Schaumburg drops red-light cameras

The village of Schaumburg is discontinuing the red-light camera program. It seems that the cameras didn’t improve safety at the intersections where they were posted.

Apparently, these intersections didn’t have a high incidence of side-impact crashes to begin with. Instead, there were simply a lot of vehicles making right turns on red without making a complete stop.

This issue really isn’t a big safety concern for the village in the first place; however, the cameras made a lot of money through fines and tickets for both the local government and the camera companies. In Bensenville, RedSpeed camera company generated more than $140,000 in fines, $89,639 of which went to the company.

According to the Chicago Daily Herald, Mayor Al Larson said that despite Schaumburg's own experience with the cameras, the village will not translate that into advice for other communities.