{"id":896,"date":"2005-01-20T12:15:00","date_gmt":"2005-01-20T17:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2005\/01\/20\/red_light_camer\/"},"modified":"2005-01-20T12:15:00","modified_gmt":"2005-01-20T17:15:00","slug":"red_light_camer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2005\/01\/20\/red_light_camer\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Light Cameras Get the Green Light from Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Virginia Senate passed three bills<\/a> that would facilitate the use of red-light camera, devices some say infringe on the rights of law breakers.<\/p>\n

And now they have more ammunition: a study that shows the cameras cause more rear-end collisions<\/a> at intersections.<\/p>\n

Critics seized on the study’s finding that crashes involving injuries increased slightly after red-light cameras were installed at intersections. <\/p>\n

In Fairfax County, 10 of 13 intersections studied showed an increase in crashes after the cameras were installed. Eight of those intersections experienced an increase in crashes with injuries. <\/p>\n

On average, total annual crashes in the 13 intersections rose to 20 from 18, and crashes involving injuries increased to eight from 6.5. <\/p>\n

Supporters of the cameras, however, said more research is needed to determine the relative severity of injuries with and without the cameras. Sen. William C. Mims, R-Loudoun, an advocate for the cameras, said injuries from rear-end crashes tend to be less severe than “T-bone” collisions commonly caused by red-light violators. <\/p>\n

Sen. Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, R-Fairfax, argued that traffic safety can be bolstered by increasing the length of yellow lights at problem intersections, avoiding the upswing in rear-end crashes caused by cameras. “We’re trying to attack a problem the wrong way,” he said. <\/p>\n

Constance Sorrell, chief of systems operations for VDOT, said the increase in crashes at intersections with cameras is no surprise. She said a similar pattern occurs when traffic lights are first installed at intersections.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There\u2019s the answer: Let\u2019s get rid of traffic lights altogether.<\/p>\n

Two researchers, Forrest M. Council and Bhagwant Persaud, reach a more nuanced conclusion<\/a>. They found that rear-endings had gone up nearly 15 percent after cameras were installed in seven cities, with injuries from such accidents up 24 percent. Right-angle crashes declined by 24 percent, with injuries down nearly 16 percent. Weighing the economic impact and severity of injuries, they found the overall effect positive. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Virginia Senate passed three bills that would facilitate the use of red-light camera, devices some say infringe on the rights of law breakers. And now they have more ammunition: a study that shows the cameras cause more rear-end collisions at intersections. Critics seized on the study’s finding that crashes involving injuries increased slightly after… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}