RED LIGHT RUNNING IN ADELAIDE

The Transport Systems Centre at the University of South Australia was asked by the Office of Road Safety at the then Department of Transport, to conduct a study into red light running in Adelaide, South Australia. The study had two specific objectives: to determine quantitatively the extent of signal non-compliance at a sample of Adelaide intersections, and to attempt to establish an offender profile from personal observation at these sites. The project involved the observation of violations from 12 signalised intersections located within the Adelaide Central Business District and metropolitan area. In total, 1668 violations were recorded over 96 hours of observation equating to a violation every three and a half minutes. Violation rates ranged from 1.8 percent of total flow to 0.03 percent for individual surveys. Two intersections with Red Light Cameras installed ranked third and fourth respectively out of the total of 12 intersections. Pedestrian crossings were not immune to red light runners and showed high degrees of non-compliance at certain times. The offender profile was quite marked with most of the violations caused by passenger cars with a middle aged male driver who was wearing a seatbelt. The majority of violations occurred with the through movement from either the first or second left-most signalised lane and immediately after the onset of the red signal during the all-red signal phase. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see IRRD abstract no. 492019.