Red Light cameras that WORK

[Modelexis]

I know I'm gonna get punished for posting this but I wanted to share my theoretical based invention as an alternate use that may or may not be more effective than what we have now.

Here is the fundamental idea behind this red light camera..

There would be cameras installed in long stretches of road that are unobstructed by lights.

The camera would be placed at a certain distance from the intersection, say 500m or so depending on the speed limit of the road in question.

The camera would not really be a camera at all, it would share some of the same functions, being the function that reads the speed of the car passing the sensor.
There would be no pictures taken, no flash, not even a single shred of evidence of the unit in place.

Sorry for taking so long to get to the point, but basically, you are say speeding 90 in a 70 zone and the sensor would read this and trigger the up coming light to change to red, in such a way that there is no possible way of beating the light.
It would be far enough away that even a powerful motorcycle could not roll onto the throttle and beat the light.

Thus removing any danger aspects.

So the whole point of this system would be to teach speeders that if you wanna hit all the lights, the best thing to do would be to chill out and do the limit.

No tickets handed out, no paid police time to go to court or look over photographs or mail out bs pictures.

This IMO would be a more REAL way to reduce the habit of speeding, and it wouldn't be just a pure cash grab as a pirate tax on the citizens.

So tell me what you think, what you would improve, what is not clear about my theory, what you think could be a major flaw, why you hate me as a person etc.

I realize this is a really touchy subject on beyond, I speed myself, and I wouldn't personally want a system like this to be added because it would piss me off, but I also think it would actually make me drive closer to the speed limit.

My theoretical sensors would be placed totally out of sight, they would cost 1/3 of the red light cams we have now.
You would have no indication of there presence and no indication of there whereabouts, only a red light starring you in the face.

I just think about all the times a ricer has flown by driving like and idiot and I wished the light would change to red so I could laugh at him having to slam his brakes on.

Same theory would apply, only there wouldn't be any slamming of brakes, there would be enough distance to allow for a safe stop.

I would maybe parallel this idea, for the gamers out there, think of it as a time challenge where you have get the bonus' to increase your time limit allowing you to make it through the next gate, onto the finish.
So it would be a sort of race, but the object of the 'race' would be to meet as close to the limit as possible.
I don't know how this could work effectively but maybe if you are doing the limit the green light is slightly extended allowing you to for sure make the light.

Just think of the mind fuck you would unleash on the population (us). You would have people wanting to race around, but paranoia will follow them down every stretch of road, they will not know if a sensor is installed or not and will be ready to apply the brakes in the case the light changes to red.

*for the record, I don't smoke dope, this came to me in a sober manner... It sounds like I'm high on drugs maybe to some people, but this is not the case.

[supe]

But where do we make the moooooooonnnnnneeeeyyy?

For that reason I'm out.

[Jetta-2.0]

Originally posted by supe
But where do we make the moooooooonnnnnneeeeyyy?

For that reason I'm out.
+ house taxes/make dumb laws for having ur windows down with ur arm out the window :D:closed:

[Intent_Fire]

Its a good idea yes, but has a few small flaws. The biggest being that the roads in Calgary are almost always busy. So would 1 person speeding cause a red light for EVERYONE that is driving in close proximity? This would invoke some serious road rage if someone were to be in a bit of a hurry and kept hitting every single red light because some Saskatchewan tourist didn't know any better and refuses to drive below 60.

Or what about emergency vehicles? They are always speeding to the scene of an accident and now they would be required to slow down even more and yield to traffic at every single intersection instead of only half.

Plus it would be very expensive to implement and maintain while offering zero income. Cost/Benefit analysis doesn't add up. End of the day the City still acts like a business and will only act on something, (for the most part) if it is advantageous to the majority population.

Potentially a good idea, but unfortunately it's not feasible.

[Abeo]

The traffic patterns would get all fucked up...

While I don't have much faith in the traffic shaping in this town, this is a sure-fire way to make things worse.

[frizzlefry]

how about teaching people how to fuc*ing drive? Seriously. "Oh crap, there is an influx of lousy drivers flooding our streets!"..."Oh my god!!! Who is giving these people licenses!!??"..."Uhhhh, we are..."..."Oh! We test them before handing out licenses right?"..."Yes, of course"..."Oh I see, so we throw random objects in their path to see if they can avoid them?"..."No, we see if they can park and know what a crosswalk is."..."oh....let’s just fine them. Work it into the budget."

[msommers]

^^Quite an erratic post but spot on. I've said this time and time again, institutions handing out licenses need to be strictly monitored and I for one wouldn't mind every time you had to renew your license you had to redo a driving test. There are far too many fuck wads on the road because XYZ Driving Company doesn't give a fuck, or so and so's brother works here and can hook you up.

IMO speed isn't the issue, it's poor driving habits and technique.

[se7en]

clever idea on little used highway stretches, but hard to implement in a congested city scenario.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[atgilchrist]

Good idea in theory, but as said above, the biggest issue is that it would completely screw up traffic patterns.

More thorough and repeated testing is the answer, IMO.

Also, I don't think this would stop people from speeding, it will just cause them to speed, then stop at a red light, then speed again.

[Modelexis]

Lots of intelligent and valid crits so far in this thread, much appreciated.

There are a few issues such as the issue of emergency vehicles that I think could be solved by people smarter than me. I don't have a solution for those, but no doubt there are people out there that can solve these problems.

The lack of profit would be a big issue, but I think that with 50% of my income at least they could do something semi useful rather than pirate further monies.
Unrealistic goal for sure, this much I realize.

Maybe some sort of variation of this theory could be applied to a more effective version without so many theoretical problems.

[Dycker]

Have you guys seen the flashing "50km Zone" signs that light up when you are going over the speed limit?

