Red Light Cameras – Charlestown asks for offers

Town issues a “Request for Proposals”

By Will Collette

The surprisingly controversial idea that Charlestown should install cameras at its stop lights along Route One to catch drivers who run through them is back.

Charlestown has officially posted an RFP (“Request for Proposals”) asking vendors to submit proposals to install the system to cover at least four, if not each, of our traffic signals. The RFP says Charlestown wants proposals that will provide the town with state-of-the-art coverage at no cost to the town.

The town wants a “turn-key” system where the cost of installing and maintaining the system is covered by fines paid by red-light runners. The RFP states that if the revenue from the fines is less than actual cost, the vendor will be expected to eat the deficit.

Of course, there is a chance that enough tickets would be issued to bring in some revenue. However, that’s not the point, Chief Shippee told me. He said he wants to see drivers change their behavior so when they approach a red light, they stop. Signs will be posted at the intersections to warn motorists that red light cameras are monitoring the intersection.

“There might be some rear end collisions,” said Chief Shippee, when motorists stop rather than flying through the light and risking a ticket, but there is less potential of fatal injury than a T-Bone accident when a red-light runner slams into a car going through on a green light.

The specifications in the RFP call for giving the Town Police full control over the settings and real-time monitoring ability. The specs call for the capacity to allow a person who gets ticketed to be able to go on-line to see the photo of their car going through the light.

When the red light camera debate burst open last year, we wrote about it often in Progressive Charlestown. My position, based on my experience with the system in the Washington DC area, is very positive.  Others have raised concerns about privacy and safety (including the issue of possible increases in the incidence of rear-end collisions).

The CCA ran comment after comment on their website blasting the proposed red light cameras. Many of these comments contained some pretty outrageous and downright false claims. Read them here, here and here. The CCA made no attempt to fact-check or moderate these comments.

No doubt this new RFP will re-open that debate, especially if the town receives some viable proposals by its March 27 deadline.

The town will give these proposals to an independent review group to evaluation. Since the town does not expect to have to pay for the system, the evaluators will judge the proposals based on how well the systems meet the town’s expectations and standards.

For example, there is a whole section in the RFP that describes the town’s environmental standards for the systems – not too ugly, not too tall, no floodlights and a strobe or flash that is not too bright.

Read the RFP by clicking here.