KEY POINTS:
Auckland's traffic managers will today switch on digital cameras at two inner city intersections to begin snapping vehicles that cross on a red light. Grey boxes to contain the cameras have been set up at 10 spots where red-light running has become rampant, but motorists will not know whether a camera is operating until too late.
The traffic managers have clearly put much thought into their trap, spending months calibrating the cameras. Perhaps it is time they gave as much thought to the reasons red-light running seems not to be as prevalent in other centres. It is not simply that Aucklanders might be in "more of a hurry", as the city's road safety manager, Karen Hay, supposes. Auckland, as visitors from those other centres notice, has very long traffic-light phases.
Long phases make sense in peak hours, when a good number of cars needs to get through every time to reduce the temptation to run the red. But outside peak times the phasing seems to be much the same. Traffic can be held up for what seems an eternity at intersections with nothing coming through. Sometimes the red lasts so long that waiting drivers could be forgiven for supposing the system has broken.
Sensors in the road surface seem to work sporadically these days. It cannot be too difficult to make all lights sensitive to whether traffic is waiting. Better co-ordination of the phases on main streets would be most welcome too. The better the system is designed, the less is the incentive to beat it.
