Does Albany Have Cameras On Their Stop Lights
Albany's cherry-lite photographic camera venture brings mixed results
Crashes down across metropolis but revenue less than expected
ALBANY - Melissa McTernan was on her way dwelling house from yoga when a red-light camera photographed her SUV rolling through the intersection of Western Avenue and Brevator Street.
It was the second fourth dimension the camera caught the Guilderland woman'southward vehicle running the light and a new ticket would soon be in the mail.
"Both times I apparently idea I was going through xanthous, but information technology was changed," she said.
McTernan isn't lonely when it comes to getting caught on photographic camera running a ruby-red calorie-free. The metropolis has 35 red-light cameras at twenty intersections, which generated 47,170 tickets since cameras were installed in 2015.
A Times Union assay of the ruby lite photographic camera programme since its inception found that crashes at intersections with cameras decreased even while the number of tickets issued fell far short of expectations.
The analysis was based on figures published by the police section in annual reports and complemented by data compiled by All Over Albany, a at present-defunct local news website that went dark at the commencement of the twelvemonth.
Albany police issued 47,170 red light camera violations between 2015 and 2018. Source: Albany Crimson Calorie-free Safety Camera Annual Reports. (Cathleen F. Crowley / Times Union)
Cathleen F. Crowley / Times UnionThe citations rattled McTernan. "I concluded up getting into an blow because I was traumatized by these tickets," she said, calculation that her vehicle was totaled. "I was on the same road, the aforementioned spot, and it was yellow. Normally I would accept totally gone through it, merely final infinitesimal I slammed on the brakes and got rear-concluded."
Critics of the ruby-calorie-free cameras say they cause more crashes considering drivers make sudden stops to avoid tickets. Just the Times Wedlock analysis institute crashes decreased 32 percent at city intersections where red light cameras were installed, including a 25 percent driblet at Western and Brevator where McTernan was hit.
The percentages were calculated past comparing the two years (2013 and 2014) before the installation of the cameras and the most recent two years of crash data after they were put in place. Rear-terminate crashes remained steady.
The full number of crashes at intersections with cherry-red light cameras has decreased since cameras were installed in 2015. Source: Albany Cerise Light Prophylactic Photographic camera Annual Reports. (Cathleen F. Crowley / Times Union)
Cathleen F. Crowley
Rear-end crashes have held steady at intersections with cameras, while other types of crashes take seen reductions. Source: Albany Carmine Low-cal Safety Camera Almanac Reports. (Cathleen F. Crowley / Times Union)
Cathleen F. Crowley / Times MatrimonyThe v intersections that generated the virtually ruby-light violations saw accidents fall 34 percent, from 134 accidents in 2013 and 2014 to 88 in the last 2 years. The most meaning reject was 72 percent at Central and Colvin avenues where accidents dropped from 43 in the years before cameras to 12 in 2017 and 2018.
When Albany began installing the cameras in late 2015, city officials said the goal was to make the intersections safer rather than increase ticket revenue.
The latest data show the cameras are doing merely that, said Bill Trudeau, chief supervisor of metropolis engineering science.
"Overall, we reduced crashes. That was what we set out to practice," Trudeau said. "That is what we achieved, and that is what we're hoping to keep to achieve."
Russ Rader, senior vice president of communications for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which supports use of the cameras, said studies of whether red-low-cal cameras increase rear-cease crashes are not clear.
"The evidence for that is mixed," he said. "If there is any kind of a merchandise-off, I'd much prefer rear-stop fender benders to side-impact crashes."
Side-impact crashes typically are more severe and more than likely to result in personal injury.
Installing carmine-light cameras has sometimes been controversial. Some places have scuttled plans to install them because of public opposition; cameras have also gone night later communities terminate making money or when political regimes decide to goose egg the technology, Rader said.
