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The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz., Mark J. Scarp Column: Photo Radar is Slowing the Speedy

Posted on: Wednesday, 25 January 2006, 15:01 CST

By Mark J. Scarp, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.

Jan. 25--Results of Scottsdale's first few days testing speedersnapping cameras on Loop 101 aren't able to provide the complete picture of how effective photo enforcement will be over time. But we can be certain about two things the devices' presence is telling us:

First, lots of people speed. And second, lots of people who ordinarily speed are slowing down.

Tuesday's Tribune reported the facts backing up that first statement. On Sunday -- not the week's busiest day but certainly having heavier-than-average volume given WestWorld car auction attendees on the freeway -- 1,733 motorists were captured live and in color traveling at least 76 mph in the posted 65 mph zone between 90th Street and Scottsdale Road.

That's once every 49.9 seconds. So, on average, about 24 speeders would go by while a patrol officer is conducting a traditional 20-minute traffic stop on one vehicle.

And as to the second statement, on Tuesday the city passed on the second day's numbers from the devices' private operator, Redflex Traffic Systems: On Monday, the number had dropped by nearly a thousand to 741.

At that rate, you could think that by the time they start handing out real tickets Feb. 22 there won't be anybody to cite. Humanity being the way it is, however, that isn't the way to bet.

In 1987, Paradise Valley's small police force turned to the then-relatively new technology of photo radar -- Arizona's first use of it -- to deal with speeders using Tatum Boulevard and Lincoln Drive between Phoenix and Scottsdale. Motorists got a rather hefty accommodation: A big yellow diamond-shaped warning sign with the words, "Photo Radar in Use" was set up about a quarter-mile ahead of where the van was parked.

Some pretty inattentive drivers missed the sign, or, a few hundred feet farther, the van with its side-mounted radar-and-camera unit. But as it turned out, there were plenty of them. Over time, town police report on their Web site, photo radar has reduced traffic collisions by 45 percent.

That big sign is gone, and photo radar devices still catch plenty of motorists going too fast or running red lights in Paradise Valley. Despite this, for many longtime residents the very act of driving there evokes a near-automatic response of easing up on the accelerator and paying strict attention to the duration of yellow traffic lights.

Yet even with photo enforcement, the number of speeders or red-light runners where it is used will almost certainly never drop to zero. And its use poses due-process challenges that have mostly survived judicial scrutiny. Still, its presence will mean fewer violators than without it, and fewer accompanying deaths and injuries. And that means chances are improving that you'll live through the experience.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Tribune

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