As I am reading to try to find out more about red light cameras before they arrive in Canton, I came upon a few great stories.
As I said in an earlier post, I think that how the Canton City officials choose to handle the tickets from the red light cameras will decide how the red light cameras are received by the public. In Cleveland, an investigation by WEWS (Channel 5) News revealed that the red light cameras add six million dollars to the annual budget. That is money that is hard to ignore. The same investigation revealed that several intersections saw the accident rate cut in half over a six month period after the cameras were installed. City officials point to those intersections and say “Look how much safer we are keeping you.” City officials refuse to look at and remove the cameras at intersections where the accident rate more than doubled after the cameras were installed. In the end, the accidents city-wide only decrease by four accidents after red light camera installation. This number is insignificant, and has varied by more than that over many six month periods without red light cameras. This drop in accidents, I am sure, had nothing to do with the red light cameras, but Mayor Jackson attributes it to the placement of the red light cameras.
If the red light cameras are there only to improve public safety, not for revenue, then why would the City not remove the red light cameras from the intersections where the accident rate more than doubled? It seems to me that they could be placed at another intersection and possibly decrease accidents there. I think that the reason they are not removed and placed at other intersections is that they are more profitable than other intersections would be. One of them is at I-90 and West Boulevard.
Hopefully Canton City officials will use a little more common sense with their red light and speed cameras. If an intersection has a dramatic rise in accidents from these red light cameras, and their placement is truly about safety, then I hope that they will have the courage to give up a little bit of revenue to remove the red light cameras from the intersection. This is something that several cities have failed to do, proving that they are not using the cameras for public safety.