You're still allowed to shake your fist like a grumpy old man
Traffic law fact of the day: New York State only allows red light cameras in cities with more than a million people -- so, only in New York City. The issue came up again recently after George De Piro posted video of drivers blowing through red lights around the Lark Street/Washington Park area. [TU] [TU Albany blog] Earlier on AOA: Red light. Stop. | Left on red
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When they outlaw fist shaking, only outlaws will have fists to shake... or something. I'm going to continue with my quiet mumbling road rage. Also, you kids, get off my lawn! :)
... said Andy on Feb 21, 2012 at 1:28 PM | link
Red Light Cameras aren't limited to NYC. The other Big 4 cities (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Yonkers all w/ populations over 100,000) and the two Long Island counties (Nassau and Suffolk both w/populations over a million) are also authorized to have them.
... said Just A Guy on Feb 21, 2012 at 2:20 PM | link
The problem is that there are so many red lights and they go from green to red too quickly. Reduce the number of lights or increase the time of a light cycle.
... said Joe on Feb 21, 2012 at 8:13 PM | link
As Just A Guy was saying, municipalities are commonly given exceptions, but it has to be passed into law by the State.
The biggest problem with red light cameras is that there are many contradicting studies regarding their effect on safety. Several point to increased rear-end collisions and intersections that are more unsafe. The jury is still out.
Many of the red-light runners in George's video were actually in the intersection when the light turned red. I suppose it depends on where you consider the intersection to be. If you consider it just past the pedestrian crosswalk, about half of those people were fine. If you consider it where the pavement of the intersecting street is, many of them ran the light. You can safely say that all of them were racing the light and not stopping when the light turned yellow.
When driving/walking I always assume that the people in oncoming cars are idiots. That keeps me from proceeding into the intersection at the instant the light turns green and keeps me from being creamed by one of these guys.
... said Tim on Feb 23, 2012 at 10:19 AM | link