Traffic Lights That Punish Speeders
from the reprogramming-those-with-lead-feet dept
Over in the city of Pleasanton, California, they're launching a new traffic light that detects speeders - and hits them with a red light. While plenty of lights have sensors to let them know when to turn green, this one is designed to cool off the speeders and slow them down a bit. It watches for speeders, and when they're spotted, it turns the light red, to make them slow down. Some are against this, but I can't see what they have to complain about, really. They're not getting fined. They're not getting pulled over. They're just being forced to stop at a perfectly legitimate stoplight.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
This isn't new... or is it?
But, yeah, if alll you've got to do is to wait at a light rather than get a ticket I would say you've got nothing about which to complain. In our nation's capital you get a ticket, eh. If nothing else you would know that there's no point in hurrying and you'll go faster if you mantain the speed limit.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
1) A light-running cmaera will be connected to the light Wham! instant $$$$.
2) Some engineer in the Valley will figure out how to blind the camera to neutralize the light and the cold war will begin.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Not just the speeder
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Not just the speeder
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
could we perhapse raise the speed limit?
nooo that would never work
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I wonder about how this can scale up
I curious about how having an individual signal break its coordinated timing plan to slow down a speeder would affect the overall efficiency of the corridor (Level of Service in traffic engineering speak). It is a neat idea, but I wonder about the unintended consequences. Urban signal systems can be surprisingly complex.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: I wonder about how this can scale up
[ link to this | view in thread ]