Posted on 12/13/2004 12:15:50 AM PST by weegee
The city has erected Jersey Barriers on our freeways and city streets all over town but it still hasn't kept the NJ drivers off the roads...
The real purpose is to generate $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ not only for the city but the companies building/maintanining these systems!
As for safety:
The cameras do lower red light running and therby t-bone crashes (headon collision into side of crossing traffic). These are the more deadly kind of collisions.
But many more rear end collisions occur at the light as some drivers thinking that they can make the light run into the drivers ahead of them who decide they need to stop.
Jersey driving is a state of mind. They are everywhere.
They're all over the place in N.VA but I still see people running lights daily. Pretty much at every intersecion :-/
If they are going to go for revenue, they should actively trail school buses then as the top fine was raised to $1,000 if I recall (Elanor Tinsley in the mid 1990s).
Er, that fine is applied (in varying amounts) to drivers who pass a stopped school bus that is loading/unloading children (flashers on) even if you are coming the other way (on a road that does not have a divided esplanade of concrete or grass).
With Houston being swamped with immigrants, most of them illegal, it's not surprising that their traffic problems are those of a third world country. Good luck on getting any of these law breakers to come in after being caught on candid camera!
"It's almost like they're encouraging folks to run 'em."
BINGO.....
How's this going to change anything? Houston's streets have always been bad and as far as I can tell; this is going to continue.
I've witnessed drivers in Peru, Belize, Amsterdam, and the Czech Republic as well as Canada and Mexico.
Traffic lights don't mean the same thing to some countries (I've seen "traffic cops" controlling the flow where we would have lights! In America, you will only see that in an old cartoon or 3 Stooges film today).
There's an interesting article in Wired Magazines about Traffic circles, with the removal of basically all traffic signs and lane markers, being the answer to traffic problems. Basically, it makes people tentative and careful, and cuts accidents drastically.
Figures Wired would be shilling for anarchists.
Why don't they urge the same concept in data processing? What would it do to throughput?
I've found that if you take off from a downtown light when it turns green and drive 88 mph, you can make four lights before you have to stop.
The hard evidence seems to be that that it works.
These problems aren't anything that more tax dollars can't fix. Right?
There is still a financial incentive. I mean remove the incentive period.
No $$$$ for anybody. Make it purely about safety and the entire system will short-circuit.
Government cannot function without graft.
That already happens in Houston. I think it will decrease with the cameras. If I am well short of the light as it goes yellow, I stop. I have narrowly avoided bing rear-ended many times, as the driver(s) behind me assumes I am continuing through.
Fear of the camera should at least make it clear to such drivers that you can no longer assume the guy in front of you is going to speed up at a yellow light.
Well, the camera light intersections here in Maryland still have rear end collisions even after three years.
One thing that the Montgomery Co traffic folks did do right is the pedistranian cross walks and red lights have a digital countdown in seconds to red! This should help the rear end collision rate, but some people will never learn! LOL!
Curious argument, isn't it? I wonder how long I'd last in traffic court arguing that the police violated my right to privacy when they arrested me for running a red light, or speeding, or any other traffic infraction, for that matter.
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