43 percent
call traffic cameras
a terrible idea

Invasion of privacy is the reason
most often cited by opponents

---

By Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.com

John Erickson travels the Pali Highway on his way to and from Windward Oahu, and he sums up his opinion of the traffic camera vans he sees along the way.

"They suck," the 35-year-old Waimanalo resident said yesterday. Erickson is not the only one who feels that way.

A poll conducted for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and KITV-4 shows that opponents of the controversial camera vans outnumber supporters nearly 2-to-1. And there are many reasons.

But the poll also showed that people do not object as much to the yet-to-be-implemented cameras posted at intersections to catch drivers running red lights.

Another critic of the program said the poll results speak volumes about what the Legislature should do: kill the program.

"I think it's clearly a sign," American Civil Liberties Union legal director Brent White said. "If this is a democratic society and the voice of the people is important, I think the legislators should listen."

Three state Senate committees are scheduled to vote today on a bill that would repeal the program.

But a key supporter is not convinced that the results decisively show the will of the people, and says that amendments to the traffic camera law -- and not a repeal -- are needed to shore up the program and public acceptance. "I think it's divided," House Transportation Chairman Joe Souki (D, Maui) said of the public opinion.

Market Trends Pacific Inc. conducted the poll Jan. 26-Feb. 3 by telephone among 401 likely voters on Oahu. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

Pollsters asked whether the camera vans -- which take photographs of speeding cars along highways on Oahu -- was a terrible idea or a terrific idea.

Forty-three percent thought it was a terrible idea, while slightly more than half said the idea was either terrific or thought it was neither a terrific nor a terrible idea.

When those who said the camera vans are a terrible idea were asked why, 25 percent said it was an invasion of privacy, 20 percent said because the company gets money for each ticket, 14 percent said the vans are a safety hazard, 11 percent thought the equipment unreliable and 1 percent did not know. But more than half of those polled had other reasons.

"It's just a wide variety of opinions," said Wanda Kakugawa, president of Market Trends Pacific.

Many of the concerns centered on legal questions such as registered owners not being the drivers or drivers who cannot be identified, she said.

"Because there are so many problems ... there are so many reasons not to like the traffic camera," White said. "It bothers us and it gets under our skins for various reasons."

Waimanalo's Erickson says the program is plain unfair. "To me, the state is just trying to make money."

Sharmaine Pe'a, 26, of Hauula, who frequently sees the vans on Likelike Highway, had mixed reaction. "In a way it's kind of good because it really slows down a lot of people."

But Pe'a is concerned that the program may be intrusive. She does not like that tickets are mailed to the homes of registered car owners, who have to explain why someone else was driving their car if they want to contest the ticket.

More than two-thirds of those polled felt that the red-light cameras were a terrific idea.

Senate Vice President Colleen Hanabusa (D, Waianae), who introduced the repeal bill up for a vote today, said the poll numbers support the position of the senators who are in favor of getting rid of the program.

"The people that have been contacting us, they're falling pretty close to these numbers and for the reasons that are reflected in the survey," Hanabusa said. She said there is a simple explanation for why people may be more upset at the vans than the red-light cameras.

"A lot of it is the idea of knowing where these vans are, knowing what the consequences are and knowing what the ground rules are," Hanabusa said. "That's why I think the red-light cameras have more support, because people know where they are, it's well marked, and they know what the ground rules are."