Red-light cameras likely coming back to Modesto after being dormant for over a decade
Drivers may want to reconsider gunning it on a yellow light if the Modesto City Council votes in favor of reactivating red-light cameras in the area.
The city’s Safety & Communities Committee voted Jan. 13 to recommend the city readopt the practice, which has been dormant for over a decade. Red-light cameras were in fashion over a decade ago and have seen a nationwide resurgence.
Red-light cameras take photos of vehicles, and their drivers, that enter an intersection after the signal switches. The city then sends a ticket to the mailing address listed on the vehicle’s registration. The fine for running a red light was about $500 when the cameras were last in use.
“We have to slow Modesto drivers down,” said City Councilmember Jeremiah Williams, who sits on the Safety & Communities Committee. “We have to stop measuring lives in dollars.”
According to Williams, there have been 41 traffic fatalities within city limits in the past two years. He said that while not all of them were because of red-light violations, he called the decision to bring back cameras “obvious.”
The California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) reported that Modesto ranked among the top three worst cities — out of 60 of similar size — for total fatal and injury crashes. For three of those years, Modesto ranked No. 1.
Discussion arguments for bringing back the cameras stated that traffic cameras reduce red-light violations by 40% at the intersections where they are installed. They also affect nearby intersections that don’t have cameras, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Locations for the new cameras were selected based on both one-year and three-year collision data. They also took into account intersections where “injuries are most common, speed is a factor and institutional knowledge demonstrates significantly negative outcomes.”
The proposed locations for the new cameras are:
- Briggsmore Avenue and Coffee Road
- Sylvan Avenue and Coffee Road
- Briggsmore Avenue and Carver Road
- Pelandale Avenue and Carver Road
- Oakdale Road and Briggsmore Avenue
- McHenry Avenue and Standiford Avenue
- Oakdale Road and Scenic Drive
- Carpenter Road and Kansas Avenue
- Ninth and G Streets
- Yosemite Boulevard and South Santa Rosa Avenue
Some of the previous locations of red-light cameras will not be installed with new ones, with the city citing “recent engineering improvements” that “may have mitigated locations that were previously low in safety.”
In 2014, then-Police Chief Galen Carroll said a lack of staffing had been the main reason for keeping the cameras dark toward the end of the city’s contract.
The committee item was proposed by the Modesto Police Department. City documents stated MPD recommended the return of cameras due to “staffing challenges, (traffic) statistics and rankings.”
Williams said the city was “just starting to rebuild” MPD’S Traffic Safety Unit, which at its peak was staffed with a dedicated police lieutenant, two sergeants and about 18 officers. Currently, the unit has one sergeant and five officers.
“While the department and city are working diligently to increase this staffing, it is prudent to explore technology solutions that support efforts to increase community safety while reducing collision,” read the item’s language.
Modesto had red-light cameras from 2004 to 2014, but the program dried up when the city’s contract with the cameras’ manufacturer, Redflex, ended in 2014.
City officials at the time touted the cameras to the public as being “cost neutral” when Modesto entered into the 2004 agreement. That meant Modesto would collect enough money from its share of the red-light tickets to pay what it owed Redflex.
The Stanislaus Superior Court collected the payments from all of the traffic tickets Modesto issued and sent the city its share. But the court did not provide the city with a breakdown showing how much of that revenue came solely from the red-light camera citations.
The new cameras would be purchased from the Mesa, Arizona-based company American Traffic Solutions. The city estimates the cost to be about $3.6 million over five years. The money would come from the city’s Traffic Safety Fund and from citation revenue.
That revenue would be put back into the city’s Traffic Safety Fund. City documents related to the item did not state the new cameras would be cost neutral.
The City Council will most likely discuss the item at its next meeting, Tuesday, Jan. 28.
This story was originally published January 25, 2025 at 11:44 AM.
