Red light safety camera signage at the Lincoln Road and Te Pai Place intersection, where a camera began operating in June. Source / Auckland Transport
Red light safety camera signage at the Lincoln Road and Te Pai Place intersection, where a camera began operating in June. Source / Auckland Transport
Six more red light cameras sites are being installed at high-risk intersections in Auckland to reduce dangerous driving and help save lives.
The new camera sites, funded by the regional fuel tax, will be in operation by October 2018. This brings the total red light cameras operating in the region to 12.
The new camera sites will add to the six existing camera sites that began enforcing in June. Police enforcement of six Auckland Transport cameras will continue.
When the new cameras are ready to go live, Auckland Transport will choose which six sites will be enforced, with enforcement rotating between the 12 sites. This means cameras could be active at any site at any time.
The six new site locations were chosen based on safety risk. They will be at:
Following physical installation, the cameras will be calibrated and tested before enforcement begins.
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said: "Red light running places lives in danger. Last year there were four fatalities and 19 serious injuries at intersections due to red light running.
"With a 75 per cent increase in deaths and serious injuries on roads in Auckland we need to do everything we can to reduce unnecessary injuries and deaths.
"The scale of red light running in Auckland is demonstrated by the new cameras installed in June catching 660 people running red lights in just three weeks.
"We are not interested in red light cameras as a revenue raising measure. We are publicising where the cameras will be to change behaviour and prevent people being hurt and killed, not to catch people out," Goff said.
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff.
Enforcement is undertaken by the police and money from infringements goes to the Crown's National Consolidated Fund.
AT chief executive Shane Ellison says road safety is the organisation's top priority.
"We are investing a significant amount to make our roads safer for people driving, walking and riding bikes.
"Installing red light safety cameras is just one tool that we are implementing to make intersections safer, and we have an ongoing programme to install even more in the next 10 years.
"Auckland Council and Government are prioritising road safety initiatives as part of the $28 billion investment in Auckland's transport network over the next 10 years."
Inspector Peter McKennie, manager: operations, road policing says it is not worth people running red lights.
"You've got to ask yourself; is it worth crashing and risking injury – or worse – killing yourself or someone else?"
As well as the installation of the new cameras, AT is removing old camera housing from a number of sites around the city centre. These sites operated on old technology that can no longer be used for enforcement, and the red light running risk at these locations has reduced.
