Auckland's troubled red light camera roll-out may accelerate

Thursday, 15 November 2018

Monitoring caught 1682 red-light runners at five intersections in the past fortnight. This motorist was caught on camera as pedestrians crossed the road.

Auckland's troubled roll-out of red light safety cameras could be pushed through in three years rather than ten years.

Auckland Transport said the faster roll-out could flow from discussions with other agencies over technology problems which limited the number of cameras which can be monitored simultaneously.

The possible breakthrough came as Auckland Transport released figures showing 1682 red-light runners were detected at five intersections in the past fortnight - 120 motorists on average each day.

Nearly a third of those passed through three or more seconds after traffic lights turned red.

* Auckland gets six new red-light cameras at notorious intersections

* Auckland Transport's red light cameras haven't worked for years

* Red light runners: Hundreds of crashes, deaths escalating**

The first six red-light cameras in a new 42-camera network were turned on last month, but police didn't have the ability to monitor any more than six at once.

The state of the safety camera network became an issue after a Stuff investigation in May found Auckland's previous array of red-light cameras had not resulted in a single ticket being issued for nearly three years.

Auckland Transport installed cameras at 11 intersections in 2014 and 2017, at a cost of $1.2 million.

Last month, the first six cameras in a new 42-camera network were turned on, but police then said it didn't have the ability to monitor any more than six at once, in the forseeable future.

Auckland Transport chief executive Shane Ellison said progress has since been made on technical issues.

'We are getting great support from the police, NZTA [NZ Transport Agency] and the Ministry of Transport, to make changes to back-office systems to support the increased processing of infringement notices from cameras,' Ellison said.

'They've asked us for two options to accelerate the programme by three years, or five years, rather than 10.'

'It's moving very positively,' he said.

AT won't elaborate, but had previously said it's own technology could be made available to police, to overcome limitations in the police's monitoring system.

New monitoring data released to Stuff showed the prime time for the most extreme red-light running was between 5am to 6am, when 61 instances of being three or more seconds late, were recorded.

The greatest number of red-light running was between 8am-9am and 3pm-4pm, with most of the offenders crossing less than one second after a light change.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff has made strong public statements about the need for police to step up enforcement of red-light running, to match the council's funding of six additional cameras a year to reach an eventual 42.

'We expect the police in every case to follow up with a prosecution or the issuing of an infringement notice,' Goff told Stuff.

However, he seemed unaware last month that Auckland Transport's re-negotiation of a Memorandum of Understanding with police on the red light issue did not specify how many cameras would be enforced at any one time.

Auckland Transport has given no timeframe for when the possible speed-up of the camera roll-out could be agreed.