Roads safe without cameras

Councillors voted to put a stop to a proposed red light camera program in Durham at a recent joint meeting of the region’s works and finance and administration committees.

While the matter is not fully resolved – it still has to be voted on by council as a whole at it’s next meeting on Sept. 23 – it did provide a chance to see a report that painted a clear picture of what a Durham Region with red light cameras would look like.

And the answer was, simply, that they are not needed. In fact, some intersections would actually become more dangerous, given the added increase of rear end collisions resulting from those slamming on the brakes to avoid a hefty fine.

A big reason why the cameras aren’t needed is because of the efforts already being undertaken to make our streets safer. Whether it’s through simple measures such as having cops on the streets for specific safety campaigns – for example, Durham police handed out more than 1,000 tickets last week for it’s annual back to school week campaign – or it’s more complicated measures like getting down to the numbers and figuring out the best timing for traffic lights. All of those measures and more have added up to a very satisfying goal: safer streets.

In fact, over the last decade, deaths as a result of traffic incidents have fallen dramatically, going down by approximately half.

Of course, there are always ways to make things even safer. We could look at a dramatic example such as Carmel, Indiana, a municipality approximately the size of Clarington. Over the years, the city has gotten rid of its traffic lights and is instead putting in roundabouts. According to data from the city’s website, the number of injury-causing accidents has dropped 80 per cent, and the number of accidents in total has dropped 40 per cent.

Obviously, this is not feasible for Durham Region – can you imagine the cost of changing every single intersection – but it goes to show that there are other options out there when it comes to making our streets safer.

With the red light camera program one step away from being officially quashed, the region should continue to look for solutions that are preventive rather than punitive.