heinrich

Imo you're fine

SharkSkin

Imo000

I understand how some are upset about this subject, but the red light camara system, if used properly ,is an effective tool to deter red light violator. From all the different comments I see, It's clear to me that some agencies use it in an inproper maner. This is something that can destroy the sole purpose of this tool.
The Insurance Institute for High Safety did extensive studies on this subject perhaps they are a better suited authority on this subject than I. http://www.iihs.org/searchresults.as...d+light+camera




Gretch,

Despite the fact that this topic is part of my profession, I know that you don't beleive anything that I say and it realy doesn't matter if you do or you don't.

FlyingDog

A properly used camera could be effective. I don't believe that any have been or will be properly used. People, like you, who design the systems are too idealistic. You don't account for the psycological reactions of the drivers or the money grubbing reactions of politicians, bureaucrats, and number crunchers at contractors.

Red UFO

Big brother if used properly can deter all types of behavior and create bland p*ssed off, oppressed people who eventually blow sh*t up out of frustration.

I'd rather be on the look out for idiots on the road, because no amount of of cameras can sober up a jackass in a H2 on his cellphone talking to his homies. I'd rather be looking out for that assclown, then looking over my shoulder for some Rumsfeld idiot watching your every move from his office, waiting to tax the hell out of you for your 'crimes'.

People in the traffic business have to shout propaganda like this to justify their jobs, speed kills, cameras are needed. Because if you get rid of them, their budgets tighten and there are lay offs.

Imo000

Fair enough. Now tell me, what would you do if you were faced with an intersection that has a high collision rate due to red light runners? How would you try to solve this problem?

heinrich

The problem is best solved in the following ways, or a combination of:

1) Bigs' excellent suggestion of all-red delay
2) traffic circles as apposed to crosspath collision magnet intersections
3) law enforcement that enforces SAFETY as opposed to easy-to-ticket "offenses"
4) driver education on an ongoing basis
5) more visible lights (strobe/LED as opposed to incandescent)

Kevin in Atlanta

Growing up in Southern New Jersey I remember along HWY 130 that there were no left hand turns allowed. You would actually merge to the right to enter the cross streets traffic to make a left.

Red UFO

I thought Darwinism handles this problem nicely. No need to 'fix' or regulate it.

Why have all these cameras? 33% of drivers are on cellphones, text messaging, downloading movies, eating food, rubbing one out. People aren't paying attention anyway. Why have them sort of pay attention at an intersection. Then go back to blabbing on the phone until they get to another one.

Its just stupid. All people need to do is take a look at what England has done. They are an electronic prison. Every car will be tracked, you will be fined for no seatbelts by camera. Tail gating by cameras.

After they force the people into a bunch of dosile cattle, sure traffic 'crimes' will go down. So just watch the gov make new crimes to get more money.

I say the country revolt and deinstall the cameras via lasers, paintball guns, voting, whatever it takes.

Dave Howerdel

Yep, NJ is pretty much an "All turns from right lane" state.

Imo000

These are all very good suggestions and that’s why a lot of them have been implemented (at least in Ontario) for some time now.

1) The All Red phase is and has been implemented at every intersection in Canada (I’m not sure if this is true for all the states). The minimum requirement is 2sec. for all intersections and if the intersection is large this will increase. The purpose of this phase is to clear the intersection of any “left over” vehicles and it’s not meant to be used to run the red.

2) In Canada, we are now starting to implement traffic circles as a way of controlling un-signalized intersections. The popularity of this was at first rather slow but finally it’s catching on. This type of traffic control has been successfully and widely used in Europe. Unfortunately it took decades for them to make it to this side of the ocean. Some of the problems regarding this “new” form of traffic control is that majority of the drivers are not familiar with traffic circles and tends to create an increase of side swipe type of collision. I truly believe that this form of intersection control is far superior to the conventional Stop sign and some signalized intersections. Traffic circles require a lot of property to build and this can be the limiting factor if the intersection is already in a heavily developed area.