The Insurance Institute, which tracks the utilize of red-light cameras, reports the number of communities using them has dropped by 27 per centum since 2012. Across the state, there are 388 communities that currently accept red-light cameras. Albany is amongst 10 municipalities that employ them in New York. That listing besides includes Utica and White Plains, co-ordinate to the Insurance Institute.
"People don't like to get tickets, so it's very of import from the very starting time that communities are transparent and lay out the safety goal of the programme," Rader said. "Some communities have tripped over that. They have fabricated the revenue part of the emphasis, and that'due south non the emphasis. It needs to be focused on safe."
The severity of crashes at intersections with cameras has dropped since cameras were installed in 2015. There has been simply i fatality, which occurred in 2015. Source: Albany Cerise Light Safety Camera Almanac Reports. (Cathleen F. Crowley / Times Union)
Cathleen F. Crowley / Times MarriageExpected revenue
Since the first cameras were installed in 2015, Albany officials have insisted the goal was to improve traffic rubber. But in the first ii years, Albany budgeted $3.9 million in anticipated revenue from the reddish-low-cal cameras.
When the cameras failed to generate that much money in 2015 and 2016, some elected officials argued the shortfall was a expert reason to get rid of the arrangement.
"These were not a revenue take hold of, this was most public prophylactic," Mayor Kathy Sheehan said. "That was something I posited whenever we met with the red-light camera consultants."
Project acquirement of $2 one thousand thousand was included in Sheehan'southward 2015 budget based on estimates she said the police department received from vendors. The Times Union previously reported the effigy was from American Traffic Solutions, one of the companies that vied for a contract with the city and pushed the state to laissez passer the neb that allowed the city's red-lite camera programme.
Opponents of red-calorie-free cameras have questioned a system where red-light camera companies advise municipalities nigh their viability and apply and then sell the systems to the communities they advised.
Albany has nerveless $2 million in fines since the inception of the red lite photographic camera program in 2015. Source: Albany Cherry Low-cal Safety Photographic camera Annual Reports. (Cathleen F. Crowley / Times Marriage)
Cathleen F. Crowley / Times Union
This violation ticket shows a Toyota Prius running a blood-red light at Cardinal and Colvin Avenues in Albany in September 2017. (Courtesy of Amanda Fries)
(Courtesy of Amanda Fries)When the city didn't brand any money in 2015, the projection was reduced to $1.9 1000000 in 2016. Albany still didn't see a dime. GATSO The states, the company that owns the cameras, rents them to the city and keeps all revenue from fines the cameras generate unless the amount is college than $137,000 for a calendar month.
The Times Union analysis shows the city has never issued enough tickets to make money from the cameras. The closest was Nov 2018 when the city issued 2,200 violations, each carrying a fine of $50. That amounted to $110,000, still $27,000 (or 540 tickets) brusque of the $137,000 threshold. On boilerplate, the cameras generate roughly $52,000 in monthly fines, according to the Times Union analysis.
Simply Sheehan says revenue was non the betoken of installing the cameras.
"Nosotros congenital in revenue because we believed there was going to be revenue," Sheehan said. "Balancing a budget is actually, critically important, but I was far more interested in the rubber data."
The map shows the Albany intersections with red lite cameras and the number of violations issued at each intersection between 2015 and 2018. The circle size represents how many tickets were issued at each intersection. (Jeff Boyer, Cathleen F. Crowley, Amanda Chips / Times Union)
(Jeff Boyer, Cathleen F. Crowley, Amanda Fries / Times Union)The city hasn't approaching any revenue from the cameras since 2016.
"It has improved traffic safe, and it did not add to the tax burden of our residents," Sheehan said. "We were able to practice this in a price-effective way. I think it demonstrates what I said all along."
Intersection hot-spots
While crashes have dropped overall across the metropolis, there were small increases or no change at four intersections have red-light cameras.
