Red light at a crossing

[james24]

Right I've just accidently gone through a red light at the pedestrian crossing at the shops down my road. There is a little black box on the top of the lights, I didn't see anything flash though.

I've searched the forum for information but can't find what I was looking for! Are there cameras normally placed on such a small set of lights?! I thought they were just at the main busy junctions?!

Cheers for any help!

[Pigeon]

The little black box is a movement detector, often said to be a doppler radar but more usually a PIR. It's there to detect gaps in the traffic so that the lights can go red just after the pedestrians have seen the gap for themselves and crossed the road. It doesn't take pictures.

[james24]

Thanks mate Maybe my license will stay clean after all then!

[Tafia]

james24 said:

Right I've just accidently gone through a red light at the pedestrian crossing at the shops down my road. There is a little black box on the top of the lights, I didn't see anything flash though. I've searched the forum for information but can't find what I was looking for! Are there cameras normally placed on such a small set of lights?! I thought they were just at the main busy junctions?! Cheers for any help!

The red light camera I have seen is at the Two Mills traffic lights on the Wirral, Cheshire and it looks just like a Gatso. It is operated by inductive loops in the Tarmac.

[james24]

Oh right, I've been thinking all this time that all the little black boxes on top the lights were all cameras!

[tvrgit]

mostly, they are indeed microwave detectors - they use the doppler effect to judge if something is moving towards them.

The PIR or presence detectors tend to be used for pedestrians (on toucan crossings) or for say right-turners, when you want to know if something is still there, whether it's moving or not.

[Byff]

Your licence may stay clean, but for fecks sake, get an eye test!

[james24]

>> Edited by james24 on Sunday 9th May 06:38