Red light cameras are being installed at major intersections in London in the upcoming new year, but before these new cameras are installed it is important to be properly educated on the process, function and purpose of these systems.
A total of eleven cameras are expected to be rolled out, with the possibility of Dundas & Highbury, Dundas & Wellington, Huron & Highbury, among other main intersections in the conversation for potential placement.
“These are places where you see a lot of cars for one thing and then also where the impact of running a red light could be higher, so you have more vehicles going through the intersections, higher speeds generally, wider roads, that’s where we see a lot of red light running happening now and it’s a good place to be sort of cracking down on them.” explains Ward 4 councillor Jesse Helmer.
London is among one of the last major Ontario cities to go through with the installation of these red light cameras. While cities like Toronto and Ottawa have had these cameras for a few years, Helmer explains the Forest City is finally ready to adopt them as well “I think for Ontario the most relevant comparison would be Ottawa and Toronto. We are just one of the last municipalities to actually implement the program in the City of London. So a couple of the big municipalities in Ontario including Toronto and Ottawa which would be a few years ahead of us.”
These cameras will take some time for Londoners to get adjusted to, and while right angle collisions are expected to be reduced, Helmer explains that rear end collisions may see a slight spike.
“We expect that there will probably be something within the neighbourhood of 20-25% reduction of those T-bone angle collisions,” predicts Helmer. “Also we will expect there probably to be a slight increase in the initial stages in rear end collisions as people start braking and stopping at those intersections perhaps a bit suddenly and that’s the kind of driver behaviour that will have to adjust over time.”
The overall purpose is to make London roads safer for everybody. Jesse Helmer believes red light cameras are the best way to go about doing so, “It’s shown to have a good reduction on those angle collisions,” says Helmer. “It’s a lot more cost effective than putting police officers at every intersection and paying people to do that manually.”
Expect to see red light cameras at busy intersections in London by July 2017.
