Traffic cameras should be used to figure out why people are doing what they're doing at a given intersection. A lot of the time they can be used to figure that out, and eliminate the need for them.
Like I feel like the standard for traffic cameras is they should be temporary installations used in an investigation to figure out why so many people speed or run red lights or something. And yep, they do eventually figure out interesting tricks.
This one's dumb, but an observation I noticed lately is lots of intersections will change to all red and then light the pedestrian walk light before they change the car light to green. Why? Probably to lower the amount of people crossing the street getting hit by someone turning right in their car. Neat trick.
As a pedestrian that “walk before green” light is super rad. What I imagine it is targeting is letting pedestrians “win” and get into the street where they are more visible so they don’t get ran over by people making left or right turns into them. If you let the cars light “win” then people will immediately turn right and “cut off” the pedestrian.
Dunno, just a guess. My city started doing this pattern a few years ago and I am very curious about the research backing it up. It does make me feel “safer” crossing streets at busy intersections. But I’d be curious what the actual rationale says about it.
Having a 5 second delay between the crosswalk light and the street light doesn't increase revenue, especially because in America, free right turns are ignored by red light cameras, and the light timing change is purely about preventing accidents for cars taking right turns.
Like I feel like the standard for traffic cameras is they should be temporary installations used in an investigation to figure out why so many people speed or run red lights or something. And yep, they do eventually figure out interesting tricks.
This one's dumb, but an observation I noticed lately is lots of intersections will change to all red and then light the pedestrian walk light before they change the car light to green. Why? Probably to lower the amount of people crossing the street getting hit by someone turning right in their car. Neat trick.