red light camera destroyer

InfinitusEquitas said:

Alright rant over. I just couldn't resist.

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You tend to rant a lot for a n00b.

Tech_Junkie said:

You tend to rant a lot for a n00b.

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I'm opinionated, so sue me :na:

Besides, who said I'm a n00b? To lasers yes, but this thread's veered off the laser path a long time ago and turned quite interesting in the process.

Here in Wisconsin, red light cameras are against the law, having been deemed Unconstitutional by our State Supreme Court.

One of the few political upsides in our state. Most everything else here to try and make it better, like freeze taxes, bust the corrupt .gov workers unions, and CCW has been fought tooth-and-nail here.

Prototype said:

There's a good chance you're going to get T-Boned by someone who is just going a tad over, or speeding up to make it through a yellow. I'm probably going to get flamed for this, but so be it. The laws are there for a reason.

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It has to do with how properly adjusted lights work on intersections. Normally, there is a short period of so called 'clearance time' between on light turning red, and the other turning green. This time depends on the size of the intersection, but its usually configured that you can make it all the way to the other side at about half the speed limit, before the cross traffic gets green.

This is required for the very odd chance that someone comes from a side speed at the legal speed limit, and gets the green light before he started to brake for the red. If there are cars waiting in front of the light in the cross direction, you have to add the driver response time (about 1 second) plus the time to drive onto the junction.

All combined its generally safe to run a red light for about the first second its red. If traffic is waiting in the cross direction, its about 3 seconds.

Just have a look at it when you're driving sometime: If you stop for a signal turning red, look how long it takes before some other vehicle reaches a point where you would have hit it.

@Benm

That is exactly the way it works with red lights. Depending on intersection, red is show in both directions for anywhere between 2 and 4 seconds. Obviously longer only at large intersections.

Problem is with shortening yellow lights in order to catch more people in that 1-4 second period.

IMO as soon as the light turn yellow, one should break, but if you're 5 feet from the intersection, a yellow light should also permit you to cross safely to the other side, without risking a ticket, or doing anything illegal.

There shouldn't be a need to slam on breaks at the sign of yellow light. Yellow = Caution, not STOP.

I find it completely insane that the timing of something this important get to be influenced by the desire to make fine money.

There is a lot of thought going into cross sections, one thing I am familiar with is that they are hard wired to short out if the controls somehow try for green in both directions.

InfinitusEquitas said:

@Benm

That is exactly the way it works with red lights. Depending on intersection, red is show in both directions for anywhere between 2 and 4 seconds. Obviously longer only at large intersections.

Problem is with shortening yellow lights in order to catch more people in that 1-4 second period.

IMO as soon as the light turn yellow, one should break, but if you're 5 feet from the intersection, a yellow light should also permit you to cross safely to the other side, without risking a ticket, or doing anything illegal.

There shouldn't be a need to slam on breaks at the sign of yellow light. Yellow = Caution, not STOP.

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Here's how I do it. If I'm cruising down the road at like 45mph and a light about 1/5 block away turns yellow I'll stomp the pedal and typically make it into the intersection before the light even turns red. The alternative would be breaking hard and risking a collision if anyone is tailgating me. Also breaking for said light ruins your gas mileage and causes you delay. If I'm further away or I'm going slow anyway I'll typically stop for the light. IMO as long as you can make it into the intersection before it turns red go for it.

Toke said:

I find it completely insane that the timing of something this important get to be influenced by the desire to make fine money.

There is a lot of thought going into cross sections, one thing I am familiar with is that they are hard wired to short out if the controls somehow try for green in both directions.

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Many traffic lights are also equipped with basic sensors to detect certain strobe frequencies.

The forced switch to green still has to go through the usual cycle though. Would be VERY careful about testing this out though... destruction of public property fines will seem like pennies in comparison if you get caught.

The red light cameras here use a lidar gun to detect cars, it sets off my lidar jammer every time I go through.. Might be a good idea to aim that 1W into the detector, I'm sure something meant to detect reflected pulses off of cars won't like a direct hit

Do it at night with noone else around tho, don't want to blind anyone except the camera...


OK, screw laser, just use a rifle and put a 2 liter silencer on it. Harder for them to fix it that way anyways. Air or paintball would be fine too.

Toke said:

I find it completely insane that the timing of something this important get to be influenced by the desire to make fine money.

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That totally depends on the country though. Here in holland there IS a minimum required time for the light to show yellow before turning red, that depends on the speed limit on that particular road.

If traffic police enforce running red lights, there is even a sort of unofficial rule that tolerates passing through red within half a second of the light turning red. Obviously automated camera's don't have that and will photograph you for a fine even if you cross the red light before the lightbulb is warm

Benm said:

That totally depends on the country though. Here in holland there IS a minimum required time for the light to show yellow before turning red, that depends on the speed limit on that particular road.

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That makes perfect sense from a safety perspective.

If traffic police enforce running red lights, there is even a sort of unofficial rule that tolerates passing through red within half a second of the light turning red. Obviously automated camera's don't have that and will photograph you for a fine even if you cross the red light before the lightbulb is warm

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Again it makes sense to give a bit of leeway to make sure you catch only people actually endangering others.
Here the police is known to give a 5-10 Km/h discount on speeding tickets.

The cameras are likely less forgiving.

Am I missing something here???

Irregardless of the constitutional legalness of red-light cameras anyone suggestioning, even in jest, that it would be a good idea to use a laser for destruction of city(or privately owned) properety is assinnine.

"Do it at night with noone else around tho, don't want to blind anyone except the camera... "
^^^ you get a -rep for saying that!!!
Dont like the red light cameras? Then do something other than a felony to change the law. These cameras Have shown to reduce the number of red-light runners and therefore accidents at the same time. How much is the life of another human being worth?

These cameras have shown proof of who was at fault in many accidents.

Those of us who have taken Drivers Ed. and still possess some bit of memory should recall hearing about 'stale' Green lights-- simple really-- we all know the light WILL sooner or later change to yellow then red. Those who think thier need to make the light no matter what are idiots. If the light has been green for a while you need to be 1) aware that it will soon change and 2) be aware of the vehicles behind you. If you are being tailgated, by all means do not make a short stop unless you desire to have someone rearending you. Likewise if you are one of those tailgating a-holes you have a responsibilty to avoid rearending the person in front of you. Only an imbicile would blame such an accident on the person who stopped at a yellow or red light.


2 cents from someone with 47 years of driving experience.

hakzaw1 said:

These cameras Have shown to reduce the number of red-light runners and therefore accidents at the same time.

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While I agree completely with the rest of the post, that part is wrong.

Yes these cameras have reduced the number of red light runners, however they have not in any way reduced the number of accidents. In fact some of these cameras have caused accidents by forcing people to stomp on their breaks.

Id rather get rear ended than T-Bone some poor bastard cause im too impatient
to wait a whole 3mins for another green...

Time the lights on your daily drive, and you wont have to be stomping on the
gas OR the brakes like a novice :san:

^^^Novice:crackup:

I don't time the lights, due to variable conditions because of traffic - I drive on a VERY busy highway everyday so timing lights would be a waste of time. I do find routes that allow me to bypass all lights though

InfinitusEquitas said:

While I agree completely with the rest of the post, that part is wrong.

Yes these cameras have reduced the number of red light runners, however they have not in any way reduced the number of accidents. In fact some of these cameras have caused accidents by forcing people to stomp on their breaks.

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I completely disagree.
]How can you say that or possiblely prove any of that?
'In fact' my ass.