The Chicago Tribune’s transportation writer, Jon Hilkevitch wrote a decent front page story on how GPS units are helping motorists be more careful at intersections that have red light cameras.

The article concentrates on Speed Cheetah’s GPSMirror but does mention Cobra and a few other websites that offer red light camera data.

Hilkevitch doesn’t really cover the idea of loading up 3rd party red light camera POI (Point of Interest) databases into your standard GPS units, which is really the majority of the marketplace.

The Trib also has a decent map of Chicago red light cameras as well as a listing of every suburban town that has red light cameras.

Finally, there are a few video interviews with Hilkevitch on WGN-TV and CLTV discussing his article.

This website published a comprehensive article on using GPS units to avoid red light camera tickets, about five weeks ago.

Devices help drivers spot ‘cops in a box’

More gadgets, Web sites warn of police cameras at stoplights nationwide

Jon Hilkevitch

The proliferation of cameras to catch speeders and drivers who fail to stop at signals has spurred a burgeoning industry of entrepreneurs and Internet sites to warn motorists of photo enforcement, or the “cops in a box.”

The gadgets are a strong countermeasure to the technology being installed across the country at crash-prone intersections and on highways. Gov. Rod Blagojevich wants to install anti-speeding cameras on interstates in Illinois.

The market for gadgets includes some customers who simply want to avoid tickets. Not surprisingly, there’s a good chance such a driver has previously bought a “fuzz buster” detector that pinpoints the presence of police radar.

But other customers are more interested in safety. They are the defensive drivers who want to know when they’re approaching an intersection with a history of crashes, a typical location for a camera.

D.J. Lynch, who has been driving for about 30 years, said the intersections near his home in the south suburbs are legendary for crashes caused by aggressive drivers. With his two children often in the car with him, making for a possible distraction in the back seat, Lynch said he wants to be warned of potential problems.

That’s why he plunked down $299 for a snap-on rearview mirror with a built-in navigation system that points out danger spots locally and across the country. He knows to drive at those spots with caution—to avoid possible wrecks and stay out of trouble with the law.

About 400 yards before his vehicle approaches an intersection monitored by a red-light enforcement camera, a prompt in the form of a female voice with a British accent issues the alert: “Red light camera ahead.”

The voice inside the mirror then reminds him of the speed limit, and his real-time speed is digitally displayed on the mirror.

“I was kind of stunned how well it works,” said Lynch, 46.

He did not buy the high-tech aid to skirt the law, he said, adding he hasn’t had a speeding ticket or other moving violation in about 20 years.

Using global positioning system technology, the software in the device Lynch purchased, the Cheetah GPSmirror, is programmed with memory points marking red-light cameras in more than 350 communities in 24 states and the District of Columbia. Users can up-load more locations as they are added.

Other products, including some made by Chicago-based Cobra Electronics Corp., and numerous Web sites also are capitalizing on the trend.

At www.photoenforced.com, drivers are encouraged to submit locations where red-light cameras have been installed.

More red-light camera locations are being installed almost every day as a more municipalities are testing new tools to encourage safer driving, according to the National Campaign to Stop Red Light Running. The group vigorously endorses enforcement technology, pointing to more than 170,000 crashes and almost 900 deaths in the U.S. in 2006 attributed to red-light running.

The City of Chicago reports crashes have been reduced by 20 percent in the two years since the camera technology was installed in early 2006 at 10 intersections. Long-term data from 100 other camera locations is being tabulated, officials said. The cameras were installed in 2003.

Crashes decreased 30 percent, from 1,055 in 2004 to 736 last year, at intersections where red-light cameras were installed in 2004 and 2006, according to the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

“We are changing driver behavior, and not only at the locations with cameras,” said David Zavattero, deputy director of the OEMC.

“Crashes at intersections citywide are down 4.6 percent since 2004. More people are beginning to assume there is photo enforcement at every intersection and that a red light means stop,” he said.

The registered owners of vehicles photographed running red lights are mailed tickets carrying $100 fines. The city expects to reap $50 million in revenue this year from the fines.

Devices like the Cheetah GPSmirror, made by Scotland-based Cheetah Advanced Technologies Ltd., can memorize the locations of radar speed cameras mounted on light poles, or places that drivers select, for instance, spots where the speed limit suddenly drops and police officers frequently set up speed traps. A warning sounds if the driver exceeds the speed limit.

Manufacturers contend the units are not comparable to radar detectors marketed to help speeders evade police enforcement.

“Half of our customers are over age 55 who want to be a better, more-prepared driver,” said Al Smith, vice president of marketing at Cheetah USA. “It’s not being bought by the young speeders.”

He added that the Cheetah device is legal in the U.S.

The devices cannot track the location of photo-radar speed enforcement vehicles such as the vans the Illinois State Police send into highway construction zones.

Blagojevich this month proposed putting 108 speed-enforcement cameras on interstate highways in the state to crack down on speeders and reckless drivers while generating a projected $40 million a year in fines.

Money from the $75 speeding fines would be used in part to hire more state troopers, Blagojevich said.

More than 110 Illinois municipalities, many of them in suburban Chicago, either are using or plan to deploy red-light cameras, according to insurance trade organizations and other groups that track the trend.

Chicago has 110 red-light intersections and plans to add 30 more by year’s end, plus have at least 200 additional cameras by 2012, according to the OEMC.

Critics say the red-light cameras help pad depleted local government coffers, and officials don’t disagree.

“I don’t refute the fact that red-light cameras generate revenue,” said John Bills, deputy director of operations at Chicago’s OEMC.

But more important than the millions of dollars in fines, “The biggest number that is of concern to me is a 59 percent reduction in people running red lights since the camera program’s inception in 2003,” Bills said. “There are still too many violations, but we are changing negative driving behavior.”