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Watered-down red light camera proposal advances

Chicago aldermen on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to a watered-down red light camera ordinance that calls for community meetings and a study of the controversial program but fails to address many of the problems of failed oversight and unfair enforcement revealed in a long-running Chicago Tribune investigation.

During the campaign, when many aldermen were getting hammered by opponents running on platforms calling for the city to end the automated ticketing program, several City Council members introduced a measure that would have increased the minimum yellow light time at Chicago intersections from 3 seconds to 3.2 seconds and required a council vote before any new red light cameras could be installed.

On Tuesday, a new version of the red light ordinance backed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel got the go-ahead from the Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee. The extended yellow light times and the City Council camera approval are no longer part of the ordinance.

The latest version requires city officials to meet with the community to present traffic safety evidence before putting in or taking out red light cameras but does not give residents the ability to veto a city decision. The measure also calls for the city “to engage an outside academic team” to study Chicago’s red light camera system and give recommendations about how it’s administered.

Rebekah Scheinfeld, Emanuel’s transportation commissioner, said “it’s important to have a data-driven process” to determine where the cameras are in place. And she defended the yellow light length as “appropriate for the driving conditions in Chicago.”

The Emanuel-backed ordinance fails to address many of the key problems highlighted in a Tribune investigation that exposed the Emanuel administration’s failed oversight, unfair enforcement practices and unsupported claims about safety benefits of the camera system.

A Tribune-commissioned study of the safety benefits — the only scientific review ever done of the controversial camera program — found that a reduction in dangerous side-angle injury crashes was offset by an increase in injury-related rear-end crashes, which are often less serious. The Tribune’s investigation also found that at more than 70 intersections with low rates of injury accidents — about 140 of the 300 cameras across the city — the cameras may be making things more dangerous.

Although the Emanuel administration has acknowledged that the Tribune’s findings were scientifically sound, the ordinance ignores that science and the majority of the questionable cameras remain in place.

The ordinance also does not address the city’s dangerously short yellow light times, which do not meet national engineering guidelines. Transportation engineering experts say the city’s three-second yellow lights, in combination with red light cameras, prompt many drivers to stop short to avoid a ticket. The experts agree that combination is responsible for an increase in rear-end crashes.

National guidelines call for at least a 3.2-second yellow light in 30 mph zones. But national experts consulted by the Tribune said prevailing speeds — not the posted speeds — should be used in setting yellow light times and that Chicago’s own data on prevailing speeds means yellow lights should be lengthened to at least 3.5 seconds on its 30 mph streets. Research indicates that such a change could bring down rear-end crashes caused by drivers slamming on their brakes, while also reducing red light camera tickets that have generated more than half a billion dollars for the city.

Experts say yellow light times should be increased across the city, not just at camera-equipped intersections. Instead, the ordinance mandates the installation of pedestrian countdown timers at red light camera intersections, a move transportation experts suggest is ill-advised as a substitute for appropriately timed yellow lights.

While the proposed ordinance would establish a review process before installation of new cameras or removal of old ones, city officials have not been able to explain why many of the troublesome cameras were installed in the first place.

City officials have said red light cameras were placed at intersections with high crash rates. But Chicago’s inspector general, who has tried to document how the red light program grew from a tiny trial project in 2002 to a massive network, reported last year that no records exist to prove that contention.

Federal prosecutors have offered another explanation in the form of a recent plea agreement from the bagman in a $2 million cameras-for-cash scandal that rocked City Hall. The convicted bagman admitted in court papers Dec. 10 that he passed along a fortune in bribes to a key city traffic manager, including a $1,500-per-camera commission. The more cameras installed, the wealthier the men became, prosecutors allege.

The ordinance also lowers the amount of money that drivers with large amounts of unpaid fines would need to pay the city to prevent their cars from being booted or towed. The package will head to the full City Council on Wednesday.

jebyrne@tribpub.com

dkidwell@tribpub.com