PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — City Council will consider putting red light enforcement cameras at three more intersections. Bills introduced in session on Thursday would expand the program from 35 intersections to 38 intersections.
The Philadelphia Parking Authority, the agency that oversees the red light cameras, has a list of 30 to 40 intersections that have been flagged for safety, but Executive Director Rich Lazer says each one is studied carefully before it makes it into a City Council bill.
They put up a temporary camera at a candidate location to see how many people run red lights there. Then they study the results with PennDOT, community groups, City Council members and the city’s Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability.
The latest intersections to show enough safety issues to warrant cameras are at Belmont and Overbrook avenues, 17th Street and Washington Avenue, and Kelly Drive at the Falls Bridge. He says the three new intersections were studied for almost a year before they were approved for the program.
“They’re high networks of a lot of travel and a lot of different means of travel,” said Lazer.
The location at 17th Street is along a stretch of Washington Avenue that was not included when recent safety enhancements were made to the road, and it is just a few blocks from where a pedestrian was critically injured in a hit-and-run crash this week.
Though some drivers complain that the cameras seem to be made just to generate fines, Lazer says the only goal is safety.
He says data shows the red light enforcement cameras currently in use have cut red light running by over 40% at those intersections.
“It’s our responsibility to make sure [people] can travel safely through our streets, and this system works. It curbs behavior, the violations drop, and it leaves people safer.”
There will be hearings before the bills move forward and, if Council approves them, a grace period before fines are imposed on people caught by the devices.