Junk Science in Houston Regarding Stop Light Cameras

Mines Road and Killam Industrial Blvd

The San Antonio Express News today reported that a study was done in Houston showing that accidents had been reduced at "some" intersections where the city had installed traffic monitoring cameras, or as they are commonly called, “stop light cameras”.  You know, the cameras that are used to issue tickets when you run the red light.

So Tom, you say junk science, why?  The studies only showed a relationship between accidents prior to and after the cameras were installed.  But isn't that good enough to show that the lights are effective?  Of course not.  Here is where common sense and a real understanding of statistics comes into play.  Remember the old saying, garbage in, garbage out?  One cannot make any real statement as to the safety increase or decrease based only on the accident data alone.  You can draw an anechdotal conclusion, but that is all.  The only accurate ways to determine if there was a real decrease in accidents would be to have had a baseline set of data illustrating traffic volumes and accident data for several months previous to the instalation of the cameras and then a repeat of the same data after the cameras were installed.  Then you would have a more accurate, but not exact causal relationship.  To be exact, you would have to dig into the types of cars, the types of brakes, the distracters at the location, and so on.    To draw conclusions and call them facts based on inadequate data is a disservice to the people who are funding these cameras.

Now, why am I writing this?  We are given JUNK DATA everyday by federal, state, and local politician’s, newspapers, public/private groups, and businesses every day.  We get JUNK DATA from all kinds of sources that want to sell their product or push their philosophies on us. 

All I ask is that you use common sense when reading these types of articles and understand that when you read about a study saying this or that, that you need to really understand if the study is comprehensive or not. 

Just like the global warming hype.  Ask yourself this one question.  Do you believe that computer models have all the data entered to determine if the earth is warming due to manmade causes?  Do you beileve that the trillions of data sets that are required to truly analyze the earths climate have been entered in the models?
I don't.  

Bottom line, don’t trust every study you read about or hear about.  Especially those created with a political or business agenda behind them.