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Red-Light Camera Grace Period Goes From 0.1 To 0.3 Seconds, Chicago To Lose $17 Million (arstechnica.com)
The Chicago Department of Transportation announced a new policy earlier this week that will increase the "grace period" -- the time between when a traffic light turns red to when a ticket is automatically issued. The decision has been made to increase the time from 0.1 seconds to 0.3 seconds, following recommendations part of a recent study of its red-light cameras. Ars Technica reports: This will bring the Windy City in line with other American metropolises, including New York City and Philadelphia. In a statement, the city agency said that this increase would "maintain the safety benefits of the program while ensuring the program's fairness." On Tuesday, the Chicago Tribune reported that the city would lose $17 million in revenue this year alone as a result of the expanded grace period. Michael Claffey, a CDOT spokesman, confirmed that figure to Ars. "We want to emphasize that extending this enforcement threshold is not an invitation to drivers to try to beat the red light," CDOT Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld also said in the statement. "By accepting the recommendation of the academic team, we are giving the benefit of the doubt to well-intentioned drivers while remaining focused on the most reckless behaviors."
Did you hear?
Going faster through a red light means the camera won't get you!
Seems like any fines going to the department that makes them fines is a conflict of interest. These things should clearly be decided by direct democracy, at least how the money is spent, and should not go to their budgets by default.
I hate when people use the word "lose" to mean "not anymore have the opportunity to gain as additional income (under certain additional conditions)". See also: "the machine that will utterly bankrupt the music industry" by Peter Sunde: https://boingboing.net/2015/12...
My first program:
Hell Segmentation fault
since that money stays with the drivers. Just like Media companies claiming billions lost from file sharing when in reality that money was spent on different market sectors and the gov probably made more off corporate taxes since small businesses can't get the same tax loopholes.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
All this is going to do is now make people more comfortable running a little bit of red.
Right. People will adapt, and that's why it's unclear if there's going to be a change in revenue at all.
It depends on how you arrange the lights. In the UK, there's a delay in between one set of lights going red and the next going green. In a number of US cities that I've visited, one set turns green at precisely the same instant that the other turns red. This means that going through the lights as they turn red is potentially very dangerous, because you will still be crossing the intersection while cars from other directions go. Adding a small delay, larger than the grace period, would likely improve safety considerably.
The USA has 7.1 fatalities per billion km driven, whereas the UK has only 3.6. It's tempting to blame the drivers (and the difference in driving tests in the two countries lends some support to this), but the road designers have a lot to blame. The US statistics are likely even worse for in-city driving, because the totals are skewed by the fact that you can drive far further in the US without encountering another vehicle than in the UK.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
The maybe best solution ever I've seen in Austria. Here is a quick comparison between US vs. Austrian traffic lights.
Basically, their lights flash green 5 times before they go to yellow, giving you ample time to know that the green period ends. Also, before switching to green, it shows red and yellow for about a second or two to give you an idea that you should put your car into gear and prepare to accelerate, thus improving the reaction time of people and improving the usage of the green phase.
All in all, a WAY better solution. Of course their law also says that there is ZERO grace period for entering with a red light. You have ample time to know it's going red. Actually, I don't even know whether there isn't already some kind of provision that you're supposed to not enter when it goes yellow.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
It is easy to lose sight of what the actual goal is here: to reduce the number of accidents. Fines or other punishment can have an effect, but only if it motivates drivers to drive more considerately. Something that is used in UK is the idea of adding penalty points to people's license - when you reach 12 points, you generally lose your license, and it does seem to work to some degree, altough there are those who don't care. For them there is the option of banning them from driving, after which you may go to jail, if you are caught driving.
I'm not convinced that using only penalties is the best way - it would be better if there was a carrot to go with the stick, although I can't think of how that would work. There have been experiments with turning off all traffic signals at junctions, and it seems to make drivers much more careful about how they drive, but my suspicion is that it also makes traffic much slower and thus congested.
I mostly see lights with a delay where all are red very briefly, but it could be where I have lived in the US. What annoys me is that even with that there are often people entering the intersection when the other traffic's light turns green.
I believe we should get much tougher with driving tests in the US. One thing I would add for states which get a lot of snow is some sort of testing in the ability to handle it. I'm not sure how to practically do this year round though - simulated snow course?
I've never been to the UK so I can't really speak to the drivers or road engineers there.
Also I wonder what the stats look like on a more granular scale than just the US.
I found a state by state breakdown:
http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topic...
From 0.52 deaths per 100 million miles in Massachusetts to 1.89 deaths per million miles in South Carolina.
Montana is 2nd worse at 1.81 but I assume that is due to long distances and harsh winters. I don't know what's going on in SC.
Interestingly, 94% of MA fatalities are urban while only 28% of SC's are. SC is more rural to be sureso I'm not sure how useful that is.
No, he's actually right.
Red means "do not enter intesection. If you are in the intersection, exit as quickly and safely as possible".
Eat the rich.
There is always a specific point where there is indecision about whether to stop or keep going when the light turns yellow.
- Stopping means hitting the brakes hard, possibly causing an accident due to someone rear-ending you.
- Proceeding means you might shave a bit of the red.
Shaving a bit of the red is generally not going to cause an accident because it takes time for cars to accelerate and get going. There is also a dead-time between one direction turning red and the other turning green. However, as someone who was nearly rear-ended for stopping at a light because I had to brake very hard, I'd much prefer to proceed than stop in these cases.
Nobody died because someone crossed the intersection 0.3 seconds after it turned red. The other light isn't even green yet. Your statement implies a correlation between traffic enforcement and road safety, but this correlation is frighteningly weak. Unfortunately, enforcement is concentrated on things that are easy to measure instead of things that are most dangerous.
Red light cameras are a great example of ineffective enforcement. Red light running generally falls into two categories: people that push the boundary and people that make mistakes (not paying attention, drunk, didn't clean windshield, etc.). Cameras can make people choose not to push the boundary, but they are very bad at correcting the latter behavior. So, they shift a lot of money to the government and the camera operating company, without having much of an effect on safety.
You can tell a government is serious about safety when they start redesigning bad intersections instead of wagging their fingers at people driving 36 in a 35 or going through intersections one second after the light turns red. Research has shown time and time again that if there is a trend of people running the beginning of a particular red light, the best solution is to make the yellow longer. Often blatant red light violations come from intersections with no left turn arrow. Frustrated drivers wait an entire light cycle (or four), and then finally just go when the opposite lane clears as the light turns red. Once again, the correct solution is to change the intersection. Yelling at (or fining) the drivers does nobody any good.
Yes, we're gonna have to go right to... Ludicrous speed!
~~"Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong." ~~Dennis Miller
I remember a red-light camera in Queens where the amber was unusually short, about half as long as normal, so it would turn red when you didn't expect it to and you ended up with a ticket.
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This varies by country.
Yellow means "Stop if safe to do so" in many places.
Red means "Do not enter".
If you think about it, it also doesn't make any sense that Red means get out of the intersection as anyone in the intersection would not see the red light in many countries due to layout. e.g. In most of Europe (UK excluded) the lights are at the entrance to the intersection.
Problem is, the way traffic flows in chicago, left turning motorists often are in the middle of the street when the light changes, and can only complete their turn once the light has turned red and the ticket has been issued.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
If your car is that fast, I think you will have more pressing matters to attend to, like staying on the planet.
Actually given the amount of air resistance and therefore friction at that speed the large plasma fireball which will surround you will make you very detectable, although not really identifiable, and your immediate problem will be avoiding instant cremation, not staying on the planet.