3) Totally agree with this point. Enforcement is not an effective way of traffic control. However a lot of times politicians will get their way, despite expert suggestions.

4) This is also a very good point. Its’ way too easy to obtain a driver’s licence on this continent. North America should really take a good look at how Europe does this and perhaps use it as a guide to reform the licensing system.

5) Excellent point! This was one of the main factors why 4 years ago our Region has converted all signal heads to contain only LED lenses. They are much brighter then the regular incandescent bulbs. Use one 10th of the electricity and last many time longer that a bulb. The LED being much cooler than a bulb also eliminates the constant need to clean them. This can now be done every two years.

SharkSkin

Something else that can be done, talking about left turn lanes here -- increase the delay on the timer which changes the light when no more cars are detected, and/or reset that timer when another car is detected. This is a major peeve of mine, something that should be covered in driver's ed. In the left turn lanes, inevitably the driver of the third or fourth car back will be twiddling his *****(or her whatever) instead of paying attention, the cars ahead of them will make the turn and because the twiddler is not on the signal trigger, the light cycles -- even if there are ten more cars in the turn lane. So twiddle-dee makes the light, just barely, and the rest of us have to wait out another cycle. I think the majority of people have no clue how this works, but even if they do think about it, and they think it's on a timer, it's still inconsiderate.

Driver's ed should cover this, emphasize that people need to keep moving to keep the signal green. Also, the traffic dept should put in another sensor further up the lane to cover this situation. This is one of those scenarios that makes me want to weld a section of railroad track on my truck in place of the front bumper...

Imo000

Dave, you are right. This technology also exist and it is widely used in our region. Advance vehicle presence loop installed with vehicle detection loops at the stop bar should be a common practice at high volume left turn intersections. Contact you local traffic operation department and request them to implement this technology. Be specific on what locations you feel this should be installed at. They should take your request seriously and if they don’t contact your local government representative and have him/her represent your request. They could be very effective especially if it’s an election year.

This is basically how such a left turn phase operates: At a precise point in the signal timing phase the traffic controller will look for a signal from the vehicle detector cut into the left turn lane located at the stop bar. If a vehicle is detected, the traffic controller will decide that for the upcoming cycle, the left turn phase will be activated. Now, when the left turn arrow turns green, the controller will keep looking for an signal from both of the detector loops. The detector loop signals will continue to extend the green phase unit, either no more vehicles are detected or until the system reaches a peak threshold value. When the system reaches this value, regardless if there are or aren’t any more vehicles in the left turn lane, the lights will cycle to red and switchover to the next phase of the signal timing plan. The left turn lane can only stay green for so long, at some point it will have to start servicing the other directions. This is why signalized intersection control is such a compromise. The key is to balance vehicular flow for a given cycle length while considering all the geometrical limitations of the intersection and the volume of vehicles trying to cross it.

FlyingDog

Going shopping Dave? You circled Target, Sears, Staples, Foot Locker, Best Buys' parking lot, the old Barnes & Noble, and a bunch of grocery/drug/card stores. Until January, my mother lived about 1/2" off the top of your map.

It is interesting that that Route 35 can be incredibly crowded with people going 40-60 (speed limit 50) and have extrememly few accidents. It's two lanes on each side of a concrete barrier and in most places the shoulder is barely a car width, if that. Most states would make that a 35 mph road and have accidents constantly. The yellows are fairly long, the all red times are much longer than most roads, and the all turns right policy works great. Sure, people still run red lights, but they rarely hit other cars. If cameras were installed, there would be constant accidents from rear endings, especially as some people try to sneak through to a clover leaf to make turns while others try to stop for the camera.

SharkSkin

Imo000,

There is no one place -- it has happened to me in left turn lanes everywhere. I think that part of the problem is that usually there are only two detector loops, up near the limit line.