[ OUR OPINION ]
MANY Oahu motorists still see red when reminded of the traffic cameras abandoned a year ago after the state's bungled experiment aimed at catching highway speeders. Mistakes made in that program should not rule out the eventual return of traffic cameras, but at intersections to catch motorists running red lights and with safeguards against abuse. Don’t rule out
cameras at
intersections
THE ISSUE The state Senate is considering a resolution authorizing a study on the use of cameras to catch red-light violators at intersections.
The "Talivan" fiasco resulted largely from the state Department of Transportation ignoring problems that had occurred elsewhere. Before the Hawaii experiment began, a San Diego judge had thrown out hundreds of red-light tickets partly because the company operating the program was paid for each citation, an improper incentive to catch more offenders.
Hawaii's experimental program had the same incentive in its contract -- signed weeks after the San Diego judge's ruling -- with the same company, Affiliated Computer Systems. San Diego, which halted the program in 2001 after the judge's ruling, will restart its red-light camera program this month under a fixed-rate contract with the company.
Rep. Joe Souki, chairman of the state House Transportation Committee, decided early in the current session to ignore several proposals to activate the red-light cameras, which had been planned as part of last year's experiment and then abandoned. Sen. Cal Kawamoto, Souki's counterpart in the Senate, favors the cameras and has proposed a resolution calling for the study of such a project. Even proponents of red-light cameras agree that information about intersection crashes and red-light violations in an area should be gathered and studied before the jurisdiction launches such a program.
Red-light violations are the leading cause of urban traffic accidents, resulting in 218,000 crashes, 181,000 injuries and 800 fatalities nationwide in 2001, according to the Federal Highway Administration, which endorses intersection cameras. The insurance industry says accidents caused by red-light violations cost the public more than $14 billion a year.
A Harris Poll last year indicated 83 percent of the American public supports red-light camera enforcement, and for good reason: A study conducted for the FHA found that reported reductions in red-light violations ranged from 20 percent to 87 percent in the more than 70 communities using red-light cameras. In San Diego, red-light-related collisions rose by 30 percent after the program was suspended at intersections that had been equipped with cameras.
One problem Hawaii may face in implementing a red-light camera program is the continued use of Social Security numbers on driver's licenses. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the state last year for violating privacy rights by turning over the numbers of alleged violators to the private company operating the cameras. The state stopped using Social Security numbers on licenses in 2001, but the transition will not be completed for more than three years.
