10 more spots getting cameras

Daily Southtown/Fran Spielman | September 27 2005

Ten more accident-prone Chicago intersections have been chosen for a Big Brother experiment that has already raked in $13.9 million: digital cameras to snare motorists running red lights.

Once again, the new intersections were chosen after a review of accident statistics. They have a history of "right-angle" crashes most commonly linked to red-light running.

The new locations are Ashland and Cortland; 63rd and State; Diversey and California; State and Roosevelt; 99th and Halsted; 111th and Halsted; 79th and Kedzie; Fullerton and Cicero; Fullerton and Kedzie; and Fullerton and Damen.

The 10 new locations will bring to 30 the number of intersections under camera surveillance. The new cameras are expected to be in place by year's end, following through on a promise Mayor Richard Daley made a year ago when he unveiled the city's 2005 budget.

Although cameras were never intended to be a moneymaker, that's precisely what has happened.

Approaching the second anniversary of red-light cameras in Chicago, city hall already has issued 250,128 tickets at $90 a pop. That has generated $13.9 million â?? not counting the cost of the cameras themselves â?? prompting Daley to promise even more cameras to help erase a $104 million shortfall in his 2006 budget.

Even more important is the fear factor: how the threat of being caught on camera has apparently modified drivers' behavior. Overall, there has been a 35 percent reduction in the number of violations since the camera experiment began in November 2003.

At 71st and Ashland, there's been a 69 percent drop since October 2004, when cameras were installed at that intersection. That's followed by: La Salle and Kinzie (a 67 percent drop); Foster and Nagle (64 percent) and 31st and California (59 percent).

Transportation Committee Chairman Tom Allen (38th) was the driving force behind red-light cameras in Chicago and he's been prodding Daley to broaden the umbrella by installing mobile speed vans to crack down on chronic speeding along residential streets.

On Monday, Allen said he's not surprised by the crackdown's success. "We sit here in these ward offices day in and day out and hear as our No. 1 complaint people blowing stop signs and speeding," Allen said.

"The famous quote is, 'Are we going to have to wait until somebody gets killed?' If I had a dollar for every time a constituent posed that question to me, I'd be a rich person."
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