Red Light Runners
Wed, 10/21/2009 - 5:36pm
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17 years
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I'm not particularly in favor of red light cameras, but sometimes they just may be useful--in Illinois, for example. I live in Maryland and we have some of them scattered about, in the DC suburbs mainly. I don't believe cameras or runners are a major problem here, at least on the Eastern Shore.
Earlier this week I had occasion to visit the Elgin and Joliet area for a couple of days. It seemed that at every other stop light someone sped through the intersection on a changing red light, after I had the green. No cameras. Maybe there's a good reason for all the cameras in Illinois... Or did I just hit the area at a bad time? What do you think??
Red Light Cameras Save Lifes
It's a fact. The Mayor of Phoenix proved it with a study.
ooooohhhh studies... you can use and produce a study to have whatever results you want... that is one of the first things they teach in a statistics class.... bottom line is convince the public they need the red light cameras then count the $$$$ as it comes in... safety is an excuse... revenue is the reason....
If Used Properly...
...cameras should save some lives, it seems to me. BUT if the jurisdiction also shortens the yellow light time, it's not only clearly for revenue, but also it's dangerous. I think that might be why some studies show red light cameras cause more accidents. It's not the camera, but the time of the yellow light that's the culprit. What do you think?
Tuckahoe Mike - Nuvi 3490LMT, Nuvi 260W, iPhone X, Mazda MX-5 Nav
Right on.
One of the reasons for squeezing the yellow light is the impatience of drivers for the length of red lights, particularly when there is no other traffic on the scene. Many intersections in suburban Chicago have these dumb lights that have protected left turn arrows. When you miss that left arrow, regardless of other traffic, you have to sit through all the other light cycles, even though there are magnetic detectors in the road that signal no traffic. Even straight through traffic sees this problem when there is a red light for a single vehicle in the cross traffic and must wait for the lengthy light cycles. I assume that relay technology is long gone, so traffic engineers could reprogram these intersections to be intelligent. When heavy traffic is on the roads, from 6-9am and 2-7pm in Chicago suburbia, there is a lot of waiting for unsynchronized traffic signals. Here in St. Charles, IL, the city leaders decided to pay for a few RLC's, but still don't fix the downtown traffic lights so that once an emergency vehicle has unsynchronized these lights, traffic backs up for miles before the lights resynchronize. And we wonder why people squeeze through yellow lights?
Both these measures would save significant fuel, foreign oil purchases and air pollution. All we need are intelligent leaders (an oxymoron) to think this through.
That's what PO's me about RLCs. That and the implicated trumped up revenue stream.
I agree 100%. I understand the turn arrows when the traffic is heavy but not when there are few cars on the road. We have one intersection, where if you are not on the right spot on the turn lane, the arrows will not turn green and you have to wait another cycle to get through.
With all the technology, they should be able to fix this.