The Round Rock City Council on July 24, 2008, selected Lasercraft Inc. as the vendor for its automated red light camera enforcement program.

You can view the staff presentation, City Council discussion and vote on awarding the contract to Lasercraft at Round Rock Replay. On the "Jump To ..." drop-down menu below the video player, select agenda item 10E1.

We anticipate going live with automated red light camera enforcement in December 2008. Candidate intersections for enforcement are currently being studied by the City and Lasercraft. Violators will be assessed a $75 civil penalty.

The City will continue with its other, ongoing efforts to deter red-light running, including public education, engineering solutions and traditional police enforcement.

Background
The Round Rock City Council unanimously approved a resolution Thursday, March 8, 2007 to create a red-light camera program.

Before the Council vote, City staff presented the results of a comprehensive analysis of the problem of running red lights in Round Rock. Personnel studied data from national, state and local sources on crashes and citations, and City of Round Rock sources on field observations and citizen complaints. Transportation Services staff also conducted a formal engineering analysis of major intersections in the City to verify they were operating as designed. Finally, intersections were monitored with video cameras to validate that red-light running is actually occurring.

The City Council in the summer of 2006 asked staff to investigate a red-light camera program as a tool to reduce the number of intersection accidents that cause loss of life, injuries, property damage and other economic losses.

In the United States in 2004, more than 9,000 people died and 1.5 million were injured in intersection accidents, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Approximately 40 percent of all crashes are intersection related, and 63 percent of all intersection-related crashes occur on arterial  roadways.

Crashes related to red-light running resulted in as many as 854 fatalities and more than 168,000 injuries in 2004. On average, collisions from red-light running are more deadly and damaging than other types of crashes at signalized intersections.

Survey results
The City conducted an online survey in January 2007 asking residents if they believed Round Rock had a problem with drivers running red lights. Of more than 300 respondents, 58 percent said that running red lights is a problem in Round Rock.

Download PDF of answers to the question "What intersection(s) in Round Rock do you think have a problem with motorists running red lights?"

Data Analysis
The intersections listed below were in the top ten worst intersections for at least three out of the four sources of red-light running data listed above.

• IH 35 and SH 45
• US 79 and Mays Street
• IH 35 and RM 620
• IH 35 and Old Settlers Boulevard
• Louis Henna Boulevard and Greenlawn Boulevard
• US 79 and Red Bud Lane
• RM 620 and Deepwood Drive
• IH 35 and US 79
• IH 35 and Hester’s Crossing
• US 79 and Georgetown Street
• Engineering Analysis

There are a number of engineered factors that may affect the frequency of crashes attributable to red-light running. They include: signal operation, signal timing, yellow interval, all-red interval, number of traffic lanes, number and location of signal heads, vehicle detector locations, approach angles, speed limits and directions, street lighting, approach grades and visual obstructions.

Due to a limitation on the total number of intersections that could be monitored, the assessment was limited to:

• US 79 and Mays Street
• IH 35 and RM 620
• IH 35 and Old Settlers
• Louis Henna Boulevard and Greenlawn Boulevard
• US 79 and Red Bud Lane
• RM 620 and Deepwood Drive

The results indicated that these intersections are in compliance with the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices and best engineering practices.

Video Monitoring
Using the results of the data collection and engineering assessment, the City worked with red-light camera vendors to obtain violation counts to validate the red-light running problem. The video monitoring at each intersection approach was limited to a 12-hour period, occurred on a weekday and included morning peak, lunch and evening peak.

Results were:

• 103 Violations at Louis Henna Boulevard and Greenlawn Boulevard
• 86 Violations at IH 35 and Old Settlers Boulevard
• 35 Violations at US 79 and Red Bud Lane
• 22 Violations at IH 35 and RM 620
• 18 Violations at RM 620 and Deepwood Drive
• 13 Violations at US 79 and Mays Street

Conservative estimates of annual violations using five-day weeks (Monday-Friday) and 50 weeks per year (multiplier = 250) are:

• Louis Henna Boulevard and Greenlawn Boulevard – 25,750 violations per year
• IH 35 and FM 3406 – 21,500 violations per year
• US 79 and Red Bud Lane – 8,750 violations per year
• IH 35 and RM 620 – 5,500 violations per year
• RM 620 and Deepwood Drive – 4,500 violations per year
• US 79 and Mays Street – 3,250 violations per year