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.
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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