Identifying and Treating Locations with a Red-Light-Running Problem (0-4196-S)

An examination of the Texas Department of Public Safety crash database revealed that about 37,700 red-light-related crashes occur each year in Texas. Of this number, 121 crashes are fatal. These crashes have a societal cost to Texans of about $2.0 billion annually. A ranking of red-light-related fatalities on a "per capita" basis indicates that Texas has the fourth highest rate in the nation. Moreover, the cities of Dallas, Corpus Christi, Austin, Houston, and EI Paso were specifically noted to have an above-average number of red-light-related crashes (on a "per capita" basis) relative to other U.S. cities with populations over 200,000. The problem of red-light-running is widespread and growing; its cost to society is significant. A wide range of potential countermeasures to the red-light-running problem exists. These countermeasures are generally divided into two broad categories: engineering countermeasures and enforcement countermeasures. Research has shown that countermeasures in both categories are effective in reducing the frequency of red-light violations.