Red Light Camera Results are Revealing

The Palm Beach Post reports interesting results from intersections with red light cameras installed:

...safety results offer a mixed picture. The number of wrecks declined, but injuries recorded in accident reports are up: five under cameras compared with one before.

So, less accidents are happening, but the accidents that are still happening are reported to have more injuries.

A little further into the story, it's stated a little more clearly in the case of Palm Springs:

Accidents are down significantly at three intersections in the early going there, with injuries running even compared with the same period last year.

Some are concluding that red light cameras are thus not eliminating risk so much as replacing it with a different risk.  But they'd be wrong.

Damage cited in Palm Springs police reports dropped almost in half to about $100,000.

What the studies reveal is that red light cameras are in fact effective at stopping people from running red lights.

But it also shows that a lot of people are exercising poor driving skills. The bottom line is this: you are supposed to stop for a red light.  And you are supposed to maintain a safe following distance from the car ahead of you.

The lesson isn't "get rid of red light cameras," as some would have you believe.  The lesson is that an alarming number of people are getting licensed without mastering the skills necessary to safely operate a vehicle. It's too easy to get a license, and too easy to keep it.