REDMOND — The city of Redmond says it will get rid of red-light cameras because they failed to improve safety at intersections.
But they will consider expanding use of school-zone speed cameras, because they got drivers to slow down, according to KIRO news reports.
Mayor John Marchione said the cameras didn’t really make the intersections any safer.
"The data that was collected showed that there was not a significant or discernible change in the safety of the three intersections we were using to program it," he said, according to MyNorthwest.com.
The Redmond City Council voted unanimously this week to get rid of the cameras, which generated more than $500,000 in tickets through July, according to MyNorthwest.com. The one-year contract expires Jan. 31.
The city of Bellingham signed a contract with traffic camera company American Traffic Solutions for four red-light cameras and two school-zone speed cameras, but no installation date for the cameras has been set. On the Nov. 8 ballot is a measure that asks Bellingham voters whether they’d like to remove any cameras and require voter approval of any plans to reinstall them. The measure also asks voters if they’d like to limit the fines under the camera program to the equivalent of the cheapest parking ticket, currently $10.
A state appeals court said the measure doesn’t hold the force of law, making it an advisory vote. Camera foes appealed to the state Supreme Court.
In Redmond, there were three more crashes at the intersections with red-light cameras in the first six months of the year, compared to last year, according to MyNorthwest.com. Two were rear-end crashes.
"They stopped short of the light because they indicated they didn’t want to get a ticket," Redmond Police Cmdr. Shari Shovlin told MyNorthwest.com. "It’s not a shock to us. We did expect that might occur."
But Shovlin said she doesn’t think three more crashes is an indication of any trend about the cameras and their safety.
Redmond has seen drivers slow down with the one speed-zone camera it installed at Einstein Elementary School, and because of that the city might expand use of the speed cameras, Marchione told KIRO. The camera will remain through the end of the school year, and the City Council will decide next year whether to put cameras outside five other elementary schools, according to KIRO.
