Council to Consider Intersection Cameras
The City Council will consider later this month whether to spend about $20,000 to hire a consultant to determine which intersections should receive traffic enforcement cameras.
Run a red light, get a ticket, is the message, city officials said.
“Our city isn’t any more immune to having red-light runners than any other city is,” Councilman Dan Del Campo said. “It acts as a preventive measure. It might be a low number statistically, but the risk is still there.”
Oxnard began a similar program in 1997 and now has 20 cameras at around the city, said Joe Genovese, Oxnard’s traffic engineer. Studies show the city has had a 40% reduction in red-light violators, he said.
The Ventura City Council approved the installation of cameras in May, and they should be in operation by January, said Tom Maricle, a Ventura transportation engineer.
Under such systems, a switch is triggered by a car going through a red light. A photograph is taken of the front and back license plates and mailed to the vehicle owner.
Sgt. Claude Robillard of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department’s East County station said drivers running red lights cause 6% of all traffic collisions in Thousand Oaks.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
