01015618

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/1922-06

http://scholar.google.com...ller&publication_year=2005

Red light camera (RLC) systems are believed to decrease the right-angle crashes that they are targeting but to have the undesirable side effect of increasing rear-end crashes. This belief was confirmed in a before-after study of 132 RLC installations in seven U.S. jurisdictions, as reported in a companion paper. In that research, the extent to which the increase in rear-end crashes negates the benefits for right-angle crashes was unclear, given the perceptions of severity differences in the two crash types. This paper reports on an examination of the changes in crash costs, based on a consideration of rear-end and right-angle unit crash costs for various severity levels, to establish the aggregate effects of the RLC programs evaluated. Part of the project derived the required unit costs by using information from national U.S. databases. The overall results show a modest to moderate economic benefit of between $28,000 and $50,000 per treated site year, depending on assumptions made. The ability to aggregate economic costs across crash types and severity created the opportunity to try to isolate program implementation factors and intersection characteristics that would favor the installation of RLC systems by using the aggregate economic benefit at each RLC site as the outcome variable. This investigation found, for example, that the greatest economic benefits are associated with the highest total entering annual average daily traffic, the largest ratios of right-angle to rear-end crashes, and the presence of protected left-turn phases.

01015603

English

pp 38-43

2005

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board

0309093961

Print

References (10) ; Tables (3)

Annual average daily traffic; Before and after studies; Costs; Crash severity; Economic analysis; Economic benefits; Exclusive phasing; Left turns; Rear end crashes; Red light running; Right angle crashes; Traffic safety

Accident costs; Red light cameras

United States

Economics; Finance; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I80: Accident Studies

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 20 2006 9:38AM

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