Originally posted by

Brandon

My whole problem is that there are instances when you cannot stop safely and still be in the intersection when it is red. This is a verifiable fact (ask any transportation prof or official). I'm sure you've encountered this in person. If they do this whole red light thing, CS should really do some of their homework on the length of yellow light.

I live in a city where they already have these and already got a ticket. The amount of detail the camera shows if you were at risk for stopping short and getting rear ended it would show in the camera and you could then argue it through the process. The cameras do show your speed as well though so if you were going 50mph in a 35mph/zone and couldn't stop in time then you might not really have a case, but you can try. I'm not a supporter, but once I saw the pictures and the data they gather you really can't argue that you ran the light.

Also, it is written into the contract of the company that set them up and the city legislation that the timing of the lights could not be changed to increase the number of red light infractions once the cameras were installed.

BJ thank you for your wise insights,but I made no reference to speeding. I am that defensive driver that I referenced that does not push yellow, much less red lights. I stop, and routinely have people lock up brakes behind me because they are too busy text messaging or talking on their phone to pay attention to the lights. The police report will be identified by both insurance companies and listed on our driving records with the state. That alerts our insurers. Oh by the way, what do you do when the other driver is uninsured or underinsured?

James, I thought the same thing. I think Texas and University could use one.

Paul, you are an idiot and the reason for these. If you are driving so fast that you must run a red light to avoid causing a pile-up you need to slow the hell down. You get rear ended, its the other guys fault, and your insurance premium need not go up because they need not know. You get t-boned by my front bumper when I have a green light, ITS YOUR FAULT.

I agree that BCS especially University Dr. could use some synchronized lights for smother flow, rather than ones that seem synchronized to purposely stop you at every single light. And sitting for minutes at a red light at 5 am when there is not a car around for miles is damn aggravating. But so is having to wait longer after my light is green for Paul and his friends to speed race through.[/QUOTE]

I have often wondered why they didn't just make the green light blink for a few seconds before it went to yellow to advise drivers that the light was going to change to yellow - i.e., if you are not in the intersection by the time the green blinks - you should start slowing down. I'm sure there is some reason why they don't do this because it just seems like a fairly simple solution to running red lights - give a warning, since often the yellow is too short if you are driving the speed limit. JMHO. MEG

Originally posted by

A traffic engineer

CS is a special case because not only do you have the city, but you have TTI involved in terms of traffic.

I will say this about yellow lights; there are minimum and max standards for safety... you can find them in the MUTCD.

Up here in Dallas, the cities do manipulate the yellow timings on purpose to get more red light runners, which I find morally unacceptable as an engineer. Our job is to promote safety, and some are exploiting this and calling it safety when it really isn't in certain cases.

In other words, these cameras are safe if they do studies and traffic counts and determine NOW what they yellow time should be, instead of just altering it to the very minimum time allowed so you can catch red light offenders.

Originally posted by

Amy

Does anyone know if the camera takes your picture if you turn right on red?

Amy,

Normally there is "an invisible line" created by the camera which should be the stop bar on the street 99% of the time (sometimes it's not there... older pavement). Obviously, this is where you should stop the front of your vehicle whenever pulling up to an intersection.

If you cross this "line" and it is still yellow, then you will not receive a ticket.

However, if you cross the line and it's red, then you get a citation.

NOTE: We have this problem in Dallas quite a bit, but there are itchy trigger fingers on right turns. What I mean is make a complete stop before you turn!!!!!

Hopefully this helps out some.

Originally posted by

Amy

Does anyone know if the camera takes your picture if you turn right on red?

No. You would cut the corner of it's field of vision. The white line where the camera points at is a good distance in front (into the intersection) of the legal stop line.