Are Red Light Cameras the Answer? The automobile’s invention revolutionized the American transportation system. It allowed people to move themselves and cargo from city-to-city and state-to-state in a much faster and efficient manner. Its numbers increased as it gained popularity and became affordable. This led to the development of road networks both within and between cities. Problems arose in the areas where roads intersected each other; accidents occurred at these intersections due to the lack in control of vehicular movements. Cities employed people to direct traffic at busy intersections to address this issue, but eventually the intersections became too numerous to control using this method. The development of automated traffic control devices attempted to solve this problem. Initially, these consisted of an alternating sign system that simply read stop and proceed. This system soon evolved into the method utilized today with red, amber, and green lights. However, this system could not force vehicles to stop when the light turned red and intersections still required monitoring by the police to enforce traffic regulations. The use of police to monitor intersections poses its own problems. First, there are not enough officers in urban areas to monitor every intersection on a regular basis. Second, if police officers have to remain at problematic intersections to observe traffic, they are not maintaining a patrol presence within their assigned areas. Third, officers are only capable of stopping one vehicle at a time after a violation occurs. These issues spurred the development of the traffic enforcement camera system; also called red light cameras (RLC). RLCs monitor intersections as a means of enforcing traff... ... middle of paper ... ...l Text Mega (H.W. Wilson). database. Harris, T. (n.d.). How Red-light Cameras Work. HowStuffWorks "Auto". Retrieved September 20, 2013, from http://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-driving-safety/safety-regulatory-devices/red-light-camera1.htm REDFLEXred® - Red Light Camera Photo Enforcement. (n.d.). Redlight Camera, Red Light Photo Enforcement. Retrieved September 26, 2013, from http://www.redflex.com/index.php/en/solutions/redflex-red-light-enforcement Ruehlman, R. (2013, March 12). Gary Pruiett v. Village of Elmwood Place. Hamilton County Law Library: Blog. Retrieved September 26, 2013, from http://www.hamilton-co.org/cinlawlib/blog/Elmwood_traffic_appeal.pdf Walden, T., & Bochner, B. (2011). Effectiveness of Red Light Cameras- Texas Statewide Evaluation. ITE Journal, 81(12), 30-33. Retrieved September 8, 2013, from the OmniFile Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson). database.
The controversy that is around traffic cameras is a positive point into the safety of streets and the revenue that comes of people that fail to follow safety protocol. Traffic cameras have a characteristic that everyone is aware of, safety. Safety is the most important part, the traffic cameras leave officers free of stop light duties to emphasize more of their focus onto neighborhoods and other parts of a city. Traffic cameras are notorious for saving the lives of many people and reducing accidents, just in 2013, Insurance institute for highway safety has a study that showed a 24 percent decrease in red light accidents in larger cities. Cities have been af...
The intent of this study is to determine the effects between the independent variable of law enforcement professionals wearing body-cameras and the dependent variable of civilian’s willingness to talk to the police. The research questions that the data collected intends to answer are: Do civilians that come in contact with police deterred from talking to them about relevant information regarding a crime when there is a camera on the officer? What effects do police body-cameras have beyond accountability of law enforcement professionals? Will body-cameras damage communication between civilians and law enforcement that could result in a decrease in willingness to report crimes thus increasing crime itself?
Should police officers be mandated to wear body cameras? That is a question that has grown to be widely discussed in media, politics, and public. The death of Michael Brown due to a fatal shooting by a law enforcement officer inflamed the idea that police officers should wear body cameras (Griggs, Brandon). The opposing sides of such controversial questions both provide a strong reasonable argument that support each side. However, despite the critiques against body cameras, I believe the evidence that support the usage of body cameras to be overwhelmingly positive and the intention is of pure deeds. Police officers should be required to wear body cameras; because it will build a trust between law enforcement and the community, it will decrease
London, in 1868, became the first city in the world to install and enjoy the services of the world’s maiden traffic light (This Day in History, 2011). This traffic light was established by a legendary railway engineer by the name John Peak Knight but the actual construction work was done by Saxby & Farmer Railway Signal Engineers. This traffic light control system was placed at the intersection of Gorge and Bridge Street (This Day in History, 2011). Physically, the traffic light was 22 feet tall and had arms that were extended horizontally and lowered at an angle (Vaunt Design Group, 2006). Fortunately or unfortunately, the traffic light was not automatically controlled. Therefore, it had to be controlled manually by a police officer (This Day in History, 2011). Its operation involved outstretching the light’s arms horizontally and lowering it at an angle of 450 (Vaunt Design Group, 2006). This was achieved by use of a lever. The horizontal outstretch of the traffic light’s arm meant that the motorists should stop whereas lowering of the same arms at an angle of 450 meant that the motorists ought to move, though with caution. The device was powered by gas at night in order to flash lights (Vaunt Design Group, 2006). It flashed only two colors which were red and green. Red light told motorists to stop while green lights told motorists to keep moving. (Pollard 97). At night, this traffic light was powered by gas and the lantern would give an appropriate reflection accordingly as the lever would be turned to face traffic.
