It may not be much of a surprise for those who dare to drive in the city, but the AAA Mid-Atlantic made it official on Monday; Philadelphia’s busiest red light cameras are in Center City.
An analysis from AAA Mid-Atlantic revealed the city’s busiest red light camera intersection is South Broad and Penn Square, the south side of City Hall. That intersection had 33,627 violations in the last fiscal year, totaling $3.3 million in fines, according to the AAA.
The AAA also announced operating expenses are about $366,433 per intersection on average while the system wide fine collection rate is about 80 percent. The net revenue for South Broad and Penn Square could be estimated at around $2.3 million, according to the AAA. Finally, the analysis revealed the second most ticketed red light camera intersection is on the north side of City Hall, at North Broad and JFK Boulevard, with 23,709 violations in the past fiscal year.
Credit: AAA Mid-Atlantic
AAA reports the reasons for the many violations include traffic volume, traffic patterns and the dates the cameras were installed. City Hall cameras began generating violations in December 2009 while the city’s first red light camera intersection at Roosevelt Boulevard and Grant Avenue has had active enforcement since June 2005, according to the AAA. The AAA states red light camera violations and profits normally decrease at an intersection over time and drop nearly
50% after the first year, according to a report from the Pennsylvania State Transportation Advisory Committee. Motorists normally get used to the cameras being in place and adjust their driving behavior accordingly.
AAA says the cameras have helped improve highway safety. The PA Transportation Advisory Committee found a 66% decrease in fatal accidents and a 24% drop in injuries caused by accidents at the ten red light camera intersections that have operated for at least three years.
A new Pennsylvania law, signed on July 2, will expand the red light camera program to a dozen suburban Philadelphia areas as well as Pittsburgh, beginning at the end of September.
The program has made big money for the city so far. It currently costs an average of $31,847 per month to operate each red light camera intersection in Philadelphia. With fines at $100 each, the intersections must generate about 10.5 violations per day (around 318 per month) to cover operational costs. In the most recent fiscal year, the program earned more than $7.6 million in revenue, according to the AAA, with half going to the city and the other half to the state. If the violations continue to decrease however, the program could cause a rather unique problem for the city. Jenny M. Robinson, the AAA Mid-Atlantic manager of Public Affairs spoke on this in a released statement:
Red light camera programs are a balancing act. Too successful, and then they are overly profit-driven. Not enough violations, then the program doesn’t pay for itself and could be a burden to taxpayers. Before installing red light cameras, municipalities should consider whether there might be more cost effective ways to reduce crashes at each location, such as beefing up traditional police enforcement, or implementing low-cost safety engineering measures such as signage, signal adjustments and visibility improvements.
