[Atlas Sneezed]

Indeed. The lesson to be learned if one is willing to avoid simplistic thinking, and an obedient sheeple (or jackboot) mindset is that traffic engineering is often poorly done (it's government, after all.) Signals are sometimes miusplaced, poorly visible, and poorly programmed.

There are LOTS of benefits to be gained by fixing those things, because those problems are what CAUSES many or most of red-light running incidents. Simple signal timing can essentially eliminate the opportunity to run red lights, whether inadvertant, careless, or intentional.

When you reward the bureaucrats with camera revenue for leaving these dangerous problems alone, you'll just get more harm to public safety.

[af_vet_rr]

Indeed. The lesson to be learned if one is willing to avoid simplistic thinking, and an obedient sheeple (or jackboot) mindset is that traffic engineering is often poorly done (it's government, after all.) Signals are sometimes miusplaced, poorly visible, and poorly programmed.

There are LOTS of benefits to be gained by fixing those things, because those problems are what CAUSES many or most of red-light running incidents. Simple signal timing can essentially eliminate the opportunity to run red lights, whether inadvertant, careless, or intentional.

That's what drives me nuts about this - it's clear it's revenue generation. Having seen the city's traffic control center, it's clear they know where the problems are, and they can adjust things from there and tweak them and measure the results.

They don't need cameras - they spend 15 minutes adding a second or two to the yellow lights (if that, it's very automated these days). Psychologically (and physically in a way), that gives drivers a little more time to make a decision, which may not seem like much, but a lot of people may need it, or it will allow them to do what's best.

Instead, what's going to happen, is I'm going to be in my Subaru or Tacoma, both of which stop on a dime practically, and the moment I see yellow, if I'm not in the intersection, I'm going to slam on the brakes.

Doesn't matter that without the redlight cameras I would have normally went, and the people behind me could have estimated that I would go through the yellow as well.

I'm not going to pay $250, and God help the people behind me, even though they think I should have went through because it just turned yellow as I got there, because I've put them in a situation where they have to slam on their brakes a lot quicker and harder, and I've created a ripple situation, because people behind them have to respond quicker than they normally would have.

That's going to happen every single day, who knows how many times an hour at every single intersection.

There are people who will pull this "oh, well, that's the way the system is supposed to work, it cuts down on redlight runners" crap.

The reality is, yellow has become red, because regardless of what is said about what will trigger the camera, nobody wants to risk a $250 ticket they can't fight. I don't see how this won't result in more traffic accidents (maybe not as severe as somebody t-boning somebody else, but accidents nonetheless).