This shouldn’t be the way traffic safety works on our streets. 

If you spend enough time in Eugene, you’ll know that intersection on your route where it’s typical to see semitrucks and multiple vehicles of all sizes running red lights (West Seventh Avenue at Chambers Street for me). But what about out-of-towners? What about new drivers? What about those kids who think it’s safe to go on green?

Following traffic laws shouldn’t lead to severe injury and death. According to the city of Eugene, there were 81 crashes leading to severe injury or death due to people running red lights between 2020 and 2024. That is tragic and unacceptable, particularly when there is a well established tool for quelling this behavior.

Red-light cameras are known to reduce illegal behavior and crashes. You’ll find them in cities around Oregon, and they have been used globally and nationally for decades to positive effect. Now, the city is considering a pilot in Eugene.

Should the city rely on enforcement as the only tool in making our streets safer? Absolutely not. But redesigning streets takes time and money, and we need our streets to be safer now.

Should red-light cameras go in without regard to equity and privacy? Absolutely not. The city can follow best practices that organizations like the Vision Zero Network have researched and disseminated about equitable implementation.

Red-light cameras are not the same as Flock Safety cameras and other automated license-plate readers in that red-light cameras only capture the license plate of law breakers, while Flock cameras capture all license plates. Data sharing has yet to be determined, but the city will not want to have the problems people feared with Flock Safety. 

The public has the opportunity to weigh in on these and other concerns in the city’s intersection safety cameras survey. Please join me in urging the city to move forward with a red-light camera pilot project, taking equity and privacy into account, while continuing to improve the design of our least safe streets.

Sarah Mazze
Eugene