Official Title: NESTOR RED LIGHT CAMERA ENFORCEMENT PROGRAM REVIEW

Author: Sergeant Rob Sharpnack, Police Department

This is a 2009 report on red-light cameras for the City Council of Costa Mesa, California that compares the before and after crash statistics of the two RLC intersections in that city. The analysis uses 30 months of pre-RLC crash data compared to 36 months of post-RLC data. The statistics used in this analysis are from the Costa Mesa Police Department which specifies their Distance-From-Intersection inclusion zone for crashes at 200 feet which is the standard for California. There are no data or conclusions in this report that suggest a reduction or increase in fatalities due to RLCs. This report does not cover injury crashes. The results show that crashes at RLC-equipped intersections have increased over 13%. The data also shows that injury crashes have decreased 15% at RLC intersections.

Download this study below (77k)

This is a brief seven page report, but the data and statistical analysis are verifiable, the selection of 2 RLC intersections is quite small and the gap of over 2 years in the before and after periods greatly weakens the analysis of the data. However, the conclusions are supported by the data.