KEY POINTS:
Police have been issuing infringement notices to drivers caught running red lights in a $900,000 Auckland surveillance camera trial at an average rate below one a day.
Two digital red-light cameras appear to have operated for only a fraction of the time in which they have stood sentinel in bullet-proof grey boxes over some of central Auckland's most dangerous intersections since the trial began on May 15.
Yet Auckland City Council has agreed to install three more cameras in coming weeks to increase the trial's enforcement profile and research base.
That will add $100,000 to an initial budget of $800,000 for the six-month trial being shared by the council and the Government before the New Zealand Transport Agency decides whether to fund cameras in other cities.
The council says it has been encouraged by information from the police that an average of eight infringement notices are being issued daily, compared with an expectation of about 50 when the trial began, and up to 150 instances of red-light running at some intersections before the camera boxes were installed.
But it has been unable to reconcile the average daily figure with police advice on Friday that just 72 notices had been issued since the trial began 84 days earlier.
That represents an overall average of less than one a day, suggesting the cameras may have been out of operation for long intervals while being rotated around a roster of 10 intersections.
Auckland road policing manager Inspector Ross Endicott-Davies appeared on television on Friday and expressed confidence the camera trial would reduce crashes and injuries and make the streets safer for pedestrians. He confirmed in a phone message that only 72 infringement notices had been issued, following 78 offences snapped on camera. It was not possible to send notices for six offences, because sight lines were obscured by large vehicles.
Auckland City transport committee deputy chairman John Lister said that, as the councillor who launched the camera trial, he was delighted with the low number of infringement notices.
"I said [at the start of the trial] that the only result I really wanted was zero," he said.
Council road safety manager Karen Hay said infringement notices were only part of the trial, in which motorists' behaviour at the 10 intersections covered was being compared with those travelling through 20 other intersections.
Data from electronic loops under the road was producing about three million pieces of information, which had yet to be analysed thoroughly enough for accurate comparisons.
"It's never been about the number of infringements. It's always been about wanting people to feel safe around that. We want to change long-lasting behaviour."
