Red light cameras and trucking

Single cause fallacy... and you have 0 evidence to support that premise.

If you're going to propose traffic engineers conspire with municipalities to decrease safety for themselves and their families and friends for profit they'll never see a dime of, you need some evidence.

Either way, the vast majority of motorists still manage to not run them when yellow intervals are set to the absolute minimum recommended by ITE..

Spoken like a true motorist, and professional victim. How many RLC tickets have you managed to collect?

 

The absolute minimum yellow interval is 3 seconds.

Have you any "evidence" of this you purport to know?

 

Don't try to BS me man. I have watched with my own eyes lights go from green to yellow to red in the span it takes to get a truck across at 45 mph. You have no proof it doesn't happen so get off your high horse.

 

the timing good or bad of any safety device
doesn't eliminate a drivers responsibility to
control his actions while driving

just like mutli car accidents
it takes multiple drivers driving poorly

 

Traffic light cameras are easy to foil. May not be too practical in a truck though. Yes, I know it's illegal to outsmart the camera, but there are several ways to do it. The cheapest is a special clear spray paint over the tag; it's a special paint that dissipates the light when the photo is taken and the numbers are blurred. Another is the computer security monitor you place over your computer screen so it can't be viewed by others looking at it from the side. It can still be read from directly behind you, but not from the camera angle. Don't know how well this works, just something I was told about. Plenty of other ways: Google "foil red light cameras." Before anyone bashes me; I don't care, go for it.

 

"Across"... what...?

I don't need evidence it doesn't happen. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_ignorance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell's_teapot

You need evidence it does happen, and that evidence is as easy to collect as whipping out a phone and recording video and slapping some time code on it..

 

With my previous company, they often had me run US 59 South through East Texas to Houston. One small town on that route only has three traffic lights and each one sports a RLC and the speed limit is 45 mph. I ran one of them the first time through there, but never heard anything about it from anybody. After that, I always slowed to 30 mph through the entire town. Usually, the lights stayed green, but one more time a light went to yellow just as I came up to the intersection and I did slam on the brakes and managed to stop, but was in the cross walk area. Another trucker rolled up alongside me an was just shaking his head and waving his hand indicating that I should have not stopped. Now, every time I am facing a RLC, I still approach slowly and with caution. I don't doubt that drivers behind me get aggravated about it, but so what? Will they volunteer to pay my ticket?

 

San Diego was one of the first cities to embrace the red light camera technology. After public outcry, it was determined that indeed, many intersections where the cameras were installed, the yellow light time had been reduced. There was a lawsuit filed, with the goal to have the cameras taken out. What resulted was the tickets that were issued in these intersections were dismissed and the fines refunded for anyone that made application.
“Red light cameras haven’t produced the public safety improvements the city expected,” Faulconer said in a statement. “I agree with the Mayor that now is the time to take the cameras down.”
This became a campaign issue that ultimately was the deciding issue in the election.
San Diego joins a long list of Southern California cities that have ended their red light programs. Most recently, voters in Murrieta ended their program by ballot, banning the cameras from their city. Other cities that have turned off their cameras include Los Angeles, San Juan Capistrano, Pasadena, Grand Terrace, Bell Gardens, Corona and Glendale.
Studies have shown, as pointed out in this article, that red light cameras do little, if any, in reducing accidents or public safety.
You can read the entire article from 2013 here:

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/Feb/01/san-diego-red-light-cameras-filner-halts/2/?#article-copy

 

I've had my photo taken on that stretch of Hwy. 59 a few times. Never heard from it though. Before they issue a ticket, they review the photo and usually the trucks just happen to get caught in traffic and can't make it through those intersections before the light change and camera goes off. That area is congested and sometimes you have to just creep through those intersections.