The number of injury collisions in San Francisco caused by red-light jumpers has dropped by more than half over the past decade, a dramatic decrease that officials attribute in part to cameras mounted at nearly two dozen treacherous intersections in the city. 

"The cameras aren’t the panacea, but they certainly help," Bond Yee, the city’s director of parking and traffic, said Tuesday. He said public education and old-fashioned police enforcement also contribute to the reduction of red-light violations. 

In 1998 - the year after the first red-light cameras were mounted at a handful of intersections in San Francisco - the number of reported injury crashes involving red-light violations was 773. In 2006, the number was 374, according to data compiled by the city. 

The city has 28 cameras, which are rotated among 23 intersections, Yee said. At any given time, some of the units that house the cameras are empty because the city does not have enough money to supply cameras at each location. The trick is to keep drivers from knowing which intersections have working cameras, Yee said. 

The city plans to equip 10 more intersections in the next few years.  

Unlike the existing stock of cameras, which use film, the new ones will be digital. Now, technicians have to manually remove the film from the cameras and process it. Yee said the new technology will give city officials the ability to download the images onto any computer and also to better monitor traffic conditions in those areas. However, images only are recorded when the cameras are electronically triggered by a vehicle blowing through a red light.  

The next three intersections in line to get cameras are Market and Gough streets, Ellis and Larkin streets, and Turk Street and Masonic Avenue. The intersection of Gough and Market was the second-most dangerous intersection in the city last year, with eight injury accidents reported. The nearby intersection of Oak Street and Octavia Boulevard topped the list, with 14 injury collisions. 

Despite the big reduction in red-light crashes, the offense still accounts for a major portion of collisions in San Francisco. The biggest number of nonfatal injury collisions in San Francisco last year involved speeding. 

The red-light program comes with a hefty price tag - approximately $300,000 per intersection to pay for engineering, construction and equipment. The digital cameras alone cost more than $40,000 apiece, Yee said, and many intersections have more than one camera aimed to catch people traveling in different directions. 

"It seems like money well spent," said Municipal Transportation Agency director Leah Shahum, who also serves as executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. "I’d like to see an expansion." 

Online resource 
www.sfmta.com

Key facts

773

Number of S.F. collisions involving red-light violations in 1998

374

The number of such collisions in 2006

23