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Politi-Cal

Anaheim voters ban red-light cameras

By Alexandra Zaviswriter 
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Anaheim voters have decided that they don’t want cameras installed at city intersections to monitor for drivers who run red lights.

Nearly 73% of voters Tuesday approved Measure K, which amends the Anaheim City Charter to prevent the City Council from authorizing any red-light cameras or other automated traffic enforcement systems.

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The move comes amid growing debate about the cost and effectiveness of the cameras, which are used in dozens of California cities.

The Anaheim City Council does not want to install them. But backers of the measure said they feared future councils might be tempted to do so to generate extra revenue for the city.

“Anaheim’s voters recognized that red-light cameras are not a proven deterrent to traffic violations or traffic accidents, and I happen to agree with that assessment,” Mayor Curt Pringle said in a statement Wednesday. “Other cities have chosen to use red-light cameras as a revenue-producing tool, but the City Council disagreed so we took the vote to the people, and they have spoken.”

Red-light violations accounted for nearly 40% of the 2,397 accidents at Anaheim intersections from 2007 to 2009, according to police figures. In all, there were 12,858 traffic accidents during that period.

-- Alexandra Zavis

Politi-Cal
Alexandra Zavis

Alexandra Zavis is a former writer and editor on the Los Angeles Times’ Foreign Desk who has reported from more than 40 countries. She spent a decade with the Associated Press, covering Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan, among other war-torn places. After joining The Times in 2006, she has served as a Baghdad correspondent and as a California reporter covering poverty and veterans issues. She is a recipient of the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Arthur Ross Award for distinguished reporting on foreign affairs and was part of teams of reporters awarded the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award for foreign correspondence and APME’s International Perspective Award. She is a graduate of Oxford University and City University in London.

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