Council approves new traffic cameras

Last week, City Council approved the purchase of new fish-eye traffic cameras that are equipped with a 360-degree view allowing them to see all four corners of an intersection. This vote by Council gives the Austin Transportation Department, which already owns 15 of the cameras, the go-ahead to buy 300 more of them over a three-year period. The department uses the cameras for vehicle detection, traffic counting and to make improvements to signal timing. Engineers can use data generated from the cameras hopefully to reduce delays – which is all anybody’s worried about, isn’t it?