August 06, 2010
Traffic Cameras and Behavioral Economics
Bad law enforcement provokes behavioral changes. Take traffic cameras’ affect on a local economy.
I grew up a bit southwest of Underwood, a small Iowa town located just north of Council Bluffs. Folks in that area often work in downtown Omaha, the jobs hub of that metro area. There are three choices to get downtown.
1) The shortest way. Cut through Council Bluffs, directly down Broadway, and go over the I-480 Bridge into downtown Omaha. The direct, quickest route also was very handy for quick stops at the grocer, the gas station or the dry cleaner on the way home. They lived and died by the commute traffic.
2) The longest way. A back road, alternately blacktop and gravel, suddenly and inexplicably turns into I-680, just after you go through Crescent. I-680 was “the scenic route” that went over the beautiful Morman Bridge north of Omaha. One could wind down by the airport to downtown. This route is lightly traveled.
3) The irrelevant way. A variation of the shortest way was to go BACKWARDS to I-80, around Council Bluffs, navigating a quirky intersection of Interstates 80 and 29, and then up I-29 to the same I-480 bridge. It added 7 miles to the drive, and so in three years of commuting to Creighton, where I went to college, I drove this route a grand total of four times.
Yesterday I was told by two family members that they now take the third “irrelevant” way. Why? Traffic cameras have been placed all over Council Bluffs.
Council Bluffs may be a safer place to drive. But I can attest that my parents are safe drivers. They drive the speed limit, minus one or two just in case. They come to complete stops. They did not text and drive, even when it was legal. They never, ever, would slam on their brakes for any reason if a car is behind them. It was not only dangerous, it was, well, not neighborly.
But then traffic cameras are not good judges of neighborliness. Hitting the brakes, hard, for yellow lights is now required. Say you were being tailgated as you approach a light that turns yellow. An experienced driver knows you are much less likely to get in an accident if you proceed through the intersection, even if you are a fraction of a second late. And a real live police officer would probably pull over the guy who was tailgating you through the light, and chew him out for riding your bumper to give you little choice but to just get through the intersection.
But the camera sends you a ticket in the mail. It is no consolation that the guy tailgating you gets one too.
How do they know this? It happened. And so they have stopped driving through Council Bluffs. They drive 7 extra miles each way. It takes more time and more gas. They no longer stop at the grocery store, the gas station or the dry cleaner. Instead they have every incentive to avoid town, take the Interstate, and shop in Omaha. And so they do. Behavioral economics at work.
The question is: Are speed cameras good for Council Bluffs? Government revenue might increase, and traffic might be a bit safer. But the decreased traffic would tend to harm the local economy. Especially given the multiple options Omaha-bound drivers have.
The obvious lesson: Bad laws and lousy law enforcement have negative unintended consequences. Citizens avoid the places who adopt them. Local economies pay the price. So its worth thinking about the rule of unintended consequences in policy decisions. Take traffic cameras. Please.
