Bicycle Austin forum

seth

Member

From: Austin, TX (Hyde Park)

Registered: 2008-05-27

Posts: 53

Website

Re: Red Light Cameras Issue 400 Citations

Leander doesn't have the cash for fancy red-light cameras, but they just got a $24,000 grant to increase police presence at intersections in an attempt to dissuade drivers from running red lights and stop signs.

http://tinyurl.com/582ymo

From the article: "Last year, 87 of the city's 129 collisions resulted in an injury, according to the transportation department's records. Most of those were caused by someone running a red light or stop sign, according to the state agency. "

Seth

Leander police receive grant to increase traffic patrols
Traffic injury collisions have increased over past few years, police say.

By Isadora Vail
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, August 28, 2008

The Leander Police Department is beefing up its patrols along major intersections to try to decrease the number of injury accidents and get drivers to slow down.

The department received a grant this month through the Texas Department of Transportation for $23,702 to pay officers overtime to increase patrols in problem areas.

Last year, 87 of the city's 129 collisions resulted in an injury, according to the transportation department's records. Most of those were caused by someone running a red light or stop sign, according to the state agency.

Those statistics showed problem areas in Leander: the 183-A tollway, Ronald Reagan Boulevard, East Crystal Falls Parkway, Bagdad Road and Parmer Lane. Increased patrols will mainly focus on speed enforcement and intersection traffic control, said Lt. Greg Minton, a spokesman with the Leander Police Department.

"If you were to go down Parmer or 183, you see people speeding," Minton said. "I think the urban legend out there is that someone can drive 10 miles over the limit and not be pulled over."

The Selective Traffic Enforcement Program grant has been given to other cities around the state, including Cedar Park and Hutto, to increase drunken-driving patrols and reduce traffic fatalities, injuries and crashes.

In a city survey completed this year, the Leander Police Department found that 78 percent of drivers did not follow the posted speed limit.

Minton said the number of car accidents and the number of people speeding were surprisingly high.

"Our main goal is just compliance (with speed), and, unfortunately, sometimes the only way we can get compliance is through citations," Minton said.

ivail@statesman.com; 246-0053

Traffic accidents in Leander:

2006: 448

2007: 515

2008 (to date): 307

m1ek

Member

Registered: 2008-06-02

Posts: 153

Re: Red Light Cameras Issue 400 Citations

"Mike, please explain how it is that cyclists can run red lights and not cause accidents but motorists can't? "

When did I ever say that? It's much more likely that a car running a red light will cause an accident, of course, but if I thought it was impossible for a red-light-running cyclist to cause an accident, I would care a lot less about this issue. Certainly the time I almost killed the idiot on 24th would have been an 'accident' caused by a red-light-running cyclist, had my counterpart in oncoming traffic not also executed a swerve to avoid me after I swerved.

The point is that if cars ran stale/cold red lights in anything like the numbers folks claim, there would be carnage, because it's a lot harder to avoid a car than a bike.

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Re: Red Light Cameras Issue 400 Citations

You don't see the carnage? Law-breaking motorists are responsible for nearly 45,000 collisions per year in the Austin area, and in nearly half of those a vehicle has to be towed away or someone has to be hospitalized. Nationwide, drivers who run red lights injure about a quarter million people and kill nearly a thousand people every year.  At that rate, someone who lives to be 80 years old will have about a 1 in 15 chance of being hurt by a red-light-runner in their lifetime.  Not good odds.

250,000 injuries a year from red light runners is carnage in my book.

m1ek

Member

Registered: 2008-06-02

Posts: 153

Re: Red Light Cameras Issue 400 Citations

Michael, if hundreds of drivers REALLY ran stale/cold red lights every single day, which is what some have asserted, we'd see a handful of fatalities resulting from red-light collisions every single day. The carnage would be orders of magnitude higher than what we see now.