Don’t want a traffic ticket? Don’t break the law. I would hate to count the times my family and I have almost been killed by red light runners. And many innocent folks have paid the ultimate price.
Our local community removed red light cameras from a notorious intersection after an outcry by citizens. A week later a young mother and two children were killed in that same intersection. Yep, he ran a red light.
Using lights to meter intersection traffic is outdated and leads to the accident you mentioned.
Traffic circles or roundabouts are far safer and more efficient in terms of average flow speed for all but the busiest intersections. Those should have lagging left turn lights with turn bays anyway; this was proven 40 years ago in Arizona.
The town of Billings, Montana has implemented traffic circles on virtually all of their new development areas and it’s a joy to drive there. People learn to use them after just a few trips through. Accidents go down and red light tickets are a thing of the past.
Traffic metering through lighting is now seen as a revenue generator by most cities which are losing money as the bricks and mortar retail stores close. It really is only peripherally about safety.
I will agree running a red light is dangerous and wrong. The reason I don't support these cameras are in Pennsylvania we paid a company as stated in the article. The company found they made more money sending tickets out willy nilly wheter you run a red light or not. The public backlash was huge. The company really hated out of state plate.
“I would hate to count the times my family and I have almost been killed by red light runners.”
Red light running is one thing but it gets beyond chicken shit when you are ticketed for not coming to an absolute dead stop before turning right on red when there is no oncoming traffic.
I don't know the details of the story you posted, but I suspect the removal of the camera had nothing to do with someone running a red light and killing three people. Most of the motorists who are caught by these cameras are trying to beat the light at the very end of the yellow phase, so the traffic signal is almost always in an "all-red" phase when the violations occur. The occasional motorist who just drives through a red light in the middle of the red phase when cross traffic has a green light is rare, and is often an egregious violator (like someone fleeing a crime scene) who isn't going to be deterred by a red light camera anyway.
New Jersey had a bunch of towns test red light cameras under a two-year pilot program a few years ago. I don't know how successful the program was at reducing traffic injuries and fatalities, but the program was shut down after one pathetic incident where hundreds of people received red light violation notices in the mail stemming from one evening in downtown Newark when police officers were directing traffic through red lights along a major road as a traffic control measure after a major event at the Prudential Center. The program might have survived that debacle except for the fact that one of the people bagged by the camera was the spouse of a state legislator.
Do you honestly think a camera would have prevented that? Just asking.
What he did was awful and I would say criminal--but which way does it cut, concerning red-light cameras? Reading the story, it looks as if the reduced yellow light periods favored (and sometimes contractually demanded) by the camera contractors and some municipalities increase the incidence of drivers running red lights. Briefer yellow phases produce more ticket revenue.
And if I read the piece correctly, municipalities and the camera contractors also don't like longer 4-way reds, which reduce red-light running as well.
The story seems to imply that red-light cameras are designed to cause more dangerous behavior for the sake of more dollars from fines.
A good defensive driving class will TEACH you that GREEN means take your foot off the gas pedal and look before entering the intersection.
“my family and I have almost been killed by red light runners.”
That is because red & yellow lights are fundamentally a flawed system. The State is too stupid to fix it. Drivers are too ignorant to understand why traffic lights are flawed.
Therefore, irrationality reigns.
If your children ever die, it is through ignorance of the Big State. It is less the fault of crazy drivers.
So rant & rage, but heavens, never solve the actual problem that is hidden to so many.
Don’t want bureaucrats in your town to shorten yellow lights to the point it causes lots of accidents?
Texas found that particular problem so ubiquitous that camera tickets had to be banned.
WHERE DO YOU DRIVE? I've been driving for 60 years and driven over 800,000 miles and only once did I have a close call with a light runner.
Don’t want a traffic ticket? Don’t break the law.
I think for most situations, roundabouts would solve the safety issue and also enable traffic to flow smoothly. I love those things.
And if everyone gave up their guns, nobody would get shot. ;)
In my state, the solution to this is simple. When the light changes, both directions are red for a couple of seconds.
Don’t want a traffic ticket? Don’t break the law.
Go ahead and read the article. It won't hurt you.
Net gain/loss = zero for both.
The only ones gaining are the light providers (usually half the fine) and the municipalities (more money for non-traffic related pet projects, with line the judges' pockets when the fines are contested.
If they won’t stop for safety , they won’t stop for a camera
If they won’t stop for safety , they won’t stop for a camera
Which proves nothing.
maybe those getting killed need to be more observant? aware of what other cars are doing?
just because light turns green does not mean you/the driver should go. it means go if intersection appears clear/safe.
What if your light turns green but you hear siren? or see emergency vehicle coming? you wait don’t you?
I suggest people not blame other drivers when their own responsibility is to be sure it’s clear to proceed. Otherwise you are just acting like that image people post of continuous people all walking off the edge into pit.