Crashes at Central Avenue and Quail Street increased 56 percent, rising from 18 in 2013 and 2014 to 28 in the past 2 years. At the hub of Delaware, Holland, and Morton avenues, collisions were upwardly past xiv percent, from 21 to 24 accidents. Crashes rose by thirteen percent at Madison and New Scotland avenues, from 16 to eighteen. At that place was no modify at New Scotland and Manning Boulevard, according to the Times Union analysis.
None of these intersections were contenders for the most violations issued, either. The closest was Delaware, Holland and Morton avenues, which ranked sixth for about violations at 2,639 issued since installation.
| Intersection | Crashes for 2013+2014 | Crashes for 2017+2018 | Percent change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central Avenue & Colvin Avenue | 43 | 12 | -72% |
| Madison Avenue & S. Pearl Street | 23 | ix | -61% |
| New Scotland Avenue & Ontario Street | 7 | 3 | -57% |
| Madison Avenue & Quail Street | 28 | thirteen | -54% |
| Madison, Lark & Delaware | 48 | 25 | -48% |
| Central Artery & King Avenue | 15 | 8 | -47% |
| Western Avenue & Russell Route | 18 | x | -44% |
| Northern Boulevard & Shaker Road | 10 | 6 | -40% |
| Washington Avenue & N. Main Avenue | 19 | 12 | -37% |
| Madison Avenue & Master Artery | 17 | 11 | -35% |
| Clinton Avenue & Henry Johnson Boulevard | 30 | 20 | -33% |
| 2nd Avenue & Frisbee Avenue | 6 | 4 | -33% |
| Washington Avenue & Quail Street | 34 | 23 | -32% |
| Western Artery & Brevator Street | viii | six | -25% |
| Fundamental Artery & Henry Johnson Boulevard | 24 | xix | -21% |
| Everett Road & Watervliet Avenue | 30 | 27 | -10% |
| New Scotland Avenue & Manning Boulevard | 17 | 17 | 0% |
| Madison Artery & New Scotland Avenue | sixteen | 18 | thirteen% |
| Holland Artery & Delaware Avenue | 21 | 24 | 14% |
| Cardinal Avenue & Quail Street | eighteen | 28 | 56% |
The Times Union constitute an error in the annual reddish light camera reports produced by the Albany Police Section. 3 of the almanac reports stated that in 2016 the section issued more violations than were actually recorded by cameras, which is impossible. The Law Department acknowledged the error and provided the corrected numbers for 2016.
Trudeau, the metropolis's engineering supervisor, said crimson-light cameras won't reduce crashes at every intersection. He said sometimes more than traffic condom improvements must exist fabricated.
He said Central and Quail is a great example. He said the city worked with the country Department of Transportation on a pedestrian plan, installed illuminated "no turn on crimson" signs and improved signals for pedestrians. Other intersections have undergone lane reductions and re-striping. Bike lanes and sidewalks have been installed too, Trudeau said.
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"Nosotros take a number of things that we're doing around the urban center. We but finished the Madison Artery re-striping project and added pedestrian signals," he said. "We take to wait to see what happens with the numbers at that place."
City officials say they're open to expanding the crimson-light camera program, but correct now the country has simply given Albany clearance for the 20 intersections where it now has cameras.
"We hear from residents on a pretty regular footing about intersections where they'd love to see red-light cameras considering of what they encounter equally flagrant violations," she said. "Our police cannot be everywhere at all times, and this is a mechanism that allows us to amend enforce the rules and keep everybody safer."
The cameras are non going away anytime soon. Albany just signed a five-yr contract with GATSO extending the photographic camera programme into 2023.
Story by Amanda Fries & Cathleen F. Crowley | Information analysis past Cathleen F. Crowley | Digital presentation past Cathleen F. Crowley | Banner v ideo past Volition Waldron | Photography by Lori Van Buren | Graphics by Jeff Boyer, Cathleen F. Crowley and Tyswan Stewart.
Source: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Albany-s-red-light-camera-venture-brings-mixed-13813902.php
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