Red light scheme may be extended

The Auckland City Council suggests more red-light cameras and a greater share of fine revenue from erring drivers. Photo / Kenny Rodger

Auckland drivers may face more red-light cameras - and $150 fines - if the Government accepts a novel city council revenue-sharing proposal.

Buoyed by survey results that showed an average 43 per cent drop in illegal red-light running at six of central Auckland's most dangerous intersections since cameras were installed last year, the council is eager to expand its network of 10 surveillance sites.

The police are collecting about $200,000 in fines a year for the Government from four cameras being rotated around the 10 sites in an extended $800,000 trial financed jointly by the council, the Transport Agency and the Auckland Regional Transport Authority.

But the council is now offering to add enforcement and maintenance of the cameras to its traffic lights management duties, and to boost the surveillance network in return for a half share of the fines to be reinvested into city road safety initiatives.

Council transport chairman Ken Baguley said yesterday that the survey results had shown the trial to be highly effective, and he believed quadrupling the number of cameras to tame even more Auckland drivers would not be excessive if set-up money could be found.

He has written to Transport Minister Steven Joyce to propose a revenue-sharing deal, to free up police resources "to focus on crime prevention and other road policing matters to improve safety".

"Red-light cameras are unique in that they cannot be operated separately from the traffic signal system and the signal system is managed and operated by the council," Mr Baguley wrote.

He said the council could operate the cameras, issue infringement notices and provide half the fines revenue to the Government while re-investing the balance in road safety within the city, including extending the network at high-risk locations.

Mr Baguley did not have a list of potential camera sites available last night, but said the intersection of Queen St with Mayoral Drive was a particular dangerous example in which vehicles including buses often held up other traffic by turning right against red lights.

The Fanshawe St motorway interchange was another possible site, and he said the network could also be extended outside the central business district, such as to Dominion Rd's busier intersections.

Other Auckland councils had also indicated interest in having red-light cameras in their territories.

Although the police are processing only an average of five infringements each week day for running lights at intersections in the existing trial, Mr Baguley said revenue was only a secondary consideration.

"We are not talking about a revenue grab - this is purely a safety thing," he said.

Auckland City had 689 red-light crashes in the five years to 2007 and at least nine deaths from such causes since 2001.

Crashes at just 13 central city intersections between 2001 and 2005 are estimated to have had a social cost in injuries of $12.5 million.

But Mr Baguley said that, worthwhile as the camera scheme was, the council would need some way of defraying its costs beyond the $282,000 of ratepayers' money it had already committed to the trial.

He said the council had enough staff and resources to manage the cameras, and was already responsible for enforcing parking, warrant of fitness and bus lanes regulations.

Although he was not clear on how straightforward prosecuting drivers would be for running red lights, according to the police only three drivers caught in the Auckland trial had requested court hearings.

* Camera sites

Existing:

Symonds St-Karangahape Rd

Victoria St West-Nelson St

Customs St East-Gore St

Ponsonby Rd-Hopetoun St

Union St-Nelson St

Queen St-Karangahape Rd

Wellesley St West-Mayoral Dr

Albert St-Victoria St West

Wellesley St East-Mayoral Dr

Hobson St-Cook St

Potential:

Queen St-Mayoral Dv

Northern Motorway-Fanshawe St

Dominion Rd-Balmoral Rd