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Stoplights to Mete Out Punishment?
gilrain writes "The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that traffic engineers have created a stoplight that deals with speeding. According to the article, 'It senses when a speeder is approaching and metes out swift punishment. It doesn't write a ticket. It immediately turns from green to yellow to red.' This is not just a prototype: it is in use now at an intersection in the Bay Area. Does stopping speeders before others serve a purpose other than petty revenge? Is it even safe to change expected stoplight patterns, especially for drivers in a hurry?"
it greatly increases the odds that the speeding driver will run an unexpected red light, potentially killing someone if the intersecting light turns green at the same time. lights should be consistent, always taking the same amount of time to turn from yellow to red, w the exception of an absence of traffic at one side causing the (same slow, consistent) shift to yellow to red.
in some ways this is like high-speed police chases. I just read a stat that 33% of such chases end in a bystander fatality. I bet a large number of those innocent deaths would be avoided if the cops wouldn't endanger *everyone* by making it many speeding vehicles instead of just 1. *
*I know many people will disagree w this 2nd point and I have mixed feelings on it myself... but the light seems even more obviously wrong to me
La via sola al paradiso incommincia nel inferno
So if the state of Georgia brought in a system to crush a kitten every time someone breaks the sodomy laws you would blame the kitten's deaths on those filthy sodomizers?
That you are a US-hating, Euro-loving loser.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.