Albuquerque’s streets may soon be cleared of pesky red-light cameras.
Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry signed a $36,000 contract with UNM’s Institute for Social Research to evaluate the effectiveness of the cameras in preventing crashes, said T.J Wilham, Albuquerque’s public safety director of communications.
“He wants the cameras to be an effective tool to make our streets safer,” he said. “The study is going to tell him whether or not they have been effective and (he) will make a decision based on the findings.”
Over the next seven months, ISM will work on compiling data from both the red-light cameras and motor vehicle records to
determine if the cameras are successful, said Paul Guerin, a research scientist at ISM.
“We are going to look at crashes that occur at intersections where the red-light cameras are over time, from before the cameras to sometime after they were installed,” he said. “We are also going to compare those red-light camera intersections to other similar intersections that don’t have the cameras.”
The mayor wants Albuquerque drivers to think twice before speeding through intersections.
“He wants the cameras to be instrumental in changing driving behavior,” Wilham said. “Make people more aware of their speed, more aware of when they go into an intersection.”
The cameras used to generate revenue for the city, but not anymore, Wilham said.
“Right now there is no profit being generated from it, but prior to (Berry) taking office, the cameras generated $8 million,” he said. “In the past, the city council passed legislation to use part of the money to pay for a fire station, part of the money to pay for police cars and several other items.”
Improving the safety of Albuquerque’s streets has no pricetag, Guerin said, but it’s unclear if the cameras actually help.
“If they don’t make a difference, is there a good enough reason to have them?” he said. “The goal of the cameras is, primarily, to reduce the instances of the crashes, and the mayor clearly said that if they do that, (Berry’s administration) may be okay with paying for them. If they don’t reduce crashes, he may not be okay with them.”
