Question of the Day - 18 February 2025

In this year's biennial legislative session that started a couple of weeks ago, Nevada lawmakers will, according to predictions, consider eliminating the statewide ban on automated traffic cameras. These cameras monitor intersections and are used for traffic enforcement; run a red light, the camera snaps a photo of your license plate and you shortly receive a duplicate of the photo, along with a hefty fine, in the mail. There’s a process for disputing tickets, though in many places it’s onerous, and varying degrees of follow-up enforcement for violators who ignore the citations.

Major Las Vegas intersections are already under video-traffic-camera surveillance, but the cameras don't issue traffic-infraction tickets-by-mail on violators. Still, they reveal that drivers routinely run lights several critical seconds after they’ve turned red from yellow. According to the Nevada Independent, at one intersection along the 215 Beltway, for example, cameras identified more than 14,000 people running red lights in a single month. 

A 1999 statewide law bans the use of remotely controlled cameras to gather evidence against drivers who run red lights or are involved in accidents throughout Nevada. The issue, however, has reared its head in every legislative session since 2005, with the city of North Las Vegas unsuccessfully lobbying each time to allow the red-light cameras. In 2012, for the first time, the Nevada Transportation Department came out in favor of repealing the ban. For now, the cameras remain for surveillance purposes only, allowing commuters and drivers to make travel decisions based on road conditions. They’re one part of NDOT’s statewide network of Intelligent Transportation Systems, including freeway digital message signs and Highway Advisory Radio.

Red-light cameras have prompted much debate and some controversy. Numerous studies have shown that, rather than reduce the number of accidents, they've merely altered the nature of crashes, changing from broadsides to rear-enders.

Opponents argue that red-light cameras scare drivers into more sudden stops at yellow lights, which actually increase rear-end collisions. A comment we came across from a Californian attests to this, declaring that crossing major intersections can be like "flying through an asteroid belt, with people desperately accelerating or slamming on their brakes in frantic fear of an uncontestable $500 fine."

Many opponents believe that the red-light cameras address not a safety issue, but a revenue issue, and are an abuse of police powers. If safety is the concern, intersections can be re-engineered to improve traffic-signal timing. And of course, there’s the slippery slope of the possible invasion of privacy, whereby the cameras might watch not only traffic, but every move made in their field of view. 

Our view, since you asked for it, is that if the past 10 legislative sessions are any indication, intersection cameras used for enforcing traffic laws at red lights will remain prohibited statewide for at least two more years.