I actually think this is a good idea. Makes people aware of their speed without being over bearing.

Saw it Northbound on 37th Street around 26th Ave. SW

Also, there's never warning lights or crossing countdown timer at the intersections with red light cameras. :dunno:

[[Yu]]

Originally posted by Dycker


Also, there's never warning lights or crossing countdown timer at the intersections with red light cameras. :dunno:

I know of one that has it, and it quite a common stretch of road.


16th Avenue NW and 10th St NW The one by SAIT and Earl's

[rc2002]

This idea will never work. No tickets given out means these cameras will never pay off. And it means no incentive to stop for the red light.

[maxomilll]

Originally posted by richardchan2002
This idea will never work. No tickets given out means these cameras will never pay off. And it means no incentive to stop for the red light.

That really blows, it's no longer about safety, but mad cash dolla's

[Awd-Tsi]

Originally posted by Dycker
Have you guys seen the flashing "50km Zone" signs that light up when you are going over the speed limit?

I actually think this is a good idea. Makes people aware of their speed without being over bearing.

Saw it Northbound on 37th Street around 26th Ave. SW

Also, there's never warning lights or crossing countdown timer at the intersections with red light cameras. :dunno: I see these in my community, I try and set it off everytime I go by it

[masoncgy]

These 'go red to stop speeder' sensors already exist, they're all over the place in Calgary.

All you have to do is look at the traffic signal posts and look for a black contraption, generally seated right above or between the two light clusters that each signal post has.

Not every intersection has these, but they are common on residential/low speed thoroughfares... like in this example, Beddington Blvd NW.

http://i56.tinypic.com/149cpr9.jpg

[diamondedge]

Originally posted by masoncgy
These 'go red to stop speeder' sensors already exist, they're all over the place in Calgary.

All you have to do is look at the traffic signal posts and look for a black contraption, generally seated right above or between the two light clusters that each signal post has.

Not every intersection has these, but they are common on residential/low speed thoroughfares... like in this example, Beddington Blvd NW.

http://i56.tinypic.com/149cpr9.jpg

I thought these were used by firetrucks to keep the lights green when they approach the intersection on a call..

[Spoons]

Originally posted by diamondedge


I thought these were used by firetrucks to keep the lights green when they approach the intersection on a call..

Neither. Those are there to measure traffic.

Good idea, but too many flaws and it would never work. Plus the city doesn't give a fuck about people speeding. Heck they want you to speed. More mula in el pockido.

[diamondedge]

I saw it on TV - hence the strobes on the firetrucks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_signal_preemption

Regardless, the idea would just annoy everyone. Same goes for emergency vehicles, which would be speeding. Having it go red on a firetruck/ambulance isn't a good idea..

[syritis]

the tiny black camera are for emergency vehicles but they dont' seem to work.
the newer and larger white cameras, have replaced buried road sensors. they are thermal cameras and and detect the heat from the radiator to trigger the signals. I like these cuz bikes can trigger them too.
downside. is that rolling outta the parking lot at work never triggers the lights due to the engine still being cold.

[ExtremeSi]

Originally posted by syritis
the tiny black camera are for emergency vehicles but they dont' seem to work.
the newer and larger white cameras, have replaced buried road sensors. they are thermal cameras and and detect the heat from the radiator to trigger the signals. I like these cuz bikes can trigger them too.
downside. is that rolling outta the parking lot at work never triggers the lights due to the engine still being cold.

I heard that they detected shadows/color changes when a vehicle approaches. Which is why they aren't suppose to work well in fog. But maybe you are correct about the heat... hmmm

[Jay911]

Wait, what?

The device boxed in red in the photo is not a camera. It's a sensor that detects a specific wavelength of light in a specific frequency of flashing (strobing). It's an Opticom receiver, as another poster above me indicated. Used 99% by fire trucks and ambulances, but very very rarely by the gas company (seriously) and in some cities, by transit.

The new intersections that have cameras facing each set of lanes work by comparing the current image the camera is receiving to an image of an "empty" intersection that was recorded when the cameras were first set up. If there is a difference, that means the intersection is not "empty", i.e. there is a car waiting, thus, trigger the light to change. I don't know how it works in inclement weather or between day/night - I would suspect it looks at infrared or some other wavelength instead of/as well as visible light.

[Feruk]

Why don't people just learn to drive? I speed and am not giving up my God given right to speed just because other people can't handle my perfect driving. Cops showed successfully that speed is the cause in 6.3% of recorded accidents in Calgary a few months ago. Non-issue that should not be the focus of Police or city planning.

[clem24]

Hahaha here's a neat idea:

http://consumerist.com/2010/12/traffic-camera-enters-speed-limit-abiding-drivers-into-lottery.html

Coles notes: fine the people that speed through it. And enter the people that DON'T speed through it into a lottery for the money generated by the speeders. Win-win.

[dexlargo]

Originally posted by Jay911
Wait, what?

The device boxed in red in the photo is not a camera. It's a sensor that detects a specific wavelength of light in a specific frequency of flashing (strobing). It's an Opticom receiver, as another poster above me indicated. Used 99% by fire trucks and ambulances, but very very rarely by the gas company (seriously) and in some cities, by transit. And in my younger, dumber days, by me. I had one of those handheld spotlights in my truck and at night on deserted roads if I was approaching a red light, I'd light up that little sensor with the spotlight, and kind of shake it around a bit. Bingo. Instant green light. Only did it a few times because I rarely had the spotlight right at hand, but it did work.

[raceman6135]

Interesting. I always thought the white boxes on the vertical support of the traffic lights (the white box that sometimes has a blue glowing light in it) were the ones that received the flashing strobe signal from emergency vehicles, buses, etc to either keep the light green longer, or shorten the red.

Sorry, couldn't find a pic of what I'm trying to describe.