Skip to main content

Study says New Jersey voters strongly support red light cameras

The National Coalition for Safer Roads (NCSR) has released new research showing that New Jersey residents who took part in a survey it commissioned overwhelmingly support the use of red light safety cameras. The poll found that 77 per cent back the use of cameras at busy intersections in New Jersey, with 43 per cent saying they ‘strongly support’ the cameras.
April 18, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
RSSThe National Coalition for Safer Roads (NCSR) has released new research showing that New Jersey residents who took part in a survey it commissioned overwhelmingly support the use of red light safety cameras. The poll found that 77 per cent back the use of cameras at busy intersections in New Jersey, with 43 per cent saying they ‘strongly support’ the cameras.

"New Jersey voters report that drivers in the state are more careful when they are aware that red light cameras are installed at busy intersections," said Adam Geller, founder and CEO of National Research Inc, whose client list includes Fortune 500 companies, and elected officials throughout the country, including New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. "They perceive the same thing as other studies are showing – that these cameras make roads safer, help prevent accidents, and save lives."

Among 600 likely New Jersey voters, more than half (56 percent) report they drive more carefully when they know that red light safety cameras are present. More than seven in ten (71 per cent) believe other drivers are more careful when safety cameras are present.

"Drivers, pedestrians, cyclists and passengers have made it clear they want these cameras in their communities," said David Kelly, president and executive director of the National Coalition for Safer Roads (NCSR), and former acting administrator of the 834 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). "Although there is a vocal minority who opposes these life-saving devices, the public overwhelmingly supports red light safety cameras because they change dangerous driver behaviour, reduce accidents and save lives."

The new survey comes on the heels of a national study conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety showing that two thirds of drivers in 14 big cities with longstanding red light camera programmes support their use, and that more than 90 per cent of drivers surveyed in the 14 cities believe red light running is unacceptable. More than 80 per cent deem it a serious threat to personal safety.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • US DOTs introduce measures to stop wrong-way driving
    March 28, 2018
    Wrong-way driving (WWD) is a remarkably innocuous term for incidents that all too often cause some of the worst accidents that emergency services have to deal with. Several US states are now taking steps to minimise the problem, as Alan Dron finds out. You’re driving down a highway at night when you see approaching headlights. You initially assume they are merely those of an oncoming car on the opposite carriageway. It’s only when they are within 200 yards or so that you realise that the other driver is in
  • ITS World Congress debates perceptions of enforcement
    December 4, 2012
    The technical programme of this year’s ITS World Congress in Vienna includes a special session on the image of enforcement. ITS International examines the scale of the problem and what can be done about it. Debate on the merits and difficulties of enforcing speed limits appears centred on a conflict of principles. Put very simply, local communities, people living close to busy or hazardous roads, want to see traffic speeds calmed. Drivers on those roads, on the whole, want their principle of freedom to be m
  • Belfast and Bristol ‘most congested cities in UK’
    April 5, 2013
    According to the 2012 Congestion Index from satellite navigation specialists TomTom, motorists in Bristol and Belfast now face the slowest moving traffic in Britain. Even London’s infamous rush hour is less congested than peak-time jams in cities like Manchester and Nottingham, the annual global traffic figures found. The index shows that the average journey for drivers in Belfast takes 32.1 per cent longer than it would do if traffic moved freely, while in Bristol, journeys take 31 per cent longer. Londo
  • COMMENT: Lessons from Bloomberg’s brush with danger
    July 4, 2022
    It’s not often that the ITS sector intersects with the art world, but Bloomberg is having a brush with danger. To explain: during 2020-21, Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Asphalt Art Initiative gave grants to dozens of cities to add a splash of colour to their roads in the form of intersection murals, crosswalk art, painted sidewalk extensions and so on.