Red light cameras could be back in Greensboro

GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) —  Red light cameras could be coming back to Greensboro.

Greensboro Assistant City Manager Trey Davis presented the Red Light Camera Program Plan at Thursday’s city council work session.

He gave an update on what it would take for the city to bring back the red light cameras. Making the streets of Greensboro safer is the goal of the Red Light Camera Program Plan.

“Ultimately, it’s about saving lives or trying to save lives and reduce significant injuries,” Davis said.

Drivers along Wendover Avenue say they like the idea.

“It’s always important to catch people doing bad things, especially … red lights … I think it is important to have red light cameras so that people to catch people who do get into car accidents and stuff like that,” said Isabella Bryant, a driver.

Davis said the proposed red light camera program would cost around $300,000 to $400,000 each year. The city would contract with a third-party vendor.

Using data gathered from the Greensboro Department of Transportation, they are also looking to identify the top five angle crash intersections where the cameras could potentially sit.

“What history of data would tell you is that the annual crash is … almost like a t-bone crash … can be much more serious than the rear-end crashes,” Davis said.

Greensboro shut down its Red Light Camera Program in 2005 after courts ruled the city must give 90% of its revenue from the program to Guilford County Schools. It made it financially impractical for the city to continue using the cameras.

The rule hasn’t changed.

Despite the rule, at the work session, city council members still expressed a strong interest in the return of the red light camera. It remains unclear how they will pay for it.

“There have been some lawsuits throughout the state. However, none of them have been successful in their pursuit. But we do know that there’s still a few cities in our state that are maintained in the program,” Davis said. “A good bit of it was relevant to the split in the funds … where the cities could recover more of those funds of different tradeoffs. However, I want to say this: Our focus is really about … safety. I wouldn’t want to see us not move forward on a program like this for the sake of trying to labor over different percentages.”

City staff plan to move forward with working on the plan for the Red Light Camera Program and will begin to work out how it could fit into the city’s budget.

Davis said the next time the plan is expected to be discussed in front of council members will be in May.

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