Traffic safety advocates are praising the City of Wilmington’s move to add red light cameras at some of its more dangerous intersections.
AAA Mid-Atlantic criticized Wilmington in recent years for using the safety cameras primarily as a source of revenue rather than a safety measure.
The city is putting 16 new cameras at intersections this year based on need shown in Delaware’s Department of Transportation crash data. Wilmington will also remove six cameras and leave 28 in position.
AAA Spokesman Ken Grant praises the new cameras and the city’s use of DelDOT data as required by Delaware's administrative code.
“DelDOT has completed their report, finding some of the more dangerous intersections in Wilmington and the City of Wilmington used that as the blueprint for deciding where these cameras were going to go,” said Grant.
Grant says AAA also approves Wilmington’s decision to now pay a flat rate to its ticket vendor rather than on a per ticket basis, and to move its ticket review process from the Department of Finance to the Police Department.
“The Police Department is the Department of Public Safety and that is their primary concern as opposed to this being a revenue generator,” said Grant.
Grant argues municipalities across the country should try to move away from depending on traffic tickets as a revenue stream. He says he expects technology will phase out traffic violations in the near future.
