Seven major intersections in Murfreesboro will be equipped with red-light cameras this spring.
The cameras are to deter drivers from running red lights by photographing any vehicles that do so; $50 citations are then mailed to the vehicles' tag holders.
"Traffic safety is paramount," said Chris Shofner, spokesman for the City of Murfreesboro. "This seems to be a good system for improving that."
Cameras will be in place by April 1 at the intersections of Memorial and Northfield boulevards, Rutherford and Mercury boulevards, and South Church Street and Middle Tennessee Boulevard.
For the first 30 days after cameras at those three intersections become operational, violators will receive warnings rather than payable tickets.
By July 1, cameras will also be in place at four more intersections: Northwest Broad at South Church, Northwest Broad at Northfield, Old Fort Parkway at Thompson Lane, and Middle Tennessee at New Salem Highway.
No warnings or grace period will follow for those four intersections.
The tickets will only be issued when vehicles clearly violate an intersection's stop bar after the light has turned red, city officials said. Upon receiving a citation in the mail, a tag holder can either pay it ouright or view the infraction and dispute it before the city judge.
The use of red-light cameras in Murfreesboro stems from a contract approved by the City Council in 2007.
"The company itself will operate and maintain the cameras for a percentage of the revenue" the cameras yield, Shofner said. The City will pay $32,000 monthly to the company, Traffipax, for operating the system, using funds from the citations, The Tennessean reported.
Frees time for officers
Automating red-light enforcement will free up officers for other tasks, said Kyle Evans, public information officer for Murfreesboro Police Department.
"To run an effective red-light enforcement at a single intersection for one approach takes a minimum of three officers," ideally five, Evans said. With the camera system, one officer issues the citation and thereby "can do basically the work of the other four."
Instead, those officers can focus on other duties. "In a city the size of Murfreesboro, with the number of people and vehicles that are driving every day, our officers can focus on other intersections, they can focus on speeding," and other related causation factors for accidents, Evans said.
Further, when multiple motorists run the same light simultaneously, "only one or two of them get the ticket. We want to try to catch everyone," Evans said. The system is also safer, because police don't have to stand in traffic.
The tickets issued will count as civil violations, "meaning it won't go on your driving record and it won't affect your insurance," Evans said.
Traffipax
Lori Mellman, a marketing associate for Traffipax, the company contracted to install and maintain the lights here, said statistics reflect the utility of red-light cameras.
"The Federal Highway Administration conducted camera studies at 132 intersections in Maryland, North Carolina and California," Mellman stated. These "showed crash decreases ranging from 15 percent to 25 percent.
"Economic analyses suggested savings of $39,000 to $50,000 annually per crossing, mostly in hospital bills, vehicle damage and insurance expenses."
Qualms
Not everyone is looking forward to seeing the system implemented.
"I'd feel better about it if the city was funding it, but honestly I don't think it will help - People are going to run the red light anyway," said Stephen Allbritten, senior recording-industry major.
Others expressed concerns over privacy.
Jack Robinson, junior marketing major. "I suppose it's safe in the way of tracking people speeding. But in another way there are privacy concerns in this company taking a percentage."
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