Cameras may catch red-light runners in act

Red-light runners in Boston and Cambridge could soon be handing over some green if the Legislature lets the cities set up cameras at intersections to nab violators.

The bill, aired before the Joint Committee on Transportation last week, would establish a citation like a parking ticket that would carry a fine of up to $100 for those caught on film. The City of Boston has unsuccessfully sought a similar proposal since 1996, but supporters are hopeful that a new group of lawmakers will approve it. They have refined the bill to address some prior concerns, including offering vehicle owners the ability to show they were not driving at the time a camera snapped the infraction.

Representative Kevin Honan, a Brighton Democrat, said installing cameras could save lives by providing a stronger deterrent to speeding through red lights. Commonwealth Avenue, where the Boston Transportation Department conducted a camera trial in 1996 at the Babcock Street intersection, is particularly dangerous, he said. ''I oftentimes see cars slowing down to stop at the yellow light, and then cars behind them blaze around," Honan said. ''If you know a photo of your car is being taken when you run the red light, I think the inclination would be to slow down and respect the pedestrians."

More than 110 cities in 20 states and the District of Columbia operate traffic-signal enforcement cameras, according to the National Campaign to Stop Red Light Running, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group. Another 25 cities are installing such equipment. Rhode Island legislators approved the use of cameras this year, and they have been installed in Providence, the only city using them in New England, according to the campaign.

Thomas Tinlin, Boston's acting transportation commissioner, said the 1996 experiment -- in which no tickets were issued -- proved the need for electronic eyes at key intersections. During a four-week demonstration, the cameras snapped an average of 30 violators a day at the intersection of Commonwealth and Babcock, according to the Transportation Department.

''Cameras have worked in other cities. They've worked when we tested them in Boston," Tinlin said. ''I have a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old. When I'm out with them, even when that light says 'Walk,' we wait a couple seconds because I know that two or three cars, in certain locations, are going to go right through that light."

Opponents, including the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, dismiss the need for cameras.

''If you need traffic enforcement, you need human beings, police officers on the street," said Thomas J. Nee, union president. ''This is more about revenues than it is about traffic enforcement."

Nee said a camera does not see the whole picture and cannot weigh mitigating circumstances, such as a driver who safely runs a red light to let an approaching ambulance pass. Though the bill contains an exemption for such a scenario, the camera might capture only the offending vehicle in the intersection, he said.

But Susan Clippinger, Cambridge's transportation director, said cameras can provide around-the-clock enforcement. ''The police can't be everywhere," she said.

Motorists and pedestrians interviewed at the intersection of Commonwealth and Babcock had mixed opinions about the proposal. Craig Simpson of Scituate, who drives often for his sales job, says he does not want the risk of getting more tickets. ''It's expensive enough driving here with parking and having the meter maids catching you," Simpson said. ''And if my kids were using my car, I'd really be in trouble, because I think they run red lights."

Craig Sweeney of Saugus, a special-education coordinator at the Media & Technology Charter High School on the corner, said he favors cameras but only if they are placed at intersections known to be dangerous.

Representative Joseph Wagner, House Transportation Committee chairman, said he recognizes the problem of red-light running and supports a camera trial like the one Sweeney suggests at intersections with a high collision rate. The bill, as drafted, would permit cameras at all Boston and Cambridge intersections through June 2008.

''I've always thought Boston is a city where when my light turns green, I wait," said Wagner, a Chicopee Democrat. ''Nobody seems to stop at a yellow, and a good many people don't seem to stop on red."

Lucas Wall can be reached at lwall@globe.com.