Another "Duh!" Moment

Brought to you by red-light cameras:

• Cars and trucks slammed into each other 28 times at Western Avenue and 63rd Street in 2006, the year before the Daley administration installed red-light cameras there in the name of safety. In 2008, the year after cameras went in, accidents at the Southwest Side intersection soared to 42, according to state data.
  
  It was not an aberration. Cameras are said to reduce accidents, but collision records compiled by the Illinois Department of Transportation indicate that accidents increased at many city intersections the year after red-light cameras were installed. In fact slightly more intersections saw an increase than a decrease, the data show.

This has been noticed time-after-time in most studies that at camera intersections, people tend to "panic stop" lest they get a ticket. And given today's abysmal state of driving ability, tailgaters and speeders, rear end collisions increase dramatically in these instances. A number of states have ended up pulling red-light cameras from service because of the marked increase in accidents.

Also noted in the article (and pointed out here a few years back) is the dramatic falloff in revenue on a per-camera basis as drivers get used to the controlled intersections.