Do Speed Cameras Make Streets Safer?

• In Event: Traffic and Road Safety

Abstract

Over 40,000 people die in automobile collisions each year in the U.S. and 1,000 die during encounters with the police. To make roads safer without increasing contact with the police, cities and states are increasingly turning to automated traffic enforcement, cameras that detect and fine motorists who speed or run red lights. Does such automated enforcement reduce vehicle collisions, injuries, and deaths? To address this research question, we combined data on all recorded automobile collisions in New York City with data on all violation tickets issued by automated traffic enforcement in the city between 2007 and 2023. We exploit the staggered rollout of the speed cameras as a natural experiment in a difference-in-difference framework to isolate the causal effects of automated enforcement on driver, bicyclist, and pedestrian safety.

Authors

• Aaron Stagoff-Belfort, The University of Chicago

• Jonathan Ben Menachem, Columbia University

• Brenden Beck, Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice