War on Short yellow lights.

On a sunny day (Sun, 19 Apr 2009 06:28:36 -0500) it happened "amdx" wrote in :

Much more annoying is the last sentence:

Your car already contains electronics that could report on, say, the quality of your emissions. How long before government knows not just where you went, but how fast and how much CO2 you vented in the process, and thanks to your email and phone records, whether you were visiting somebody or doing something that might warrant a further look?

It is my personal view, that perhaps there will be a 'get used to' by people that everything they do is forever kept stored somewhere, but reality has proved over and over again that records like that _will_ be used and abused, and, like credit card details becoming public for millions, the bad guys (be they the ruling party or the smaller Mafia), will misuse these for political and other purposes.

This will then (logically thinking) at some point lead to a mass revolt, or 'revolution', or, total destruction of those electronics by a nuclear war. Remember how the Germans in WW2 used IBM computers to keep track of who were Jews, and where to find those. And the consequences and happenings of all that, were related to the start of WW2. So, again, my personal view, however bad it may hit somebody with different views, is that we will NEED a nuclear war to get rid of all that shit. Then after that, if humanity recovers (if, or when, it may take thousands of years, look how long it took for Europe to become aligned after the Roman empire collapsed), dark ages, and then the whole shit will start accumulating again until that civilisation collapses, maybe even on other planets that we then have conquered or fight against .

I was reading today that in the UK they now arrest people and remove the pictures from their digital cameras if they took pictures of 'London busses' (the double deckers), and their passport number and ID are then taken.... Well, UK has been on the no go list for me ever since Blair arse kissing Bushist came to power, now they seem to have gone beyond insanity... Hell if I was Al Quada, then a country that is as stupid as _that_ would be no problem for me to destroy. Just wait for it to self-destruct :-)

This is a complex issue. People do run red lights - I've seen it happen often enough. Lengthening the yellow reduces this only where the time left before the light goes red, allowing for reaction times, means that drivers are otherwise too close to the junction to feel comfortable about stopping.

Other drivers will simply respond to longer yellow periods by being willing to run lights from further back - "if the light goes yellow, put your foot down". Indeed, one might even anticipate increasing accident rates caused by such drivers' inaccurate judgement about when the light will actually go red.

Accidents caused by the latter group can only be reduced by increasing the delay between a light going red and the conflicting light going green. Or by disuading such people from running red lights be camera based enforcement. The latter is preferable, because the former reduces traffic throughput.

Maybe the situation in the USA is different, but here in NSW, Australia, I haven't heard of a single convincing case, documented with video, showing a red-light camera connected to lights with an unreasonably short yellow period.

Sylvia.

Try Cleveland Ohio, or Most of Florida.

Steve

All around the Phoenix metro area. I timed intersection lights with and without a camera, 2 blocks from each other, same traffic stream... without camera, 4.7 seconds, with camera 4.0 seconds.

When I protested, in a letter-to-the-editor, all the leftist-weenie fairies came out against me, citing "It's for our own good" :-(

...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |

                          In Memoriam...
                       Duane Lee Thompson
                October 31, 1972 - April 20,2006
          4th Child, 2nd Son, of Jim & Naomi Thompson
                     Victim of Colon Cancer

=_NextPart_000_0016_01C9C0D4.F12085D0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Australia,=20

Here's a little info on how crooked local government can be. Quote from the bottom url. "This one traffic camera earned the county $1 million in fines over 14 = months." This one light was shortened from 4 seconds ("when every other yellow = light=20 on the stretch of road was four seconds long.") to 2.7 seconds.

6 Cities That were Caught Shortening Yellow Lights For Profit

-light-times-for-profit/

Short Yellow Lights Are Dangerous

Cities Upset That Increasing Yellow Light Time Length Reduces 'Revenue'

Tale of the three second yellow light.

"This one traffic camera earned the county $1 million in fines over 14 = months."

I heard Dennis Prager talk about a yellow light study last night, but I = can't locate it. If=20 anyone does, please post it. Mike

So is paying your "fair share". So pony up!

The story I heard was about the poor elderly widow that got caught by one of these short yellows and received a $485 ticket, she has to pay this out of her monthly social security check.

When we divide up the tootsie rolls for the kids they all get equal amounts. That's only fair and common sense. When the country has a bill to pay, we should divide it up by 300 million and bill everyone equal amounts. Bet you have a problem with fair now! Mike

I've found that simply presenting the undeniable proof to the powers that be (and anyone else for that matter) has a much deeper impact. I bitched to the police and city council for years about speeders on my street, of course it was all just a waste of time and breath. At least that's how it used to be.....

While tinkering with Linux, a video capture card, and some C coding experiments in motion detection and tracking, I came up with an idea. I discovered that I could actually estimate (on the fly) and then later prove exactly how fast any vehicle was moving. I sent a few captured images to the police chief proving the ridiculous nature of the problem (people doing

50 in a 25) and viola the political inertia evaporates and we're finally getting somewhere.

You learn interesting things when looking at surveilance recordings. Allot of stuff happens when no one is looking or at least when someone thinks that. I now know whose cats patrol my property and walk around on my vehicles at night. I know who the lame dog walkers are that let their mutts trample my front flower bed, and I also know who the good owners are. I know which a-holes speed the most and when they are likely to be doing it. I feel so informed and empowered now. ;-)

Seen some really unusual stuff too. Saw a car hit a squirrel but not quite kill it, and then what appeared to be a red-tailed hawk snatch it up from the street within a couple of minutes.

We solved that problem here in Oregon, by dictating that you have to stop at a yellow light if you safely can do it.

In other words, in most cases a yellow light means you have to stop, unless doing so would create a hazard to the drivers behind you.

Jon

Right. Only "the rich" should pay for their actions.

"For the children." Of course.

Only "the rich" should pay. Tax businesses more! Subsidize the poor. You get what you subsidize and we *sure* don't want more of "the rich", right?

He don't know me vewwy well, do he?

Scottsdale used to have a radar unit that they would loan out to neighborhood groups. Citizens wrote down date, time, license plate numbers and speed. The city mailed letters (no tickets), warning the drivers. Speeds dropped.

...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |

                          In Memoriam...
                       Duane Lee Thompson
                October 31, 1972 - April 20,2006
          4th Child, 2nd Son, of Jim & Naomi Thompson
                     Victim of Colon Cancer

The way to control speeding is to design the road for the speed desired. If the road is designed for 50, people will drive 50. Speed limits are properly set at the 85th percentile and roads adjusted to meet the desired ends.

Sounds just like the Obama and the DHS. Are you going to shit on their lawn now?

Neat. Easy lunch for the hawk and saved the tax payer some money. ;-)

Oh! you were being facetious, well your right, Jim should pay more. Mike :-)

I didn't know you could play the viola ;-)

...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |

                          In Memoriam...
                       Duane Lee Thompson
                October 31, 1972 - April 20,2006
          4th Child, 2nd Son, of Jim & Naomi Thompson
                     Victim of Colon Cancer

Well, these days you never know who's watching. PC is now not only "a good idea", it's the law.

Why is that? Why do you think I should pay more?

...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
California, the largest state in the union, has 11% unemployment.
Their solution: Increase the sales tax, and vehicle and gas taxes.
Makes sense to me... causes businesses to move to Arizona.

I'm one of those leftist weenies you speak of but even I abhor the practices used with traffic cameras.

Yep, motion capture cameras are great for that. I live on a one way street in the city. You constantly see cars go the wrong way down the street.

Then of course there are the taggers like this one on the building next door to mine:

Though I seem to appreciate the political tags a bit more:

Those big plates to protext the HV lines for the trains are just an invitation to tag.

Until some brilliant councilman figured out that money could be made on the deal.

They still put the automatic RADAR units in neighborhoods. They only show speed and don't record anything.