Pittsburgh Councilman William Peduto wants drivers who run red lights to pay for new traffic safety measures.

The likely mayoral candidate said yesterday that he will submit legislation to council Tuesday that would have the city invite a private company to put cameras on some traffic lights.

Those cameras would record the license plate numbers of cars that blow through red lights, and either the city police or the Pittsburgh Parking Authority would send the car owners a $100 ticket.

The resulting revenue, which Mr. Peduto said would "be in the millions of dollars," would go toward boosting the city's investment in traffic lights, stop signs, painted crosswalks, and other safety features.

The concept has worked in other cities, including Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., he said. The city could get a camera system without any outlay of funds, he said, because a private company would pay to install and maintain the devices in return for a portion of the ticket income.

In Philadelphia, cameras have been installed on lights at five particularly dangerous intersections, said Tony Radwanski, spokesman for Philadelphia Council President Anna C. Verna. He said the program is being expanded.

"It has proven very successful here in Philadelphia by decreasing the number of violations by as much as 80 percent" at those intersections, he said.

Mr. Peduto said his idea came out of conversations with Carnegie Mellon University History and Policy Professor Joel Tarr, who was driven to act by the April death of a student who was crossing Forbes Avenue.

The two then had conversations with doctors at UPMC-Children's who have been tracking the locations of car-pedestrian and car-bicycle accidents involving kids.

Mr. Peduto said a report on the most dangerous intersections will likely be released next week.

"We need a real capital investment program in order to make our streets safe," he said. "This is an opportunity to have a budget that will be able to address these problems."

He said that besides council approval, the city would have to get the state Legislature to OK the plan, as it has already done for Philadelphia.