Red Light Cameras

Don's other cousin from my family has consistently argued that camera issued citations for red light runners is an unqualified success:

"It's been a very good program for the city."
"We've been able to reduce the number of collisions and the number of violations."

Some new studies, however, are casting doubt on the efficacy of these programs. This study, from last December, by the NC Urban Transit Institute, concludes, "The results do not support the view that red light cameras reduce crashes. Instead, we find that RLCs are associated with higher levels of many types and severity categories of crashes."

A Virginia study, also from December, reached the same conclusion: "Despite a distinct sympathy in favor of camera enforcement, the researchers found a "definite" increase in rear-end accidents and only a "possible" decrease in angle accidents. Most importantly, the net effect was that more injuries happened after cameras are installed. Camera proponents explain this away by asserting angle accidents are more serious, but this claim has not been scientifically studied according to this report. The rear end collisions caused by the cameras still produce injuries -- the original promise of camera proponents was that they would reduce accidents and injuries, not rearrange them."

I am sure my brother has his own studies to point to, but clearly things are not as cut-and-dried as they seem.