Red Into Green

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels was all smiles when he announced earlier this month that the city would be installing an additional 24 red light cameras at 19 intersections throughout the city. And why shouldn’t he be smiling? The one-year red light camera pilot program, using only six cameras, generated over $1 million dollars in revenue from fines while costing the city less than $400,000.

Nickels and Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske like to play up the safety impact of the program. This in spite of the city’s own report that indicates:

"There is little evidence that cameras have decreased the frequency of all auto crashes or of the more dangerous angle collisions…"

If safety is the goal, perhaps Nickels and Kerlikowske should have a look at a 2004 Texas Transportation Institute Study that concluded that increasing the length of yellow lights by just 1 second resulted in a 40 percent reduction in collisions.

Of course, no one makes any money from longer yellow lights.