Traffic Cams Catch 2,700 Violations In Start Of Warning Period In New Haven

By Adele Haeg, New Haven Independent

NEW HAVEN, CT — In just over two weeks, new automated traffic cameras at seven locations across New Haven recorded roughly 2,700 violations — resulting in 673 warning letters sent to red-light runners, 1,368 warning letters sent to speeders, and 709 violations still to be reviewed by the city.

City Transportation, Traffic & Parking Director Haley Simpson presented that data on Tuesday at the latest monthly meeting of the city’s Board of Police Commissioners, which doubles as New Haven’s traffic authority.

Those traffic-camera-caught violations occurred between Sept. 15 and Oct. 2, during a warning period in effect until Thursday.

After that, with the month-long warning period over, the city will send the owners of offending vehicles fines instead of letters. The first fine for a traffic-camera-caught offense will be $50; each subsequent fine will be $75.

Up until Oct. 2, the city issued 2,041 traffic warnings based on camera data. An additional 709 violations are yet to be reviewed and potentially approved by the city.

Simpson said that after reviewing footage from the cameras — red-light cameras in six locations and one speed camera on Sherman Parkway — the city issued warnings for 673 red-light infractions, and on Sherman Parkway alone, 1,368 speed infractions.

Meanwhile, the red-light camera that caught the largest number of violations — 200 — was the west-bound camera at MLK Boulevard and Church Street.

The new red-light cameras were installed in September at the following locations:

• College Street and George Street facing south
• South Frontage Road and Park Street facing south and east
• Prospect Street and Highland Street facing all directions
• Quinnipiac Avenue and East Grand Avenue facing south, west, and east
• MLK Jr. Boulevard/N. Frontage Road and Church Street facing west, north, and south
• Orange Street and Edwards Street

Simpson said the numbers from September and early October were both “surprising and not surprising.” She said cameras were strategically placed at intersections that had reported more traffic fatalities, adding that alders, other city employees, and residents also had input when it came to deciding placement.

“They wanted to make sure that in the locations that they placed them, there would be an impact that folks could feel. They weren’t arbitrarily picked out. There was data to substantiate why these locations matter,” Simpson said.

Red-light cameras — which are not the same as automatic license plate readers — trigger when a traffic light turns red. They capture photos of cars that move through an intersection during a red light, according to Simpson. Speed cameras detect and photograph only cars moving more than 10 miles per hour above the speed limit, or 35 miles per hour in the 25-mile-per-hour speed zone on Sherman. Violations recorded by the cameras are reviewed by city employees before warnings or citations are issued, Simpson said.

Simpson said her department plans to “further refine the data to see if there’s a specific time frame in which these are happening.”

“We’ll dig a little bit deeper in to see what’s truly happening,” she said

School bus automatic-enforcement cameras, meanwhile, saw another 2,879 citations issued for cars illegally passing buses in September, according to data the Board of Police Commissioners and Traffic Authority reviewed on Tuesday. Since March, when the city first installed cameras on school buses to catch cars passing illegally, 13,776 citations have been issued.

The New Haven Independent is a not-for-profit public-interest daily news site founded in 2005.