Camera Sly

I am 1,500 miles away from our nation’s capital, and I see a presidential motorcade just about every day.

I didn’t know they made bulletproof Volkswagons, Chevrolets and Toyotas of all different colors, either. It must be a new way to keep our leader incognito. Put him among the commoners, maybe even throw in a haul truck or two. That has to explain all the red-light runners out there. Maybe I should ease up on the horn or I just might find myself surrounded by a cluster of black jackets, black sunglasses and black guns in the middle of the intersection.

Choosing the accelerator over the break is probably the most difficult multiple-choice question to answer these days, if certainly not the quickest. Because of the consistent rise in privileged thinking, many cities and towns have installed red-light cameras. The tactic has been watching a parade of criticism go by since the first unit was placed. Most believe it is just another revenue-fattening agent, and in some parts the outcry has been so thunderous they have removed the cameras altogether.

The automatic focus on red-light cameras should be safety. However, every so often the lens gets warped. Not too long ago, I received an e-mail on the doings at the intersection of U.S. 50 and Fillmore in Arlington, Va. The city could probably consider itself one of the proud fathers of the red-light camera campaign, as several were tucked in throughout the area as early as 1995. According to a story that ran in the Washington Post on Sept. 14 of that year, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) studied the corner of U.S. 50 and Fillmore and found that drivers go through a red light an average of once every 12 minutes—and once every five minutes during the peak 8 a.m. hour.

Those kinds of statistics would put a hard screech into anyone’s train of thought. To think on average there were 12 red-light deserters in an hour during the busiest time of the day was borderline horrifying.

However, it appears that the yellow light in that intersection had a dark streak. It was just four seconds long prior to 1997, when it was stretched out to 4.5 seconds. Published data from the IIHS when the yellow was at its shortest showed that the majority of red-light running was taking place during the first second of the stop sign. Virginia quickly saw the safety shelter in the yellow signal. The caution at U.S. 50 and Fair Ridge Drive in Fairfax County was increased to 5.5 seconds, and the amount of red-light running was chopped to a crawl—it decreased more than 94%. At Rte. 7 and Towlston Road the move eliminated these “bandits” to the point that the cameras were removed.

If a traffic engineer does notice a sharp stampede of red-light runners at a particular intersection, it is his or her duty to investigate the signal timing and make the traffic quarter as safe and sound as possible. In fact, the Institute of Transportation Engineers’ Traffic Engineering Handbook clearly states that “the courts have held that if a defect has existed for an unreasonable period of time, the agency should have discovered the defect, and therefore it has constructive notice of its existence.” Those who are only out to generate raunchy investigative news stories are only recklessly blowing through the code of ethics.

As of 2005, the yellow at U.S. 50 and Fillmore was staying lit for as long as five seconds. Hopefully, cities of all makes and kinds will hold safety above all else. It’s certainly worth giving the presidential treatment.