Camera Gains Exposure as a Device for Traffic Control

“When it’s least expected,

You’re elected,

You’re the star today,

Smile . . . you’re on ‘Candid Camera!’ ”

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They’re everywhere. On freeways. On city streets. At train crossings. In the subway. And maybe soon on buses.

Indeed, in Southern California’s transportation network, cameras are becoming as common as freeway call boxes.

The freeway cameras may be used one day to monitor what the state Office of Traffic Safety says is a “growing problem with commuters eating, reading, changing clothes, brushing their teeth and generally paying less than full attention to the road.”

But don’t worry. They’re not used for that--yet.

New York City uses cameras to catch drivers running red lights, and other cities use them to nab speeders. But in Southern California, where officials are wary of a public backlash to Big Brother government, cameras have largely been used to help identify the cause of traffic jams.

“Privacy is the biggest issue in our way of spreading this program across the nation,” said Wayne Porter of Electronic Data Systems, which set up the surveillance system in New York.

Local transit officials, however, are gearing up to expand use of cameras along the Blue Line route between Los Angeles and Long Beach to catch drivers who pull around lowered gates to cross the tracks. Photos will be taken of the drivers and their license plates. Violators will receive tickets in the mail.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is prepared for negative public reaction: The cameras are in bulletproof containers.

Transit officials are also exploring placing cameras on buses to deter crime. And Pasadena (which once posted a sign reading “Smile, you’re on photo radar”) is trying to revive using cameras to shoot--figuratively, of course--speeding motorists.

Caltrans has about two dozen closed-circuit cameras on Los Angeles freeways but plans to triple the number within a few months and eventually install 400.

The pictures are sent to a control center in Downtown Los Angeles, where workers seated in front of a bank of screens can quickly spot an overturned big-rig or spilled load of oranges, dispatch a cleanup crew or tow truck and pass on warnings to traffic reporters.

The cameras can zoom in on cars, but close-up shots produce a fuzzy picture. “You can’t see inside the cars,” said Joseph Brahm, a senior transportation engineer for Caltrans, offering assurances that the cameras are used only for traffic control.

Albert Romero, a Caltrans employee who works in the traffic control center, said he once spotted a motorist stranded in the middle of the freeway and alerted the CHP. The driver turned out to be a carjacker.

But most of the time, sitting in front of the monitors is like watching one rerun after another. Nothing but cars and more cars, interrupted by an occasional jackknifed truck or car chase.

Sometimes, Romero relies on commercial TV for the best view of freeway trouble. When O.J. Simpson led police on his famous freeway chase, Romero said, “I was home, fortunately.” Telecopters provided a better view of the action, anyway, because Caltrans doesn’t have enough cameras on freeways.

The city of Los Angeles has cameras at about 70 major intersections and plans to install up to 150 within the next few years.

The city cameras work much the same way as the freeway cameras.

Sensors in the ground signal to an electronic map in the city’s traffic control center when a street is congested. The cameras let traffic engineers know why.

The MTA is planning to install cameras along the entire Blue Line route. Cameras were installed on a test basis at several locations in 1993 after 22 motorists and pedestrians were killed trying to beat trains across the tracks.

During a six-week trial, the MTA sent out 520 tickets--and that was just to motorists caught crossing tracks illegally at one location, Washington Boulevard and Los Angeles Street in Downtown Los Angeles.

MTA officials say the cameras have greatly reduced collisions between cars and pedestrians. In addition to an average $250 fine, violators can be ordered to attend traffic school and watch a film on rail safety.

But one problem during the trial run was that about one-fourth of the violators got away because they didn’t have front license plates to photograph.

The transit agency also uses more than 100 cameras to monitor behavior at Blue Line and subway stations.

Three workers are assigned full-time to watch the screens. When they observe somebody disobeying the rules, such as standing too close to the edge of the track, they can bark out orders over an intercom.

A few years ago, Pasadena used a single camera around town to catch speeders. But the program was discontinued when it ran into funding problems and other difficulties.

The camera would photograph a speeding vehicle’s license plate and the driver.

The city has looked at seeking state legislation that would make a photo-radar speeding ticket like a parking ticket. Parking tickets are deemed the responsibility of the owner of the car, not the driver.

That is what is done in New York where cameras were installed in December, 1993, at 18 intersections to catch cars running red lights. Photos of the vehicle’s license plate, the traffic light and the street name are sent to the car’s registered owner.

New York City officials consider the program a success.

The first year, the cameras were responsible for 182,731 tickets.