Advocacy & Safety - Tempe adds 20 speed & red light cameras

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StrangeWill
11-19-07, 06:18 PM
Many roads here have lights timed so if one drives the speed limit one rarely encounters a red light. That saves gas with a very reasonable flow of traffic. Unfortunately many drivers ignore this convenience and race from light to light.
The government here is focused on reducing red light fatalities as the state and it's metro cities are #1 in the US for red light fatalities and red light collisions. Red light camera enforcement has reduced this in the past several years.

Al
Not here, and my job is driving. They would have to be networked being as not all traffic lights follow a standard cycle, it has to do with sensors and when cars roll over them (possibly how many sensors get tripped too, but I haven't observed this mattering).


noisebeam
11-19-07, 06:24 PM
Not here, and my job is driving. They would have to be networked being as not all traffic lights follow a standard cycle, it has to do with sensors and when cars roll over them (possibly how many sensors get tripped too, but I haven't observed this mattering).

Well the article wheel posted is about speed camera's here where most lights are networked.
Check out this study with the case being Rural/Scottsdale Rd (the road I commute 12mi on every day) which also is the road with some of the more recent speed/red light cameras installed. It is about improving light timing coordination to increase carrying capacity and decrease accidents.

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-052999-172701/unrestricted/Chapter_5.pdf

Yes most side streets are given green by sensors, but the sensors on arterials here are often even midblock and used to check for traffic volumes and speed and make dynamic adjustments to timings as part of the ITS and FMS.

Al

dr. nate
11-19-07, 09:56 PM
In downtown Houston, the lights are all timed to change in a rolling fashion. They will start on the south side of the downtown district and click one by one to red going north. That way you don't have people getting stuck in the intersection all of the time. Down here, people think that just because the light is turning yellow that you need to get your car in the intersection so you don't have to wait (thus blocking traffic so others can't enter and spend their green light sitting).

-Nate


wheel
11-21-07, 02:35 PM
http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/351/img8199tt9.jpg

Scottsdale's speed van.