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Ten years ago there were very few surveillance cameras sprinkled
throughout our streets and highways. This article deals with
cameras used for traffic surveillance and control. I classify
traffic cameras into three types: traffic monitoring, red light,
and speed control cameras.
Traffic Monitoring Cameras.
These cameras are all over our highways and are appearing on our
city streets. They're usually mounted on special posts by the
side of the highway, or on existing lampposts and bridges. Their
wide-angle lenses are not meant to catch the individual
characteristics of specific vehicles or drivers. They mainly
report on road conditions and help dispatch road assistance in
case of accidents or stalled vehicles. On city streets, they can
be used to adjust traffic light times based on the amount of
visible congestion. Radio and TV stations monitor them to
deliver their daily rush hour reports.
In the US, these cameras are still relatively harmless to
individual privacy. However, in the future, some of these
devices may be converted for use with a technology called ANPR
(Automatic Number Plate Recognition). This technology digitizes
pictures of license plates of passing motorists and compares the
numbers to different databases. This results in checking if the
car was stolen, if it has all its proper licenses and insurance,
and if the driver has all the proper credentials. The British,
who are much more advanced in traffic surveillance, are
currently testing such a system. Manufacturers boast that this
technology can check up to 3600 plates per hour of vehicles
moving over 100 miles per hour. Currently lot of the British
ANPR cameras are placed in roadside police trucks, but as the
technology gets more sophisticated, they'll be using more fixed
cameras scattered throughout the highway.
Red Light Cameras.
Red light cameras take a picture of the license plate of a
vehicle that passes through an intersection after the light has
turned red. Typically, they are adjusted to ignore the vehicle,
if it is already in the intersection as the light turns red. A
trained interpreter then reads the violator's license number,
looks up his address and sends him a ticket.
Red light cameras are appearing everywhere. Are these cameras
making the roads safer or, as some claim, more dangerous? On the
surface, it looks like these cameras can deter a lot of the side
impact collisions that are a direct result of drivers running
red lights. One of the things we have to constantly watch out
for when dealing with today's politicians is that they say
everything they do is for our welfare, but in reality there
always seems to be a financial incentive involved. This seems to
be the case when dealing with red light cameras. Many engineers
contend that there are better ways to prevent side impact
collisions.
Making the yellow light longer tends to dramatically reduce the
amount of red light violators. Since red light equipment
companies get a cut of the revenue from traffic tickets, they
tend to reduce yellow light times when they install the
equipment. One study conducted by the Virginia Department of
Transportation, increased the yellow light time from 4.00
seconds to 5.50 seconds. Red light violations captured by the
camera dropped from 52.1 per day to 2 per day. Just out of
curiosity, I went out and measured the yellow light duration on
a Chicago street where they have a red light camera. It was 3.00
seconds. No wonder they've made 18 million from twenty cameras
since 2003.
Another way to stop side impact crashes is to engineer both
intersection lights to be red for a period of time. Just as one
light turns red, don't let the cross traffic go immediately.
Wait a second until the stragglers get through, before turning
the light green and letting the cross traffic go. I haven't seen
any studies on this, but logically, this seems like a real good
solution.
Big brother type of surveillance, has a psychological impact as
well. I, personally, believe that everyone should stop at red
lights. I'm never in too much of a hurry. I haven't gotten into
an accident or a moving violation for more than twenty years. In
spite of my good record, I've run red lights many times
throughout the years. I may have had a good reason for it, or it
may have been a mistake, I can't quite remember now. If this
equipment were installed, I would have been punished numerous
times for my mistakes. Everyone, even with the best intentions,
will make mistakes. Wouldn't it be better to design a system
that compensates for our mistakes and helps prevent side impact
collisions, rather than punishes us and still allows this type
of collision to occur. Red light cameras create more rear end
collisions. They lower the side collisions by making use of
people's fear of punishment, which gets them to slam on their
brakes to avoid being fined. People can condition themselves to
be careful because they fear punishment, but they can't
condition themselves to spontaneous situations that may cause
them to make mistakes.
Speed Cameras.
Speed cameras are still not that prevalent in the United States,
but they've been used for years in the UK. In most cases, red
light cameras can be converted to speed cameras or they can be
set up to catch speeders during the green light period and catch
red light violators when the light turns red. These cameras,
like red light cameras, take a picture of the violator's license
who is traveling a pre-set amount above the speed limit. The
picture is analyzed by trained reviewers, the violator's address
is determined, and a citation mailed.
There are two main reasons opponents contest this type of
equipment. First, they say that an increase in speed does not
result in more fatal accidents. Next, they believe that keeping
below a specific limit just to avoid the cameras, gets people to
ignore road conditions, and actually causes more accidents.
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