Another success for the nanny state!
Posted on 03/21/2008 2:41:20 AM PDT by roaddog727
Last week, Dallas officials reviewed the numbers and decided that a quarter of the cameras they had installed to catch motorists running red lights were too effective. So they shut them down.
They are not alone. Faced with data showing that drivers pay attention to cameras at intersections — resulting in fewer ticketable violations and ever-shrinking revenue from fines — municipalities across the country are reconsidering red light cameras, which often work too well.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
I am a licensed professional engineer in a company that specializes in this kind of engineering work. Over the last few years I have made a number of offers on this site to represent -- free of charge -- any Freeper who has been given a traffic ticket at an intersection where one of these alleged "decrease the yellow time" schemes was in place.*
There is a very specific method that is used to compute yellow intervals for traffic signals -- based on various conditions at each intersection, including posted speeds on the intersecting roadways, sight distance, allowances for increased stopping distance under certain weather conditions, etc.
To date, I have not had a single poster here accept my offer.
* My only condition is that I get 10% of any monetary damages that are awarded in civil court as a result of any lawsuit that would surely follow such a finding. I would also take great pleasure in filing all of the necessary paperwork to have the engineer responsible for such a disgraceful travesty brough up on formal ethical/disciplinary charges before the appropriate licensing board in his/her state.
Well, thanks for the offer! Maybe it is that freepers are generally far more law-abiding. And I won’t be suggesting you make your offer to the greener pastures of criminal behaviors known as chaos, dummy-ville, huffy-puffy and cetera.
It’s hard to avoid a ticket when the yellow light is programmed for 2 seconds. Municipalities will find a way to recoup their losses from people stop on a dime and end up being rear-ended.
Either increases in rear enders or increases in t-bones. However I don’t think will cut the time much below the 1 second per 10 mph of speed limits that some now use. Although Houston did cut the time on some intersections recently below that norm.
You should get in touch with the National Motorists’ Association - http://www.motorists.com/ - they’ve been following the red-light camera issue for years.
To wit:
Don’t you recall that San Diego was sued and that shortening of yellow intervals was documented and proven in a class-action lawsuit resulting in the cancellation of thousands of tickets and removal of red light cameras?
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/00/63.asp
...and...
One of the computer-enforced intersections, the intersection at Grand Avenue and Mission Bay Drive, had citations drop from more than 1,000 per month to less than 50 per month when the yellow light time was increased by 1.7 seconds – from 3.0 seconds to 4.7 seconds – allowing drivers sufficient time to react.
“There is a very specific method that is used to compute yellow intervals for traffic signals — based on various conditions at each intersection, including posted speeds on the intersecting roadways, sight distance, allowances for increased stopping distance under certain weather conditions, etc.”
They don’t have stop light cameras in Florida where I’m at. The times I’ve been in Dallas I’ve managed to avoid running any red lights.
The cameras are run by computers,correct? So while there is a specific formula by which the timing should be set the value is set by a person. That person can make a mistake or can set it incorrectly.
IMO stop light cameras are solely about revenue generation and not about safety.
Another success for the nanny state!
. . . the intersection of Mission Bay Drive and Grand (1541) where the yellow change interval was extended from 3.1 seconds to 4.7 seconds. This change resulted in an 88-percent decrease in the number of violations. At the five other intersections, the number of violations dropped significantly in response to longer yellow times.
This isn't exactly a huge surprise. Reporting a decline in red-light violations after an increase in the yellow intervals at an intersection from 3.1 to 4.7 secinds is sort of like reporting a decline in drunk driving arrests after an increase in the legal BAC limit from 0.08% to 0.12%. The number of violations has declined because the definition of a violation has changed!
The question is: What SHOULD the length of the yellow interval at that intersection be?
I have no evidence to support this other than my own professional experience in this field, but there is no question in my mind that the single biggest factor in red-light violations at an intersection is THE EXCESSIVE SPEED OF MOTORISTS on the intersecting roadways. If a roadway has a posted speed of 35 miles per hour, the signal timing plans for its signalized intersections are going to be designed based on that speed. This means that anyone driving faster than that posted speed -- even just a little faster (say, 40 miles per hour) -- will face potential situations in which the length of the yellow interval will seem insufficient for a motorist approaching the intersection. A higher travel speed introduces an element -- called the "dilemma zone" in traffic engineering -- that involves a brief moment of uncertainty on the part of a motorist approaching a traffic signal just as the indicator turns from green to yellow (i.e., should I try to beat the light or should I brake hard to stop in time?).
IMO stop light cameras are solely about revenue generation and not about safety.
I agree with you 100%. Ironically, one point of this article is that the REMOVAL of red light cameras will ultimately be driven by revenue generation (or lack thereof), too!
Obviously there are people for whom a yellow light means to floor it. The camera industry has financial incentive to hand out more tickets. Most Americans hate traffic cameras IMHO because they are un-American. We do not trust our govt officials or the companies making money off the tickets.
Bull. If safety was important, there would be no red-light cameras. It would be up to the good judgement of our citizenry as to whether it is safer to stop at the light... or continue driving to avoid a rear-end collision.
With red-light cameras, the choice is gone. One MUST stop or one is in violation of the law. If stopping results in a rear-end collision, well... you no longer have the choice to avoid it.
(snip)At the heart of the discussions taking place in city councils and county commissions is tension between the twin benefits that were touted when local governments began installing cameras about a decade and a half ago. Officials were promised that the cameras — which take snapshots of busy intersections, capturing the license plates of any cars that are running the light — would simultaneously save lives and generate millions of dollars in extra fines.(snip)
I agree with you, but I was commenting on the article. Read (smip).
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