Red light cameras approved for Stratford Road

Richard Byrd/Columbia Basin Herald The Moses Lake City Council approved the addition of two red light cameras north and south on North Stratford Road at the Walmart and Winco private drive.

by Richard Byrd
| January 25, 2018 2:00 AM

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake City Council approved the addition of two red light cameras north and south on North Stratford Road at the Walmart and Winco private drive.

At a previous council meeting Moses Lake Police Department Chief Kevin Fuhr requested four new Redflex red light cameras be added to the city’s system. The request was for authorization to place two cameras north and south on North Stratford Road at the Walmart and Winco private drive and two other cameras north and south on South Pioneer Way at East Hill Avenue.

The council approved the cameras for Pioneer Way, but the Stratford Road cameras did not receive authorization from the council. The council sought more information regarding the Stratford Road cameras before approving them. In particular, the council wanted more information on the traffic lights themselves and the timing for the turn signals. Municipal Services Director Fred Snoderly said the timing for all of the turn signals in the city are standard and they all operate on the same timing sequence.

“So that’s pretty much the way we are going to leave that unless otherwise directed,” Snoderly told the council Tuesday night.

City Manager John Williams said if the council were to change the timing of the turn signals at the intersection, a traffic engineer would have to brought in and all of the traffic lights in the city would have to be reviewed. Fuhr explained to the council the red light cameras themselves are set up with a .10 second delay.

“So if the vehicle is moving and they are past the stop bar and the light is still yellow, they can make it through the intersection without a ticket. If the light turns red before they get to the stop bar, then they have one tenth of a second to get the car stopped before they go through the intersection,” Fuhr said.

The chief said every ticket that is issued, either through the red light system or the school zone system, is viewed by a MLPD employee. The employees are given the discretion to either void or issue citations. Fuhr said citations at the intersections with the cameras fluctuate, but accident numbers usually either stay relatively the same or come down a little bit from year-to-year.

At a previous council meeting Fuhr explained studies have found traffic cameras at intersections can reduce traffic fatalities, due to the risk of side and frontal impact being reduced. Rear-end collisions can be increased due to drivers stopping at a yellow light and getting rear-ended.

The city first contracted with Redflex Systems back in 2006 and had two cameras installed at the North Stratford Road/West Valley Road intersection. Over the years three more cameras have been added to the system at the East Broadway Avenue/South Alder Street intersection and on South Pioneer Way between East Nelson Road and Sharon Avenue.

Data from the city indicates the revenue back to the city for Redflex-related fines is $500,000 and the expenditures back to Redflex are $300,000. Four more cameras would put expenditures at $540,000 and revenue from fines would go up to $900,000. In addition to approving the Stratford Road cameras, the council voted to designate the revenue generated through the cameras to go back into the police department’s budget.

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.