Slashdot Mirror
Google Maps Adding Photo Radar Warnings For Drivers In Canada (huffingtonpost.ca)
Google Maps is warning drivers in Canada as they approach some photo radar camera locations. "The feature, which is currently being rolled out by Google, allows users to see speed limits, speed cameras and mobile speed cameras on the map before they leave," reports HuffPost Canada. "It also gives a verbal warning -- an automated voice saying 'speed camera ahead' -- when drivers are near a fixed speed camera." From the report: Police in Calgary say the feature is useful to them. "The biggest thing we love ... is we place those (cameras) by collision statistics," said Sgt. Joerg Gottschling of the Calgary Police Service traffic section. "If we do a new site, if we are going to install a new camera, the next site is always selected by the next highest crash site. "Our intersection locations are all determined where we are trying to eliminate collisions."
Gottschling said they've had up to a 50 per cent reduction in collisions in some areas where those cameras are stationed. With Google Maps, he noted, all drivers approaching the fixed camera intersection get the warning. "That camera is only facing one way," said Gottschling. "Let's say it's only facing northbound, but you can approach southbound or eastbound ... you are still going to get Google telling you caution. "So you're going to go slowly and cautiously through there which, lo and behold, is actually what we want." Google said in an email that there will also be an ability for android users to report mobile speed cameras and stationary cameras.
Gottschling said they've had up to a 50 per cent reduction in collisions in some areas where those cameras are stationed. With Google Maps, he noted, all drivers approaching the fixed camera intersection get the warning. "That camera is only facing one way," said Gottschling. "Let's say it's only facing northbound, but you can approach southbound or eastbound ... you are still going to get Google telling you caution. "So you're going to go slowly and cautiously through there which, lo and behold, is actually what we want." Google said in an email that there will also be an ability for android users to report mobile speed cameras and stationary cameras.
Pig with a camera...
https://st3.depositphotos.com/...
does not make you less safe, it makes you probably more safe. The reason they have speed limits and speed cameras is ostensibly to improve safety, right? Checkmate. Send payment to :
Talking point caching... Now they want us to switch to expensive, inconsistent, polluting google maps!
Always thought the main purpose of traffic cameras is "money grab".
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
It seems they are interested in reducing collisions not in increasing revenue.
**Life is too short to be serious**
What's the big deal? Waze already gives those warnings in the USA; is it the "in Canada" part that''s special?
In Korea, speed cameras are spaced out and clearly marked in advance. The intent is partly to catch speeders but mostly to annoy you into slowing down since they're spaced out around every 5-7km
Yeah, they are money grabs here in the states.
It's why they don't want maps/apps warning people about a speed camera being somewhere, nor do they want speed traps alerted to drivers too.
It's all about trying to snag a few extra $$$.
Always thought the main purpose of traffic cameras is "money grab".
You're thinking about ticket-generating red light runner cameras in (at least) the United States.
The companies (and cities that install them) used to tout them as reducing accidents by reducing red light running. In fact, they increased accidents. People tend to jam on the brakes when they see a yellow light in a camera monitored intersection, resulting in rear-end collisions.
The drivers' behavior was reasonable, as the companies tended to shorten the yellow when installing the camera systems. (Often they shortened it below the legal minimum - which sometimes resulted in sudden invalidation of, and refunds for, all the tickets they'd generated, once somebody brought it to a court's attention.)
The camera company in my town gets a cut of the tickets - and a guaranteed minimum payment from the city if thenumber of red light running tickets becomes low enough that the contracted floor is not met. This encourages the city to keep the yellow as short as possible and minimize the amount of signage warning of the cameras - further increasing the rear-ender accidents.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Literally not a single one of the stories provided on that page provides any evidence that cities shortened the lights after installing the cameras. On the contrary, most of them are along the lines of this excerpt:
"Dallas likewise installed the cameras at locations with existing short yellow times. A total of twenty-one camera intersections in Dallas had yellow times below TxDOTâ(TM)s bare minimum recommended amount."
It seems much more likely that - as the police officer in this story suggested - cameras are installed in response to danger. If the people responsible for setting up the lights are incompetent (as several of the stories on your linked page suggest) then some intersections will have shorter lights. Those intersections will be much more likely to have a disproportionate number of accidents. Therefore they will be more likely to receive cameras.
Of course it's stupid to just slap a camera on an intersection without first looking at why so many accidents occur at that location ... but stupidity is common, so why are you assuming malice?
