Rahm Touts Specious Numbers To Make Speed Camera Safety Argument

By Chuck Sudo in News on Mar 14, 2012 2:00PM

Photo via Chicago Mayor's Office Facebook page.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has stayed with the message that his rationale for adding speeding cameras across the city is more about safety and not the tens of millions of dollars the city's coffers would hold. Emanuel has even told media outlets to take a look at the numbers, if there were still any doubts.

The Tribune did and found that—shocker—Emanuel is using fuzzy math. The Trib discovered Emanuel's claims were "based only on an informal analysis of traffic statistics."

The Tribune initially attempted to get their hands on the statistics the Emanuel administration was citing, but ran into the mayor's increasing "do as I say, not as I do" contradiction on transparency. So the paper conducted their own analysis of city traffic data provided to the federal government and discovered the mayor was overstating the reduction of fatalities stemming from red light cameras.

"Instead of the 60 percent reduction the mayor touted, the Tribune's analysis of accidents for the same locations revealed a nearly 26 percent reduction — one that mirrored a broader accident trend in the city and across the nation. The difference? The city said fatalities dropped from 53 to 21 in the targeted zones, but the federal statistics showed the before-and-after numbers were 47 and 35."

Scott Kulby, deputy managing commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation, told the Tribune Emanuel "inadvertently handed out a working document showing a set of incorrect numbers."

"I think it was an honest mistake."

Yesterday, Emanuel announced the speed camera contract would be placed to bid after an excellent Tribune report revealed the details of mayoral ally Greg Goldner's lobbying efforts on behalf of the camera company that holds the contract for the city's red light cameras. Emanuel will propose his speeding camera ordinance at today's City Council meeting.