More Tickets, Fewer Accidents: How Cash-Strapped Towns Make for Safer Roads

Abstract

Traffic accidents are one of the leading causes of injury and death in the U.S. The role of traffic law enforcement in the reduction of accidents has been studied by relatively few papers and with mixed results that may be due to a simultaneity problem. Traffic law enforcement may reduce accidents, but police are also likely to be stricter in accidentprone areas. We use municipal budgetary shortfalls as an instrumental variable to identify the effect of traffic citations on traffic safety and show that budgetary shortfalls lead to more frequent issuance of tickets to drivers. Using a panel of municipalities in Massachusetts, we show that increases in the number of tickets written reduce motor vehicle accidents and accident related injuries, and that tickets issued to younger drivers have a larger effect in reducing accidents. The findings show that failure to control for endogeneity results in a significant underestimation of the positive impact of law enforcement on traffic safety.

Traffic Tickets

“…The higher the number, the better the score (The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2012). It is assumed in this article, similar to Makowsky and Stratmann (2009) and Makowsky and Stratmann (2011), that fiscal strain leads to the issuance of more traffic tickets. As this is a state-level analysis and not a municipallevel analysis, it is further assumed that fiscal strain at the state-level cascades to the municipal-level through lower levels of transfers and the decentralization of expenditure responsibilities (Jimenez, 2009).…”

“…The U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (2012) collected data on the number of fatalities from vehicle crashes. It is assumed that if the number of vehicle fatalities are high in a state, there may be more impetus to issue more traffic tickets to ensure public safety (Makowsky & Stratmann, 2011;Perin, 2011;Tay, 2010) This is one of the main independent variables.…”

“…The assumption that fueled this study was that officers were budget-maximizing as agents of the municipality while considering the voting ability of the driver and the good work evaluation that the officer would receive. In an apparent crossover article on traffic tickets from budget concerns to safety concerns, Makowsky and Stratmann (2011) found that municipal fiscal distress does lead to more ticketing but that more ticketing reduces car crashes and the number of injuries associated with those crashes. Garrett and Wagner (2009) found in another study that traffic tickets followed changes in county-wide economic circumstances.…”

Do Traffic Tickets Reduce Motor Vehicle Accidents? Evidence from a Natural Experiment

“…More recently, DeAngelo and Hansen () demonstrate that the mass layoff of the Oregon State Police due to budget cuts was associated with a marked increase in injuries and fatalities. Makowsky and Stratmann () use the financial health of a town as an instrument for the number of tickets issued to demonstrate that more tickets lead to fewer accidents. However, most of the existing studies use the number of police officers as the measure of traffic law enforcement, which may not be accurate because police have other duties besides patrolling traffic.…”

Sanctions for repeat offenders: a question of wealth?

“… To motivate the combined deterrence and revenue effects in the context of traffic enforcement see Makowsky and Stratmann (, ) and Tay (). …”