Posted on 12/13/2004 12:15:50 AM PST by weegee
continue(sic) to receive numerous reader e-mails concerning problems with traffic signals. Let's tackle a bunch of those questions today:
Q: Is anything in the works to do something about this situation of so many drivers running red lights?
— Peggy Garcia, Houston
A: Houston plans to install cameras beginning next year to monitor red-light violations at up to 50 intersections with high collision rates. Mayor Bill White announced his support for the idea earlier this month and is expected to ask for City Council approval this week.
The city attorney has concluded Houston may issue civil citations for motorists captured on the cameras in an intersection after the signal has turned red. If City Council goes along with the controversial plan originally proposed by the Houston Police Department, cameras could be up by spring.
Privacy advocates, motorists groups and some state lawmakers strongly oppose the cameras, however, and the issue could end up being decided in Austin.
Q: The traffic signals downtown are still a joke. They all turn green (or red) at once! On Austin Street, for example, all the lights from south to north in downtown turn green at once. The objective (I suppose) is to go as fast as you can to make as many lights as you can. When are they going to fix this?
— David Kester, Houston
A: The traffic signals downtown are synchronized, meaning the lights on north-south and east-west streets change at the same time. This is by design, said Wes Johnson, spokesman for the Department of Public Works and Engineering.
In other parts of the city, public works has been sequencing the traffic signals. Sequenced signals turn green as traffic rolls along the major street, meaning a motorist traveling the set speed (usually the limit or 5 mph under) won't usually have to stop.
The city has agreed with the Metropolitan Transit Authority that the Main Street light rail line is the most important aspect of downtown signal timing. Trains receive priority at intersections and the system is designed so that they should not have to stop between stations. This makes sequencing downtown lights impractical, Johnson said.
He said the massive street repairs downtown since 1998 have disrupted normal traffic patterns, making it difficult to sequence the signals even if MetroRail were not a factor.
Q: A fairly new signal at Woodway and North Post Oak Lane in the Galleria area is not in synch with the other lights. It causes quite a backup on both sides of the West Loop.
— Leslie Friedman, Houston
A: Johnson said a public works crew will look at the signal timing and see what adjustments are necessary.
"Work on the West Loop might also be adding to the traffic delays at this location," he said.
Q: On the Texas 249 feeder road between Louetta and Cypresswood there is a street called Chasewood. It has a five-second green for Texas 249 and 55 seconds for Chasewood. The traffic count is phenomenally backward as there is no cross traffic ever when I'm sitting at the red light. What can be done about this?
— Robert Lindgren, Houston
A: "We found problems with two of the traffic sensors at this intersection," responded Janelle Gbur, Texas Department of Transportation spokeswoman. "On Dec. 3 we repaired the sensors and the signal is now working normally."
Please e-mail comments and questions to traffic@chron.com, call 713-362-6832, fax to 713-354-3061, or mail to Lucas Wall, Houston Chronicle, 801 Texas Ave., Houston, TX 77002. Include your name, city or county of residence and daytime phone number.
CAMERA-SHY It's time to implement videocam traffic enforcement
Toll-Free Hassle - When good EZ TAGs go bad (Automated traffic ticket camera failures)
HOUSTON (gridlock) PING
Dec. 12, 2004, 9:15PMLETTERS
Camera's goal is safety?
Copyright 2004 Houston ChronicleShift in responsibility is bad
The Chronicle's Dec. 5 article "STREET SAFETY / Crossing signal troubles persist / Year after death of a pedestrian, downtown repairs remain in progress" indicated that of 76 downtown intersections on four streets, the Chronicle found 32 to be defective. Further, the article mentioned that responsibility for these intersections is split among the city of Houston, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the Houston Downtown Management District and various construction contractors.Now with the city's consideration of cameras to catch red-light runners, it will be abdicating control of traffic to yet another private contractor!
If the camera contractor will be under a contract to share revenues with the city, it will surely try to control traffic signal timing to ensure its revenue stream. Do you want the yellow warning time reduced to where no one can get through intersections without being caught on camera going through a red light?
Cameras should be used for improving safety, not to increase revenue. As part of a safety program, yellow time might even need to be increased to reduce red-light running.
Traffic control in Houston is the responsibility of the city of Houston — not any other entity's. The city should accept its responsibility and assert authority over signal placement, timing and all aspects of traffic control.
ROBERT SCHWARTZ
Houston
What about those traffic lights that change for no reason whatsoever in the middle of the night, using pressure sensors, and not a car for blocks around?
It's almost like they're encouraging folks to run 'em.
We have cameras in Chicago and they don't generate revenue! They were sold in the name of safety, and the cost is $5.1 million!
But do they cut down on red-light running?
That's the purpose after all isn't it?
Red-light camera violations carry a $90 fine. As of October 5, more than 67,400 violations had been issued.
"The project is the first stage of a planned citywide video surveillance strategy that will link City departments into a single network."
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CTA buses each carry a new full-time passenger who never blinks and is invaluable in solving crime. The new passenger is a digital camera that takes approximately four pictures per second.
"Lt. Clark Schroeder of the Public Transportation Section said: "We're watching. That's all I can tell you. We're out there and we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.""
The article in Wired Magazine?
Seems the solution to traffic problems is to basically eliminate traffic lights, road signs, lane markers, and pedestrian walkways.
Well, we probably need them. We have something of a culture of red-light running here and probably need to take whatever means necessary to change it. Probably means I'll get a ticket, though I try not to do it.
Someone told me that in NJ the culture is to take off real fast from the light. That will get you killed in a hurry in Houston. NJ and Houston drivers apparently do not mix.
Privacy? It's a public street.
My route home when I lived in H. Glad to be out of the traffic!!!!
I've seen some traffic lights that "get stuck" sometimes and never turn green for example (A) one side is STUCK green for 10+ minutes or (B) a left turn lane only gets a signal every 3 cycles.
At what point do you get to determine that a light is broken and roll on through (when the road is clear)?
Will we be facing tickets and court appearances over this (even if the movement is justifiable)?
If an officer had to be present to write the ticket, no such court appearance would be necessary for broken traffic lights.
As someone else has noted, Metro bus drivers ROUTINELY run red lights (and it is not uncommon to see them start up from a dead stop to do so after waiting at a bus stop). Will they be cited for their violations or granted an exemption?
Most lights nowadays have all-red periods built into the timing sequence, which didn't used to be the case. Drivers know that once the light goes red, there will still be a few seconds before the cross traffic gets the green and starts up. Hence, more people try to run the lights. Of course, this also gives incentive for drivers to anticipate the green, and start up before they actually see the green. Lengthening the yellow, or extending the all-red buffer just gives drivers more incentive to try to cheat.
Make violators stand in a court house corner for 8 hours on their day off. Perhaps wearing a dunce cap. That would suck far more than being fined $90.00 and there would be no reasons to play games with the lights.
Polling centers are public places too but you will find all cameras banned in them too despite rampant vote fraud at times coordinated with polling officials. That pesky privacy.
You have the right to face your accuser and that cannot be done when you are being accused by a machine.
Essentially this is the case with defensive driving class.
They are mandated to run a minimum of 6 hours and the tests can be impossible to fail if the instructor so chooses.
It is essentially a time out in the penalty box for being a "bad boy".
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