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NYC Mayor Wants Traffic Camera On Every Corner
Mr_Blank writes "New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has made it clear that he wants to see more traffic light cameras in the Big Apple, saying that he'd have the devices on every street corner if possible. According to The New York Daily News, the city brought in $52 million in fines generated by red light cameras last year alone. Bloomberg doesn't just want a jump in the number of cameras, however. He also wants to publish the names of those who blow through the stop lights in local papers to help shame wrongdoers into changing their ways. What's more, the mayor wants to look into the possibility of adding speed cameras to the mix. Big brother is coming to NYC."
It's all in pursuit of another revenue stream. New York City is full of this kind of nickel-and-diming. Check out this parking ticket scam on truck drivers.
but not LA/Socal? They're actually tearing them down in LA (at the police commission's request, amazingly) after realizing that yellow light time adjustments help as well: "My main objection to this whole thing is that I believe the same safety can be achieved by signal timing changes," Councilman Paul Koretz said. "I believe DOT has been pretty resistant to this concept. In budget committee, we found that DOT was not planning on immediately implementing the measure that the council had passed twelve to nothing to change the signal timing on all the signalized intersections [with cameras], plus the additional ones that were identified as more dangerous.... DOT claims it complies with the MUTCD, but the times in the manual are minimums." The same thing also appears to be happening in Houston as well. Does NYC know something the other cities don't? From what googling I've done, red light camera making firms are reporting major drops in revenues. What makes NYC different?
Not necessarily. They had speed cameras on the highways and freeways here in Arizona, and once Janet Napolitano left as Governor to be Secretary of Homeland Security at the Federal level, the new Governor, Jan Brewer, removed them.
In the City of Tempe, they had an agreement with Redflex Traffic Systems for red-light cameras, but that agreement has ended and the cameras have been shut off. Granted, the agreement's end happened in part because Redflex was too stupid to stipulate that they got a cut when an offender went to traffic school and got the fine scrubbed from their record, as opposed to having an actual ticket, so when they pushed that Tempe just nixed the entire arrangement at the next opportunity. The lawsuit is still pending.
One problem with photo enforcement is that the camera doesn't stop you and serve you a ticket like police officer does when pulling you over. Instead, they mail the fine to you, but because you haven't been officially and legally served yet, if you ignore the mailing then they have to actually send a person to serve you the ticket in the manner of a process server. Here, a LOT of people have been ignoring the mailings, and they're considering changing the law to not require the in-person serving, but they're receiving resistance to that. So, if a bargain-basement process server costs $40 for three attempts, it's difficult to argue the cost of the process server should be added to the ticket since the complainant didn't pull over the defendant and serve them a ticket in the first place.
I think that if they're going to institute Red Light Photo Enforcement, they need to paint an actual intersection-entering stop line prominently on the ground. The stop line for the crosswalk isn't the start of the intersection, it's further forward. One might assume one's in the clear if one is crossing the crosswalk, but they technically haven't entered the intersection yet.
Of course in my world, I'd define the start of the intersection as the stop line before the crosswalk. But I guess we don't care about pedestrians...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Better link to the actual source, the sometimes-sketchy New York Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/08/22/2011-08-22_mayor_bloomberg_pushes_for_traffic_light_cameras_on_every_corner.html
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
Not at all. The best recent breakthrough in getting people to stop speeding have been big signs that show you your speed. Now, just about in every school zone, I get a flashing light when I'm going over 20mph. No cop, no ticket, no privacy invasion. I get a personal message that I am breaking the law. And really, that's all it takes.
Then change the timing of the lights to prevent it, rather than just catch the people as they do it.
Timing of yellow lights will not prevent some drivers from running red. They will just take the extra time into account.
Long yellow lights will encourage those drivers to treat yellow as a "quasi green".
I don't know about New York, but in sane places, you are allowed to complete your passage through the intersection on a red, if you're already in the intersection before it turns red. Running a red light means entering the intersection on a red.
A two or three second yellow light warning is good enough to prevent this, other than for bad drivers.
There is also enough time slack after the light turns red, before it turns green for another stream of traffic, that someone sneaking through just a moment late will probably not cause an accident. Where I live, it's about one second.
Some drivers treat this brief "red in all directions" delay as yet another extension on their green light. They should be fined.
Especially awful is running a red while left-turning cars are waiting to complete their turns from the opposite direction. That should call for a six month driving suspension.
A red light camera could help catch someone who bolts through an intersection that has been red for some time. Someone doing that could cause an accident without being involved in it (cross-traffic swerves and collides). Without a witness to jot down the license plate, or a camera to snap a picture, the twit who caused the accident is gone without a trace.
Cite your sources, because there are numerous studies that refute your claims.
http://www.motorists.org/red-light-cameras/effect-yellow-timing
http://www.motorists.org/red-light-cameras/timing-myths
http://bancams.com/get-the-facts/studies/seattle-yellow-light-times-study/
http://www.shortyellowlights.com/rlcinfo/
Also, quit spouting your "feelings" on the issue when it doesn't match up with facts.
"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'"
-- Isaac Asimov
Nope. Studies have shown that red light cameras increase crashes.
Unfortunately, when opinion and reality conflict, most people choose their opinion over reality. http://www.motorists.org/red-light-cameras/
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