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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Carragher who wrote (128478)	8/1/2005 6:31:47 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793841

please explain how your car went through a red light at an intersection and your car didn't commit a crime. Cars don't commit crimes. People commit crimes. it would be nice to know when you lend out your car the person is not a careful driver. It would be. But that doesn't mean that if the person who borrowed it is not a careful drive that you have committed a crime. I haven't read one article pertaining to this intersection of rear end accidents since the cameras went up I have read such an article but it was in print not online. I've also heard information about it on the radio but without an online source I can't give you a link. sure there are places that may reduce the yellow light for more tickets. I expect the system is monitored and it is the exception. I would rather see hundreds of tickets issued each month at this deadly intersection if avoids hundreds of accidents and many deaths. If you decrease the length of the yellow light you will likely increase the number of accidents. The local jurisdiction that collects the money would do most of the monitoring. Its a conflict of interest. In some cases the state can monitor the lights, which reduces the conflict but it might not eliminate it. Private groups can monitor and analyze the lights (by observation, I doubt they actually get the raw data available to the but they can watch the light and see how long the yellows are and see when the flash goes off), but they have to appeal to the government to take the lights down or change them. Tim

To: John Carragher who wrote (128478)	8/1/2005 7:22:47 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 793841

In case you didn't see the post with this link "Further analysis indicated that the cameras are contributing to a definite increase in rear-end crashes, a possible decrease in angle crashes, a net decrease in injury crashes attributable to red light running, and an increase in total injury crashes. Page xiii Summary of Empirical Bayes Method (Level 4 Analysis) [Editor's note: only Fairfax County data reflects the most rigorous analysis. Other cities did not provide volume, yellow time, and data on other key factors.] The latter half of Appendix D shows the results of an Empirical Bayes analysis for Fairfax County crash data only. These results suggest the following: * The cameras are correlated with an increase in total crashes of 8% to 17%. * The cameras are correlated with an increase in rear-end crashes related to the presence of a red light; the increase ranges between 50% and 71%. * The cameras are correlated with a decrease in crashes attributable to red light running, and the decrease is between 24% and 33%. * The cameras are correlated with a decrease in injury crashes attributable to red light running, with the decrease being between 20% and 33%. * The cameras are correlated with an increase in total injury crashes, with the increase being between 7% and 24%. Page 28 ...but it obscures the that only a small percentage of crashes are attributable to red light running. Data from Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles, for example, suggested that in 1998 (a year when no red light cameras were in operation), only 3.3% of all crashes involved a driver who “ran traffic control” (DMV, 1999). Page 124" thenewspaper.com