Update for Tredyffrin residents and drivers: A red light camera opponent came to July's Board of Supervisors meeting fully prepared to fight the possibility of cameras in Tredyffrin Township. He was told that despite meeting the population requirements for the red light cameras, Tredyffrin Township does not meet other requirements and therefore will not be getting red light cameras.

In West Chester cameras would be a welcome addition, speeding is epidemic especially in places like East Bradford where people drive 10 and 20 miles an hour over the speed limit and the police are nonexistent. Can’t understand why any community would not want them, except for those who are violating speed limits.

Above reports the law: "Municipalities eligible for the red light cameras would have to exceed 20,000 residents". This provision seems out of place for a heavy traveled township like East Whiteland Township which hosts the vast Great Valley Corp. Center, Wegmans food store, Rt. 202 ramps esp. on Rt. 29 and west on Rt. 30; and soon to host on Rt 29 a Turnpike slip ramp; also the Worthington development; and soon a proposed 80,000 sq. ft. Corp Headquarters with 40,000 sq. ft. of public storage at the corner of Old Lincoln and Rt. 30. Also there is a stream of traffic down both Old Lincoln and Warren Ave's from Delco and West Chesco in the morning with commuters rushing to the above with a new scheduled traffic light at Old Lincoln and Old Lancaster. The East Whiteland Township Police, even with the great job they do, will have a strain to keep up with this overwhelming growth (which is not always progress as some have voiced). The law needs change to include current heavily traveled townships (with much more traffic to come soon) like East Whiteland. I wonder if traffic studies for EWT have been posted online anywhere?

Red light cameras DO NOT monitor speeding, only vehicles going through an intersection after the light turns red. It has been shown that there is an increase of rear end collisions after installation of these cameras as motorists become very concerned about $100 tickets, so they slam on the brakes or slow up even when approaching a green light.

Would it not be easier to install a countdown timer at high volume intersections so that drivers would know how many seconds would elapse before the light changes color? This is already being done for pedestrians. Or, perhaps, make the yellow light begin to flash prior to changing to red. Many studies exist that say that lenghtening the yellow by as little as a few seconds would avoid a vast majority of accidents that occur at intersections. These solutions are preferred to the punitive ones that government agencies come up with that only feather their nests.

Andrew, good idea. Pale ale, could you list the link for the traffic report study you mention in your comments? Thank you. Mostly, I slow down when the light starts to turn yellow in case the driver in front of me decides to stop suddenly. If someone does not slow down and tries to run the yellow, it's their risk, I think. Anyway, thank you for taking the time to write.

For those of you who think these traffic camera do not monitor speed, my neighbor got a $130.00 speeding ticket from a camera. This happened outside of State College, PA. As to the issue of traffic accidents because of people slamming on their breaks, I find that causal connection spurious at best. But if true that simply points out that there is already a great deal of speeding and running of red lights.

Thanks Morgan
I read the studiesn and believe the studies cited address the wrong question, the issue of red light camera’s effectiveness may be questionable and I still maintain having looked at the web sites there is a tangential and hardly causal relationship. What I have been referring to is speed cameras and the British Journal of Medicine(Feb 2005) published and extensive study of the effects of speed cameras on accident rates and fatality rates, which was very positive for the use of cameras .

Set an upper age limit for a Driver's License and you'll be making progress.

Spend the money on either smart traffic lights or at least time them properly. Dumb iron wastes time and gas, lessens productivity and is really annoying.