RE: Red light Gatso on the way
Discussion
Don said:
As your quote says above, what if you run the red because you are too damm busy checking the speedo than looking where you are going......get the point
Not to put too fine a point on it. If a driver actually cannot manage to check and maintain their speed (using the ruddy great speedometer right slap bang in front of them where its easy to see) whilst simultaeneously keeping up a complete and full level of observation out the window of their car then they really shouldn't be on the road. Sorry but its true.
If people are getting points and then bans for that reason I have to say GOOD. Lets get them off the road before they do someone in!
I can manage to look at the speedo each time I want to change speed with a momentary glance that tells me everything I want to know. I am also capable of moderating what my right foot does to keep my speed constant between opportunities to check the speedo.
Too much is made of this argument IMO. People are NOT unaware of their speed unless they areincompetent.
I loathe the sneakily positioned camera designed to catch people out.
A red light camera can hardly be sneakily positioned now can it?
Gixer said:
...and as for London lights (and more and more places out of London) they are being played with so that they stop in all directions for pedestrians at every change - completley stupid - this will cause more people to jump the lights.
I totally agree that the timing of many lights appears ludicrous. One must almost be suspicious of political motives - despite how far fetched that sounds...
Again you are missimg the point. We all have a pretty good how fast we are going but when you here of more and more people being nicked for just a few mph over, a pretty good idea is not enough.
Another good point to make against all red light cameras is that covering over a 1000 miles a week I have been in the situation in London a few times (and I'm sure lots of people that drive lesser distances must have been here at some point at least once) That is where you are sitting at the red light and an emergency vehicle wants to get through. I will run the red to allow the vehicle through if that is the only option. Now I always check there is not a camera first. If there was a camera I WOULD NOT JUMP THE LIGHT and allow the vehicle through.
As a motorcycle rider as well as a car driver I have more reason to fear light jumpers than most but cameras are not policeman despite liBlair telling the nation that they are. Police have brains(?) and can at least enforce the law properly
First off, it's possible to maintain an approximate speed while observing the rest of the roadway, but it's ridiculous to expect people to keep at the limit within a few MPH. In the area of the US where I live, the police generally give a 10MPH margin over the speed limit, and on highways it seems to be about 15MPH... So it's very difficult to get caught speeding by a police officer in regular day-to-day driving.
On the issue of red-light cameras... I'd like to see the statistics, but I recall reading about when Washington, DC started using widespread red light cameras, the accident rate stayed the same, but while there was a decrease in most kinds of accidents, there was a huge jump in rear-end collisions to make up for it. In a neighboring county, the local government put in a 3-second lag when all lights are red, and the accident rate decreased many-fold.
Around this area, all traffic lights have a 2 or 3 second lag, which seems to stop all but the most ridiculous red-light runners. It becomes the norm in wet and icy conditions for people to regularly run red lights if necessary, as a courtesy to drivers behind. Once again, drivers know to wait a second or two and to look before starting from a green light. What seems to be more of a problem are people who can't cope with advanced left turn signals, and right-turn-on-red signals. Today's lot of mindless "drivers" don't seem to notice when they have a green arrow, and when they actually do notice, they believe that it lasts indefinately, even after the arrow turns off...
But I guess the point is that it takes a real person to properly enforce traffic laws, something that a machine in incapable of doing. In reality, the driver who goes through the red light on a rainy day may in fact be doing more good for road safety than the minivan driver who slams on the brakes at the first hint of yellow, causing the driver behind him to smash into his vehicle, ironically pushing it into the intersection he was hoping to avoid...
[/rant]
On the issue of red-light cameras... I'd like to see the statistics, but I recall reading about when Washington, DC started using widespread red light cameras, the accident rate stayed the same, but while there was a decrease in most kinds of accidents, there was a huge jump in rear-end collisions to make up for it. In a neighboring county, the local government put in a 3-second lag when all lights are red, and the accident rate decreased many-fold.
Around this area, all traffic lights have a 2 or 3 second lag, which seems to stop all but the most ridiculous red-light runners. It becomes the norm in wet and icy conditions for people to regularly run red lights if necessary, as a courtesy to drivers behind. Once again, drivers know to wait a second or two and to look before starting from a green light. What seems to be more of a problem are people who can't cope with advanced left turn signals, and right-turn-on-red signals. Today's lot of mindless "drivers" don't seem to notice when they have a green arrow, and when they actually do notice, they believe that it lasts indefinately, even after the arrow turns off...
But I guess the point is that it takes a real person to properly enforce traffic laws, something that a machine in incapable of doing. In reality, the driver who goes through the red light on a rainy day may in fact be doing more good for road safety than the minivan driver who slams on the brakes at the first hint of yellow, causing the driver behind him to smash into his vehicle, ironically pushing it into the intersection he was hoping to avoid...
[/rant]
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