Budget cuts in the Portland Bureau of Transportation could actually wind up as bad news for drivers too busy/entitled to stop for things like, oh, say, red lights.
Hoping to save $480,000 that it could use instead to blunt layoffs or invest in other traffic safety projects, PBOT wants to hand its 11-year-old red-light camera program over to the police bureau—which would then, presumably, expand it beyond the 10 intersections that already have them.
According to budget documents, the camera program, as currently constructed, hasn’t been able to pay for itself. That’s been a big reason why the program hasn’t gotten much bigger over the years—which is too bad, according to the most recent city report on the camera program. The cameras appear to be working quite well.
But the finances have been challenging. Cash from red-light tickets accounts for only 69 percent of the funding needed to keep things running—with PBOT having to pay for the rest out of its overall operating budget. The thinking is the police bureau would be a better fit, since it already runs similar programs like photo-radar vans to catch speeders.
“The change in policy would allow the city to add red light cameras to other locations that have high numbers of crashes caused by red light running,” explains Caryn Brooks, spokeswoman for Mayor Sam Adams’ office, which oversees both bureaus. “We need to fully evaluate all the ramifications of cost and revenue, but if those things line up, the mayor is supportive of housing this program within the Portland Police Bureau.”
They could also just add in a 2 second “all red” at each intersection and the number of accidents would go down and no cameras would even need to be installed.
Gee, why won’t this happen?
Because drivers will adjust and think: “Oh, I have two seconds once the light turns red, so I’ll go ahead and run this one.”
The only way to stop illegal behavior is to punish it.
They could also make all the crosswalk countdowns uniform. It’s ridiculous that every intersection with a crosswalk countdown is synced differently to the light changes. Does the light change when the count equals ‘0’? is it a count a second or two after ‘0’? or is it some unknown time after ‘0’?
As an alert driver I try to pay attention to these counters and begin my slow to stop when I see the count near ‘2’ (especially at Sandy & Caesar Chavez, where the traffic cam is vicious). Why these things aren’t uniform to begin with is a mystery to me.
What is this, Amateur Traffic Engineer Hour? You think the people who work on these things full time are dummies or something? I don’t know all the details but I’m guessing there’s reasons for all of these things. Like, if you add two-seconds to a red, that throws off the timing of all the other lights. But I’m not an signal engineer — I’m just guessing.
@2 yeah that really helps with Murder, Prostitution, the war on (Some) drugs, Rape, burglary, & pick your crime.
@2 Read up on Red Light cameras…having an “all red” phase is a common thing cities have done to reduce accidents. On the other hand, several cities have been caught shortening the yellow so people have a greater chance at get hitting by a red light camera. Heck, there is even your token website against short yellow lights:
http://www.shortyellowlights.com
“You think the people who work on these things full time are dummies or something?”
Yes, almost exclusively.
Goddammit, we need red light DISTRICTS, not cameras.
“The only way to stop illegal behavior is to punish it.”
What a fucking stooge. Thanks, grandpa.