By Art Gallagher | MoreMonmouthMusings.com
Citing accident statistics reporting an increase in accidents at the three red light camera intersections in his Township, Brick Mayor John Ducey announced this afternoon that he is not renewing American Traffic Solutions’s contract.
Brick’s red light camera program terminates effective February 18, 2014 and equipment is to be removed by February 24.
Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon, New Jersey’s most prominent opponent of the red light camera program was on hand to congratulate Ducey, the residents of Brick, and New Jersey motorists who drive in Brick.
“When I was running for Mayor, one of the most frequent sources of frustrations of the people I spoke to was the red light cameras. I promised to review our red light camera program and remove them if that review didn’t convince me that they were making our roads safer,” said Mayor Ducey. “I have kept that promise. After conducting that review, I am not convinced that the benefit is safety and not revenue. At the end of the day, the statistics I was shown did not convince me that these cameras are making intersections safer. The strongest argument for keeping the lights is for the revenue they generate and I feel strongly that government should not be balancing budgets through punitive measures,” As a result I am not renewing the red light camera contract which is effectively ending red light cameras in Brick Township.”
Ducey noted an increase in accidents at each of the three Brick intersections that have RCLs between 2012 and 2013, the 2013 data is not completely reported yet.
I have been toying with proposing what I will now offer as an idea – what if there were an established 2 second delay between Red to Green from the time the other light turns RED….somebody unable to safely stop in time wouldn’t end up hitting someone who had not yet begun to enter the intersection. If you hit fifteen red lights a day on the way to work, your commute would be increased by ONE MINUTE A DAY. That small window might prevent an accident.
You can’t measure accidents that don’t happen, but is it worth ONE MINUTE A DAY – or less – instead of “Traffic Cam Scams”? Think over the folks you know of who had an accident at a light – how many of those would not happen with the 2 second delay? It’s a simple problem of physics – two cars can’t occupy the same space at the same time. We can improve the odds that they are never IN the same place at the same time with this small change.