Lee Cataluna: Once wildly unpopular, traffic cameras are now getting the green light

Who would have ever thought that the idea of traffic cameras would be embraced in Hawaii? After what happened before, it’s hard to imagine anyone would dare to even bring up the topic again.

Back when we actually had traffic cameras — briefly, very briefly — they were wildly unpopular, and that’s putting it mildly. They were emphatically loathed. All Hawaii was united in their hatred of the unmanned cameras catching their driving peccadilloes. People called for the legislators who approved van cams and red-light cameras to be booted from office. If social media existed back in 2002 during Hawaii’s infamous four-month affair with traffic cameras, the spiteful memes and Twitter backlash would have been epic.

Times have changed dramatically since then, in ways we can measure and in things that aren’t always obvious. The push to put more bicycles on city streets has gained traction; social media and Google Earth have gotten people used to the idea that their picture may be taken out on the street at any time; and it no longer seems strange to be busted by a dispassionate machine instead of an actual human with a badge and discretion. There are so many other things, like maybe all those British crime series on Netflix have introduced to us the usefulness of CCTV cameras in keeping the community safe. Also, drivers have so many more distractions now. In 2002 we had no inkling of obsessive texting or watching Vine videos on our phones.

The biggest factor in the new age of traffic cameras, though, is the huge number of traffic fatalities Hawaii is seeing: 106 in 2019, 43 of which were pedestrian deaths. The year before, 44 pedestrians died, including 27 on Oahu.

Traffic cameras weren’t a bad idea back in 2002. People were mostly mad at how the program was structured and how the company that operated the system was going to get paid (basically, profiting off the number of tickets issued). A big legal problem was differentiating between the registered owner of the car, as identified by the vehicle’s license plate number, and the person who was driving the car at the time of the violation.

Now, 18 years later, fed up with dangerous driving habits and sick of all the stories about innocent people getting clipped or killed just trying to cross the street, traffic cameras seem like a great option, like a doorbell cam to watch over your house or a security video tied to your phone. More than half of the voters (59%) surveyed for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Hawaii Poll in September supported the idea of installing cameras at intersections to photograph and ticket drivers who run red lights. The state is now looking at how to implement a red-light camera program.

So yeah, bring ’em on. We’re ready now. It didn’t take pigs to fly to make the idea go from “no way” to “OK”; it just took myriad social changes and the horrible realization of how dangerous our streets have become.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.