Photo by Chris Rief

A new report by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that red light-running decreased significantly at four Arlington intersections outfitted with red light cameras in 2010.

According to the report, instances of drivers blowing through a light 1.5 seconds after it had turned red—when an accident is most likely to result—dropped 86 percent since the cameras were installed. Violations within one second of the light turning red dropped by 48 percent, while violations within a half-second decreased by 39 percent. Being caught by one of the cameras results in a $50 fine.

This isn’t the first study in Virginia to reach this conclusion. According to The Atlantic, a similar study in Virginia Beach came to a similar conclusion, but also found that once the cameras were removed, drivers were quick to return to their red light-running ways.

D.C. has a much broader network of red light cameras—50 in all—that produce $150 tickets for violators. Though no such study has been done on the city’s cameras, there is evidence that instances of red light-running have decreased in some locations. In 2011, a red light camera on Third Street southbound and New York Avenue NW handed out 4,838 tickets, while a year later it only produced 3,634. Still, other locations saw increases in violations.