The question of the effectiveness of photo-radars for reducing the number of drivers that break the speed limit is widely debated in the academic literature. One of the evidences in favor of photo-radars is provided by Retting & Farmer (2003) who studied results of speeding cameras deployment in Washington D.C. in 2001. Researches collected data on the mean traffic speeds and proportion of drivers who had been violating the speed limit for 60 different zones 1 year prior to and 6 months after the installation of photo-radars. They have discovered that on average the mean driving speed has fallen by 14% and average share of speeding drivers was reduced by 82% which suggests that photo-radars can effectively control the driving conditions.
Beginning in 2007, two reporters from the Chicago Tribune, David Kidwell and Alex Richards, launched an investigation of what seemed to be the wrongful citation of thousands of Chicagoland drivers whom were ticked by robotic cameras over a nine year period of time. Many of these tickets were dealt during a camera spike, in which case cameras that would usually give a lower number of tickets would dramatically increase the amount of tickets given in a short period of time. The Tribune gathered useful input from numerous chicagoland citizens, city officials, and traffic safety experts while their research was conducted. While reading these three red light articles, a media consumer must analyze the the reliability and credibility of the source
Once the camera has read the license plates that are in the proximity of the patrol vehicle, it will then compared the license plate numbers to a database that contains the license plates numbers of vehicles that have been stolen; license plates numbers of vehicles that are associated with people who have active warrants; and license plates numbers of vehicles that are associated with people who have not paid traffic tickets among others (Lum et al., 2011, pg. 322). If the camera reads a license plate number and it matches to one of the license plate numbers that are within the database, it will then send an alert to notify the patrol officer, which will allow the patrol officer to visually identify the vehicle and further investigate the vehicle and the persons that are within the vehicle if any (Lum et al., 2011, pg. 322). The whole process of the camera identification, matching to the database, and notifying the officer only takes seconds (Lum et al., 2011, pg. 322).
[1]"Objections To Red Light Cameras | NMA." Objections To Red Light Cameras | NMA. Accessed September 23, 2015. http://www.motorists.org/red-light-cameras/objections.
As people are driving down the interstate with their cruise control set over the speed limit, many get scared of a police car parked on the side of the road. Right after they pass the trap they look at the speedometer and their rear mirror, hoping that the cop will pass them by and go after those whose speed was higher.
Since the invention of traffic lights, nobody has ever said, “I love stropping at a red light”. Why not do everyone a favor by shooting the light so it will never turn on again, problem solved. Those with road rage will surely be almost as thrilled as those who run red lights anyways! Of course, this will change the other direction of traffic into a yield but they can live with it. Shooting at stop signs is also acceptable in case of a disagreement about where it has been placed. Furthermore, by simply doing the same to those annoying cars in front of you in traffic will result in an open lane.
folds: CCTV cameras have become more reliable than the entire Police system in today’s times.
In the day to day road transportation sector activities many police officer complain about red light violators. According to a 2010 report The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that violating red lights causes hundreds of deaths and thousands of injury annually. In discussion of, both articles to control red light violators by installing automatic traffic light camera. After analyzing responses from both articles I have come to the conclusion that installing automatic traffic light more advantageous than not installing automatic traffic light.
It is important to follow all traffic laws to keep everyone safe on road. The amount of traffic accidents and losses drops significantly when people are obeying the rules on the road. Sometimes we forget what a big responsibility it is to drive carefully. Traffic laws are designed to protect you and other drivers on the streets. If we don’t follow them we are not only putting ourselves in risk but also other innocent people. By knowing the rules of the road, practicing good driving skills, you help play a vital role in preventing a crash. You will also be making the safety policies more effective. Many components play a major role in road safety including speed limits that are posted and making sure safety equipment is properly installed and used.
I know a green light means go, but as I hope you are also aware to many people a light turning red means I can still go through it. You do not need to honk your horn immediately when the light changes. Chances are the first driver has a better view of all your aggressive driving friends passing the light than you do at the end of the line.
Roumen Petkov, Interactive headlight control system, US patent publication number 2006/0152935 A1, July 13, 2006