Red-Light Woes: 38 Hours in Traffic

Sept. 19, 2007 — -- The typical commuter wastes 38 hours a year stuck in traffic, nearly a full workweek, according to the Texas Traffic Institute's urban mobility report.

Delays have almost tripled over the last 25 years.

All that extra time on the road has a lot of drivers agitated and some of them have focused their anger on a specific traffic annoyance: red-light cameras.

At intersections in cities across the country, they're often an unpleasant surprise.

"If someone knows the camera's here, the tendency of running the red light is going to be reduced, big time," said Harry Bailey of the Seattle Police Department.

In Ohio, the state Supreme Court is deciding whether or not these cameras, designed to catch speeders and red-light runners, violate drivers' civil rights.

There is little question they reduce some types of accidents.

At intersections equipped with cameras, there was a 25 percent decrease in side-impact crashes, but rear-end accidents spiked 15 percent as surprised drivers slammed on the brakes.

The cameras produce incriminating pictures, but that's not all.

In the last four years since they were installed in Chicago, they've generated more than $20 million in revenue. That is triple the total of all fines at intersections issued by every ticket-writing officer in the city before the cameras were put in.

Angry drivers are taking drastic measures to avoid tickets, including downloading a $5 program to their Global Positioning Systems that issues a warning near intersections with cameras.

Drivers are also spraying their way out of tickets with a legal, reflective coating that prevents license plates from being photographed.

"I think they're very gullible and they're wasting their money, because it doesn't work," said Gail Connelly of the Lakewood, Wash., Police Department.