Red Light, Green Light

Drivers Who Don’t Follow Instructions Must Pay

By Terri L. Lane

It sees you. And when you run that red light, it flashes, capturing your face, you license plates, and how fast you were going. Every day, more and more red light cameras are appearing in Bay Area intersections. But why?

Bay Area cities are putting up these cameras for the same reason—to prevent accidents—and it seems to be working.

“With the implementation of these tickets, accidents have been reduced,” said Lt. Kelly Musgrove of the Union City Police Department.

Fremont police officer Donna Gott said that “Some rear-end collisions occasionally occur when someone stops abruptly in front of them. The red light photo enforcement cameras are designed to get drivers to stop at red lights in order to reduce collisions…and have dramatically reduced the number of collisions, which in turn reduces the number of injuries and property damage.”

Whether or not a city installs a camera is contingent on whether an intersection has a high accident rate. The newest cities in the Bay Area to use these cameras are Hayward and Daly City. Fremont also plans to install systems soon—one being at the intersection of Warm Springs Boulevard and Mission Boulevard by beginning of 2009.

It’s important that a city thoroughly considers placing a camera in an intersection, because these devices are not cheap. According to Geneva Bosques of the Fremont police, each system costs about $150,000 on top of a monthly maintenance fee to the vendor who sold the system.

Violation tickets aren't cheap either. In Fremont, red light violations require payment of approximately $381, of which about $150 of it goes to the city, according to Gott. The remainder goes to fees, assessments and the state. For Union City, violators are charged about the same amount, but, according to Musgrove, “the overall cost of running the program and the amount of money received for each citation brings in no revenue.”

In 2005, Union City had to pay over $1 million back to 3,000 red light violators when some of the city's yellow lite time spans fell short of the state-mandated 4.3 seconds. David Goodson of Union City successfully appealed the ticket he received after proving the light at Union City Boulevard and Lowry Road was only 3 seconds.

Violators who receive a ticket in the mail for running a red light can contest the ticket in court or ask or can ask for a fine reduction. The state mandates at least $100 to be paid for the ticket.

“A percentage of citizens will challenge the citation for a variety of reasons including hoping the officer does not appear for court, poor photo quality, gender mismatch with refusal to ID the driver, as well as their own justifications for running the red light,” said Gott. She also said that some drivers will say they ran a red light to avoid a rear-end collision.

Though red light cameras are spreading like an epidemic, the city of San Jose still has not implemented any system. Lt. Jeff Smith of the San Jose Police Department says the city does not support the red light cameras systems because it has “serious staffing issues.”

The San Jose Police Department said that a strong police presence is what deters red-light violators and reduces accidents.

“The Traffic Enforcement Unit conducts focused enforcement at the city's 18 highest crash locations," said Smith. "Since 2005, the crash rate in San Jose has dropped from approximately 13,800 to 11,400. Last year our unit issued approximately 36,000 citations the majority of which were issued at those highest crash locations."

A full list of cameras around the Bay Area and across the country can be found at www.photoenforced.com.