Maybe Google should just cut out the middleman and show the accident data directly so drivers know which intersections are the most dangerous.
Go Canucks :)
[($)]
AI will help with that :P
[($)]
thats all you need :)
[($)]
This is actually illegal in Switzerland. Facebook with radar warnings etc. are being taken down and the owners fined etc. That feature would never make it to Switzerland.
After google pulled that special pricing switcheroo - free for ten years now costs money now that you are dependent on it! - but we're not that dependent on it - this is the trendy business trick of 2018-2019 - take a product or service that has been free or reasonably priced for decades, then out of the blue, put a price on it, or increase the price by 600% or so. Some people will fall for it and pay out of laziness. Most of us will see it for what it is and immediately take our business elsehwere. Sure Alphabet will see increased profit this quarter, but on maps google is going to lose in the long term now. Customers do not like dirty tricks like this that vendors try and pull. After Google did this I am far more likely to pay someone else for maps and never pay google because of this. I am sure I am not the only one who feels this way.
So yeah, take your big brother map features and shove them up your ass Google. You are fucking assholes and the entire web hates you.
Very often the system costs more to run than it recoups, so no, not a money grab.
Canada - warning drivers about speed traps is great it gets everyone to slow down and avoids wrecks in high traffic areas. US - We'll sue you and everyone one associated with you to the point where you're homeless and on the streets.
When Australia first got speed cameras this is exactly what they did. They would move the camera from box to box, so most boxes were empty. That was until the cameras started paying for themselves of course,
You asked for citations, here are some from CBC (Canadian equivalent to NPR or BBC):
Photo radar under review in Alberta due to widespread misuse
Municipalities go after engineer for speaking up about unsafe amber lights used to maximize red light camera revenue
Senior successfully challenges red light camera ticket after demonstrating it doesn't meet ITE guidelines
We have it in the UK and in addition to there being lots of fixed cameras not on it it'll warn you of ones on the opposite side of a motorway (freeway) which only detects traffic going the other way and there are false positives too. It is pretty much THE WORST at doing speed camera warnings and if anyone is relying on it to keep their license they may want to think again.
I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams
Here in Calgary the #1 city expenditure is. THE POLICE
the only city expenditure that has gone up every year for fourty years running... THE POLICE
and guess who has multiple APCs and a tank.. THE CALGARY CITY POLICE
Every immigrant driver here has never taken a real road test. EVERY single day I see brown people stopped on a freeway merge.
Every
single
day
Calibration arguments do not hold legal water.
Sure thing Bill.. EXCEPT for the rich who get to flaunt the law and call the fine a corporaye expense and get it paid for by tge taxpayers.
You never tire of sucking a rich mans cock do you?
Next thing they'll be expecting an actual police officer to ticket the individual operating the motor vehicle rather than tax its owner. You fucking Uncle Tom.
Google Maps needs all Public Safety devices shown.
A few years ago, I "found" a red light traffic cam. I'd been going through the light once a week at the same time for years.
On this morning, an ambulance forced the light to change going in the direction that I was going, so about 15 vehicles followed it. That light was very long - usually 45 seconds, so knew there was plenty of time to get through it. The light short-cycled, but the yellow was just as long as always.
A month later, I got a letter demanding payment with links to video showing my vehicle entering the intersection as the yellow turned red. No denying that I'd run a red light, since the 3 cars ahead of me also ran it.
$80 and nothing would be put on my record. If I'd challenged it in court, it would be on record. I paid some company 4 states away and started noticing that camera every time at that intersection.
I looked up on the county public safety website, there are just 2 intersections with those cameras in the entire, suburban, county of 650K people. They are not huge intersections, instead they are 1 light away and a major road crossed by a minor road.
Back in the 1960s and before in Dallas, Tx., the city would not put up a stop sign or yield sign at a dangerous intersection, regardless of how many accidents happened there, until there was a casualty at the intersection.
Your first link talks about photo radar and is completely irrelevant to the discussion.
Your second and third link talk about making amber lights longer than 4 seconds on high-speed roads, and do not even remotely suggest that the light duration has been lowered after bringing in cameras.
Nice "citations".
Pro-tip: When you live in South Africa, 90% of the people on the roads are "brown".
Ah, anonymous coward is upset. What an unexpected turn of events.
That's never happened before, weird.