Red Light Camera

The drivers in my city are notorious for racing through yellow/red lights to the point that you do not pull out on a green light without looking both ways and pulling out slowly.

The city started installing the red light cameras at the intersections that had the highest number of major accidents. In a year's time, the number of accidents dropped substantially at these intersections to the point that the city was no longer generating enough revenue to pay the company that maintained the camera systems. The city made the right decision to fund the difference due to the safety improvements. This to me is the proper use of the proper tool as qbee42 states.

On a lighter note, there was an article in the paper of how one guy challenged the camera company by sending in a copy of a $50 bill along with the picture of his car in the intersection. The sheriff's department sent him a picture of handcuffs. He paid his bill !

 

Agree!

Agree again!

Is that what happened where the two fire trucks collided? Each one thought it had right of way?

And again I agree.

It's curious how people told me "You have to obey the law, just because it is the law," when I was breaking the law as nonviolent civil disobedience. (And admitting in court what I did, and accepting my jail time without complaint.) But those same people will make all kinds of excuses for breaking speeding laws and running red lights and cheating on their taxes.

There WILL be rare occasions when you must run a red light to avoid an accident, but those cases should be handled in court as Tom suggests, because, as jdcollins5 says, obeying traffic laws saves lives. (And traffic lights avoid gridlock.)

Break the law if you like, but don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

I say, let's have no-gaps traffic monitoring and remove driving privileges from people who cannot control their vehicles.

 

I think that $ 120 is a bit much for a red light violation in Delaware. Yes, i did run a red light, but the camera didn't show the semi-trailer getting within 9 inches of my car(driver's side, about 3 inches from the mirror), which drew my attention, about 150 feet from the intersection. I believe that i was centered in my lane of traffic. I glanced over to my right side to see if i had room to move away from the truck(four lanes of traffic at an intersection), by the time i looked forward again i could see the red light at the intersection, to late to stop.

 

I think there should be more red light cameras and they should be placed everywhere. The more prevalent they are, the more people change their behavior. They are an effective deterrent which in turn saves lives. I realize they will do nothing to prevent inattentive or stupid people.

 

While the red light cameras are revenue generators, I think it's great that the revenue isn't being generated from those driving safely.

I have always found it amazing that economic motivation can cause vast cultural shifts. The red light cameras are starting to do that. At around 40,000 death per year, there is a lot a room for improvement in identifying ways to combat this horrifying number.

 

This is why we need a *lot* more roundabouts.
.
I found that vid a couple of weeks ago, and was probably most
impressed by the spinning white pickup truck...
.
_H*

 

Excuse # 374 for breaking the law: "Yes I ran a red light, but they only enforce traffic laws in order to generate revenue."

Boooooguuuuuusssssss!!!!!

 

There are plans in the works for creating two roundabouts in our nearest real city. Listening to some of the complaints being voiced you would think the city planners were proposing to steal children and make sausage out of them. People sure get set in their ways.

I recall looping around roundabouts in France, where I was very slow with reading the road names on the signs. Each rotation I would identify one more street, until I could finally find the street I needed. One more rotation brought me back to the proper street and I was on my way, until the next roundabout. Note that this isn't a criticism of roundabouts, but simply a commentary on my poor aptitude for reading French road signs.

Tom

 

Yep, just another really GOOD reason to STOP at red lights......

And HELL YES, MORE red light cameras. Maybe after you get nailed 3 or 4 times you just might the idea, "Hey, they really want me to STOP at a red light!!!

Go figure

 

What?!!!

None of them appeared to be Prius...none of them appeared to be Toyota?!!!

From recent media exposure I thought Toyota's were designed to run red lights?

 

Couple things:
I don't think the people in this video would've done anything differently if they knew where the red light cameras were, they were pure and simply unaware of the conditions of the road ahead. No sane person would knowingly drive at full speed into a street of crossing traffic.

We have some red light cameras in our town and the local newspaper ran a set of articles on red light cameras in Illinois, largely negative. The part that bothers me is that most of the tickets were written for turning right on a red without coming to a full stop. While illegal, it is one of the least dangerous maneuvers out there. The good part is that they have a still camera and a video camera, and there's a person that reviews each violation and decides if it's ticket-worthy. A good percentage (30% I think) are tossed out, because of things like the person came to a stop but a little over the line, or slowed down but didn't completely stop before turning right. I would think they would see the case where you are stopped, then move to get out of the way of an out-of-control vehicle behind you or even an emergency vehicle.

And I was amazed by the pedestrian at 2:50 - steps back at the last second to let the distracted driver through, then casually continues on his way. And how that car got thru at 3:14 without a total chain reaction wipeout I really don't know.

 

Of course they are about revenue generation for cash-starved cities. According to a USA Today article, many cities even shorten the timing for the yellow light in order to catch more "dangerous" drivers.

 

The really scary thing is that so many people think that red means "Check to make sure no cops are around before you skip on through."

The point of the camera is to enforce the law. If knowing there are cameras makes people obey the law, all the better. If they choose to break the law, they get ticketed, and eventually (maybe) lose their license, though that seems to happen all too seldom.

Not about trying to get people to stop on red? Even a little bit?

 

I don't have a problem with that, I was just saying the examples in this video would not change because of the red light camera. After all, these intersections did have the camera. These people were totally distracted and often not even aware there was an intersection there, let alone a camera. I ran a red light one time, and I just simply didn't realize it was red until I was past the intersection, and wondering why a car was still stopped in the other lane. (It was late and the roads were completely empty, and somehow I had it in my mind that the light had changed to green, but looking back I saw it couldn't have been so).

The good thing about a camera in these cases is that the offending driver can't try to claim the aftermath wasn't their fault, and hopefully they'll realize just how dangerous their driving really was.

The point of this video to me is that we need to be vigilant in all directions, even when we're obeying the law.

 

In New York you stop at a red light or you crash. There is always traffic. The red light cameras are set up to catch people going through yellow lights - that is my objection to them.

 

Objection to people going through yellow lights, or objection to red light cameras?

Once again, if they only ticket people for breaking the law, I don't see how anyone can have any right to complain. The yellow light has a very specific purpose, and blasting through at the last millisecond to avoid being delayed isn't it.

Tom

 

Arrghh! In the tradeoff between safety and money.....which one wins.


It would be nice to take those city leaders to the northern Gulf of Mexico and say: "In the course of deciding on how to improve revenue, the BP management decided to reduce the time to secure the well......"

 

There's a "game" in Bulgaria's capital called Russian Road Roulette, where after dark youths will take bets on whether a driver can cross an intersection at full speed against the red. They can't use their brakes, and they can't hit anything or leave the road or they lose the bet. At least 5 people have been known to be killed by this so far, but I think that craze hopefully has peaked.