RSS
|
Mobile
|
Daily Emails
|
We Twitter
| Make us your home page
Running a red light could cost you $75, even if there's no police car in sight, when cameras are installed at four College Station intersections in February, city officials said Tuesday.
The red-light camera program will begin Feb. 18, after a two-week grace period when drivers who run red lights will receive written notice of their violation but not be fined, according to College Station spokesman Wayne Larson.
Officials expect the program to decrease the number of drivers who run red lights and increase traffic safety, he said. Feedback from residents has been positive, despite the program's punitive nature, Larson said.
"So far, the response has been good. It's been very good," he said. "It's a public safety issue. How can you argue with public safety?"
Cameras will be placed at the intersections of Harvey Road and Munson Avenue, Harvey Road and George Bush Drive East, Texas Avenue and Walton Drive as well as Wellborn Road and George Bush Drive.
College Station City Council members first discussed implementing a red-light camera program in November 2006, but plans were delayed when Texas legislators passed a series of laws regulating red-light camera programs this summer.
Similar programs have been implemented in numerous other Texas cities, including Garland, which installed cameras at four intersections in 2003, Garland spokeswoman Dorothy White said. The program has been so successful that officials increased the number of intersections to nine in the past year, she said.
A study from 2006 -- the most recent date for which such data is available -- shows that crashes at the four Garland intersections decreased from 106 to 80, while crashes caused by red light runners decreased from 43 to 19.
"We wanted people to get the message that red means stop," White said. "That's the whole point, to make it safer on the streets."
Garland announced its program months before the cameras were installed and gave drivers a one-month grace period before citations were issued, White said.
The cameras will take pictures of the car and license plate number when a driver runs a red light, Larson said. College Station police officers will evaluate each video before a citation is mailed to the vehicle's owner, he said.
Along with the $75 citation, the vehicle owner will be mailed copies of pictures taken by the cameras, he said. A video of the violation will be available online.
The goal of the program is not to raise money, program manager and College Station Traffic Engineer Troy Rother said.
Program revenue will be used first to pay the vendor, American Traffic Solutions, which will install and maintain the cameras at no cost to the city, Rother said.
The company charges $4,750 per camera, Rother said. If the full amount is not recouped during the company's five-year contract, the city will not have to make up the difference, he said.
Once the $19,000 has been paid to American Traffic Solutions, College Station will subtract the cost of running the program and divide the remainder equally between the city and state, Rother said. Funds that go to the city will be used to pay for traffic safety improvements, he said.
The initial four intersections were chosen based on a December 2006 study by American Traffic Solutions. According to the study, the most violations occurred at Texas Avenue and Walton Drive, where 43 people ran red lights in a 12-hour period.
Once construction on Texas Avenue is finished in mid-2008, officials will consider placing cameras at other intersections on Texas Avenue and at Texas 6, Larson said.
• Janet Phelps' e-mail address is janet.phelps@theeagle.com.
