How Much Distance to Warn of Red Light camera

I like 1000 feet for the red light camera.

I have tried various distances between 500 and 1000 ft and have settled on using 750 feet! Seems just about perfect for me !

I use about 140 meters or 450 feet. That way I know I'm in the same city block as the camera.

I agree with Box Car. In the city, if the distance is set too long, it can be unclear which intersection ahead has a red light camera. On the other hand, on a 4-lane state road with a 55 mph speed limit, 450 feet may not give the warning early enough. I have compromised on 600 feet.

All POIs in the file must have the same distance - there is no way to customize that unless the POIs are divided into two or more files.

dobs108

I think you guys may be overthinking it, dunno why 1320 is in mine, I thought it was by default. I recognize that as 1/4 mile, and never felt it was too long, or too short. The point is to stop when the light is red, but be aware that there is a cam. The point may also be to step on it on yellow or green, but if the yellow is timed properly, there's no need to do anything differently.

Individual distances for each location can be set in a GPX. Not that I do it, but I do convert the file to GPX adding the distance before loading.

In nearby city I can't readily determine which light has the RLC. It does't matter though. The alert reminds me not to get distracted along that street.

if you have "redlight" in the file name the POILoader will default to 1/4 mile (1320 ft).

The bothersome thing about this distance is that since it sets a proximity alert I get a RLC alert when the actual camera is on a parallel street and there is no RLC on the street I'm on. Annoying. I set the redlight file to 500 feet and let the speed camera file default.

I set the red light cam warning for 1/8 mile, but I have the speed warning set a little higher: 1/3 mile, figuring the speed camera radar will be able to "see" a little farther. This way, I will have additional time to reduce speed before coming into the range of the camera that takes the actual picture.

528 feet, or 1/10 of a mile. It works for me.

@KenSny
I am interested because the way proximity alerts work is that the coordinates of the POI must be within 30 meters (roughly 98 feet) of the center of the route of travel. I can see a cross street alerting or a camera on an overpass/underpass alerting, but a parallel street seems unusual.

If you can detail one, I want to see what that one and nearby ones look like in EPE.

Thanks

PS: for those wondering about the approximately 98 feet, remember that the programming logic is being done in meters as GPS devices are worldwide and most of the world uses the metric system. Internally, everything is converted to metric.

I set mine for 660 feet (1/8 mile), which has worked very well for me over the years.

thought that was the default too

This has happened to me a few times. It is possible for "parallel streets" not to be strictly parallel even in big cities like New York. Some streets are at an angle to the grid and other streets such as Broadway are curving.

When the alert distance is set at 1320 feet (1/4 mile) that is a very long distance compared to the normal spacing between intersections of 1/10 mile in Manhattan in a north - south direction. This adds to the possibility of detecting a "parallel street" location.

Streets such as 3rd Avenue can be up to 5 lanes wide in one direction. This allows your car to travel on an angle if you are changing lanes. Thus your direction of travel is not parallel to the street. Add all these variables to the 30 meter offset and it becomes more likely for this effect to happen.

dobs108

If you let the speed setting default then what you get is a "Prompt Distance = 36 seconds * Speed" which means the faster you are traveling in relationship to the speed limit the further away from the camera your warning will trigger. And you will ALWAYS get an alert even if you are traveling the speed limit, and that's a good thing.

Not really trying to over think this, but in MHO it's good to know what the POILoader does.

Yes I would do that, but maybe we should take this off forum, instead of "highjacking the OP's thread, or I could start another topic.

Thanks

The place I encounter the most RLC is in the City of Philadelphia (PA) and a city block there is about 620 feet which is the distance I set my alert for.

I left mine at default. It works out well because it is about two blocks before I reach the red light camera. Plenty of time for me to be prepared.

Me to

You'll get camera alerts all day for the cross streets that go over and under the highway. Of course, you ignore them because any logical person would know that there are no red lights on this portion of the interstate.

