Naperville may reconsider tickets for right-on-red
Naperville will reconsider using its red-light cameras to catch right-on-red violators.
Councilman Grant Wehrli is spearheading the drive to take another look at the impact of the cameras.
"It is proven to me to be a little nit-picky," he said. "(Police) officers do a fine job of using common sense when they see a right-on-red. (Cameras are) getting too technical. It's Big Brother gotcha."
When the city first installed cameras, Wehrli said, councilmen were advised they had to ticket all violations. Now, he said, many other communities are doing away with right-on-red tickets.
Citing safety issues, he said he still supports nabbing motorists who drive straight through a red light.
Naperville has red-light cameras at three intersections - Route 59 and North Aurora Road, Route 59 and Diehl Road and Ogden and Aurora avenues.
Violators are fined $100, but the city does not issue tickets to people turning right on red if they make a complete stop, even if they do so beyond the stop bar.
At Route 59 and North Aurora, there was an average of 28.82 tickets per day during the period from January 2009 through January 2010. Of the citations issued, 63.5 percent were for right-turn violations. Eastbound right turns on red are prohibited at that intersection.
Crashes at the intersection in 2009 were down 12.6 percent compared to the three-year average.
About a mile north at Route 59 and Diehl Road, there was an average of nearly 13 citations a day from October 2009 through January 2010.
Total crashes during that time dropped 35.7 percent compared to the three-year average for those months.
At the third intersection, Ogden and Aurora, an average of 4.42 violations a day were handed out from October 2009 through January 2010.
During that period, total crashes were down 22.6 percent.
The systems at Route 59 and Diehl as well as Ogden and Aurora are not equipped to separate citations by whether cars were turning or going straight.
Councilman Bob Fieseler agrees with Wehrli that right-on-red citations should be issued at the discretion of police on patrol, not cameras.
"I think the cost to the city and to our community because of the consequences of those side impact crashes justifies charging the violators $100 per incident but I'm not convinced that the accidents that are caused by right-on-red violations justifies citing them automatically with a fine," he said.
But not all councilmen are on board.
Councilman Jim Boyajian prefers to continue using cameras to catch right-on-red violators saying "the law is the law."
"The fact of the matter is we could show a decline in accidents at all intersections on all turning patterns and as a result I think we should stay the course," he said.
The issue is expected to appear on the council's July 20 agenda.