Red-light cameras bill advances

A proposal to deploy high-tech cameras for traffic enforcement by photographing the license plates of motorists who run red lights has been approved by two committees in the state Senate.

Leading House lawmakers say they are also ready to consider photo enforcement, citing reckless drivers who ignore traffic signals and speed through intersections across the state. House Speaker Joe Souki in particular has been a strong supporter of a number of photo enforcement proposals over the years.

Senate Bill 221 would authorize Honolulu and three neighbor island counties to set up the “photo red-light imaging detector systems” to use mounted cameras to snap pictures of vehicles as they run red lights. The counties would then be responsible for issuing citations by mail to the registered owners of the vehicles, according to the bill.

The use of cameras for traffic enforcement is common in other states, but has a controversial history in Hawaii.

The state Legislature passed a law in 1998 authorizing a photo enforcement system to ticket speeding motorists, but that triggered an uproar when a private contractor deployed the system, known as “van cams,” on Oahu in 2002. In the face of that public outcry, lawmakers promptly repealed the law and haven’t approved a new photo enforcement law since.

Today, 24 states and the District of Columbia deploy red-light enforcement cameras, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association, but it is unclear whether Hawaii motorists are ready to accept the idea.

One supporter of photo enforcement at traffic signals is Randy Moore, a bicyclist and retired assistant superintendent for the state Department of Education. Moore said he sees vehicles run red lights almost daily.

“It’s just epidemic,” he said. Moore said he has witnessed many close calls and that red-light violators are so common that he automatically pauses now to see what the vehicles around him are doing when a light turns green for him.

Moore said he hope that cameras will make motorists think twice before blasting through red lights. “The objective is not to catch people,” he said. “The objective is to stop the behavior.”

On the opposite side of the issue is Milton Imada, who has opposed camera enforcement programs for years. Imada told lawmakers he has 34 years of experience in fleet vehicle maintenance and described the proposed photo enforcement system as flawed, biased and discriminatory.

Longer commercial vehicles that enter intersections on yellow lights will not have enough time to clear the intersections before they trigger a citation, Imada said in written testimony. He predicted buses will be cited most frequently because they cannot stop quickly.

“This bill’s flawed intersection red light camera system is an overkill designed to prey on Oahu drivers to extort monies to feed government’s depleted General Fund and feed the most costly rail system in the nation,” Imada wrote.

SB 221 requires that the money collected from fines paid under the photo enforcement system remain in the county where the violation occurred, and there is no mention of the city rail project in the bill.

The measure was approved on Tuesday by the Senate committees on Transportation and Energy, and on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs. Sen. Clarence Nishihara, who is chairman of the public safety committee, noted that the Honolulu Police Department supports the bill.

“It’s about public safety,” he said. “I have observed enough instances where people even in Waipahu, where there’s a red light and guys just go through, or they slow down, and then they go through … It’s really a public safety issue, and to me, people should know better.”

Nishihara said there will probably be resistance to the photo-enforcement plan because “people don’t understand it, or just don’t like their picture taken, I don’t know, but in this case the red-light one is clearly a public safety issue.”

Souki said much of the anger at the 2002 photo-enforcement system bubbled up because the system was operated by a private company that was out to make a profit by ticketing motorists. “The suspicion then was it was more looking at making money than protecting the safety of the drivers,” he said.

This time, Souki said, the system must be operated by government.

“I would have to look at the bill and see whether it’s going to be privately operated or it’s going to be government operated,” he said. “I think that will be key to the passage.”

House Transportation Committee Chairman Henry Aquino said he has never held a hearing on a photo-enforcement bill before, but said he will consider this one if it is approved by the Senate.

“There are always concerns from the general public, but I think it has merit,” he said. “It’s looking to make intersections safer, so it’s just a matter of how to do it if that’s the case.”