[aside]For those of you that don't know, the Long Island Expressway (or I-495) wasn't truly an interstate spur because it didn't intersect with I-95, so some big brained individual had it go through Manhattan thereby adding traffic lights and cross streets, just to get some gubment funding for the highway. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_495_%28New_York%29)[/aside]

Good question, never gave it a whole lot of thought, I uses 500 feet. But, you need time to safely make the decision to stop (I stop on a yellow at an RLC to be safe), but really depends on where you're driving:

- In a metropolitan area (AKA the 'burbs' where I usually drive) 500 feet seems about right, given most RLC are placed in areas with speeds of 45MPH and less.

- In a downtown big city environment, I'd recommend reducing to 200-250 feet, given most RLCs in cities have slower speeds and a standard city block is 328 feet.

Well, I was not talking about cross streets. I said parallel streets, sometimes well before the cross intersection. A previous poster above seems to have seen the same thing.

I've been using 600 feet for years, for redlight cameras, and twice that for speed cameras. Seems to work well for me.

I use the default. That is usually enough warning for me to find a place to turn around and go some other way.

The default settings seem to work fine for me.

The default seems to work great at the camera locations near where I live.

Here is Dallas you may have two red light cameras in the default setting of 1/4 mile! That's why I set mine at 660 ft or 1/8 mile.

If driving safely and within the law why does anyone need to be warned of red light or speed cameras...

Everybody makes mistakes occasionally, so if it makes us more aware, then what's the harm?

Because they are not always accurate and some of us would prefer to avoid them. The cameras ought to be banned.

You've never gotten distracted and broke a law unintentionally before?

As mentioned, they are not always accurate and in a few cases it's been proven some have short yellow cycles. In Philadelphia most of the RLC are accompanied by a walk signal with a count down timer, I'll start to break if the counter is 5 or less even though the light is green to avoid getting a ticket because of a possible short yellow.

It is one constant reminder when you venture into the city. Chicago I believe has one of the higher densities of cameras in the US. I take the train whenever possible.

I find the distance really is a personal choice, often determined by one's own driving habits, city/town streets, etc.

I use 2 alert's 1 at 1320ft with the factory alert and have the second one at 450ft with a MP3 alert
Just my choice

Everything was working just fine until I drove downtown. Then it appeared like there was a camera on every intersection.
I had to reset it to a much lower number - the issue with that is the warning is shorter.

I gave up trying to readjust the warning distance based on location and just drive as if every intersection has an RLC whenever I hear my RLC warning.

RLC 1500 feet
Speed Cameras 0 mph
Speed Traps 4000 feet

I'd rather know sooner than later.

Good info... worth some thought.

200 meters for RLC, the stock 400 meters for speed cams.

Both are plenty if you drive responsibly.

My warnings are at a quarter mile. I like to know well in advance.

I have mine set at 600 seems to be adequate for the most part as there is no real right or wrong here some places are a better than others thou.

I think it's arbitrary. Set it for whatever you feel works best for you. Like several others here, I set mine to 1320 feet. That seems to work best for me, in most instances.

1/8 mile for me - 660 feet.

660 seems to do fine

I was 2 blocks away on a parallel street...it actually distracted me more. Thanks for input, gives me something to consider changing.

Works for me.

Excellent question. I've not tried the speed camera option but when I do I'll remember the info.

There really is no perfect setting. In more urban areas, a shorter distance is better (~500 feet or so). But on high speed limit roads, the default setting is much better.

I usually have it somewhere in between since I find myself going between more and less urban areas with cameras.

I notice that if I use the default setting on the speed camera I notice that they are set too way early, The red light camera seems to be ok .

I would like to know if anyone have notice any problem with the speed trap alert.

On the way to drive north I got a warning of a speed trap,( police car hide out) and I got the warning a head of time.

But on the way to drive back south, I got the warning after I pass the location that the police car hide.

does anyone know why I did not get the warning ahead of time like I did when I was driving in the North direction?

I am not aware of any at the factory.