Brent P
As I posted before, Level of Service F. It's a very commonly used phrase by traffic engineers, at least in California. With how much you're talking about engineering being a cure-all I buttumed you'd know this.
You also have big signs that say PHOTO ENFORCED at the intersection, which makes people think twice about deciding it's okay to run the light since they don't see a cop.
If you don't do it great. A heluva lot of people do. Just listen for engines revving up next time you see a yellow light.
And they don't increase punishment, they just significantly increase your chances of getting caught. The punishment is a $341 fine if a cop watches you run a light on video (with stills as additional evidence) or if the cop stops you for it afterwards, which won't have any video for a judge to review.
You go on to buttume that every intersection can be fixed design wise. Maybe, but usually it requires vast amounts of space that aren't available, and large amounts of money that no city can afford.
Many of the intersections San Diego uses red light cameras in are just extremely busy intersections. People get impatient after seeing 2 red lights, and decide since there's no cop, who does it hurt if they run the light? It was almost yellow anyway.
Great, until they hit someone who has a green light.
Again, it's not the fine per se, it's that they suddenly have a 50% chance of getting caught. (Only about 1-2 red light camera shots in SD are reviewed by the police as being sufficient evidence to pursue the case.)
All red light cameras in SD have an extended yellow over the MUTCD rules. How long does a light need to be yellow before we just admit that people are running the light?
Not in SD, since they're all money losers anyway. They have to keep extra cops on staff to review the photos-videos, they have to hire extra clerks to mail out the forms and process things, and when they did a study near the end of '04, they found they were not profitable, but worth continuing because of the reduction of accident injuries.
If you don't believe me go ahead and search signonsandiego.com and-or nctimes.com - I also posted to MTR back when it happened an article on how the boxes work, how the intersections are prepped for the cameras, etc.
So what's your problem with red light cameras? Just cause you've heard about some areas that had corrupt politicians who used the cameras to catch people early? Those cases were all thrown out, and motorists were refunded their money, if they had tried fighting the ticket in the first place.
If they pleaded guilty, they screwed up pleading guilty to something they didn't do.
I'd rather get a ticket from a camera than a cop with a bad point of view, since the camera will leave an evidence trail that could exhonerate me easier than trying to make a judge believe a cop made a mistake.
Dave
