The original AM radio in my '66 Mustang isn’t even connected. It’s the exhaust note 
that I listen to. I have had people follow me home to learn what mufflers I use and where I got them.
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As a musician, I can say it’s definitely some sweet music.
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I have those moments daily! The “man, this would be so easy with a high tech laser cutter” is on repeat in my shop. Looks great though, nice job! The car looks okay…I guess 
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I like your clean looking design, and the Vette is amazing!
While I am no boy scout, and have had my share of tickets, I still adhere to the fact that the law is the law, particularly when it comes to traffic… I’m a traffic engineer, so roadway safety and the proper design, installation and operation of traffic signals to maximize that safety is paramount to my career. I’ve never tried to talk my way out of a ticket. I was speeding (or whatever) and I got caught. Pure and simple. I’ll pay the consequences. As a traffic engineer I have knowledge of many ways that I can fight a speeding ticket… when was the last time a speed survey was done on that road? Even though I could exploit this knowledge and get out of the ticket, I deserved the ticket, so I won’t.
No judgement on @autumnleedavis… he does what he does and in this instance the device is legal, but just so I can say my peace, the fact that the driver bought and installed the device telegraphs their intent to break the law. Traffic signals are there for a reason, and violating the signal puts people in danger. Personally, I would have a moral issue with installing this device, despite its legality.
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Interesting. Even though oftentimes they’re wrong (not dealing well with right turn on red) or even if right, your data is now in some 3rd party’s hands (and database) without any control by you of its use or misuse? Data privacy concerns alone justify it for me.
BTW, the NP unit I got last was just the bottom bar with a behind the plate backer piece. There wasn’t anything framing the plate or any of those wing sides that the OP has in his pics.
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This I agree with all the way.
I am curious though; as a traffic engineer, what you think about traffic-light cameras?
In your opinion, do they make intersections safer when they are hidden?
Do they make intersections safer when they are clearly marked?
Do they make traffic flow better?
Are they just revenue; punishment but not preventive?
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Without data you can’t make a claim that they are “oftentimes” wrong. If the signal is set up properly and the red light system is installed properly, then the system should work and only tag vehicles that break the law - i.e. “roll through” a right turn on red as opposed to coming to a full stop.
Every cop that runs my plate in real-time is a “3rd party” who has access to my information and I have no control over its use or misuse… This is no different. If you use a credit card online you are putting your information in someone else’s hand and trusting that they won’t misuse it.
I listen to a podcast about the card game Magic: The Gathering. In that podcast they talk about a lot of things, but one thing that they talk about that has had a HUGE impact on how I see the world is how we perceive and think about things. In particular is the fact that we allow extremely small sample sizes justify how we use things. For example, in the context of the game, I may decide to put a certain card in my deck. This card is known to be “bad”. I use it and one time I win spectacularly with it. That event now justifies my inclusion of the card. What I don’t account for typically are the 50 times that I drew the card and couldn’t play it for whatever reason. Those events are unspectacular and leave no lasting impression.
To bring it back to the discussion point at hand, we hear about the “hundreds” of red light cameras that incorrectly tag someone. What we don’t hear about are the portion of those people who rolled the stop, or the portion of those people who saw the yellow and pressed the gas instead of the brake and gauged incorrectly. The time I got tagged by a red light camera, at the time I could have SWORN I was in the turn before the light went red. When I got the video, I was definitely in error. Anyway, we hear about the few times that a system failed, and we then attribute that to the industry as a whole. We don’t hear about the 99% of people legally using the signal who don’t get tickets, nor do we hear about the 99% of people who actually broke the law and were cited appropriately.
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If a photo enforcement camera is hidden then there is no benefit. That would be purely a revenue generator… but also illegal. At least in CA and WA - the two states I have experience in. Photo enforcement always has to be advertised, though it could be as simple as a sign at the city limit that says “photo enforcement in effect within City limits” or some such.
I don’t think they make traffic flow better. I do think that they make intersections safer because a larger percentage of drivers are more cautious than they would be without it. i.e. with the camera if they see the yellow light they now brake as opposed to slamming the gas to try and beat the red. The more visible the better. The new ones in my city I think flash the strobe fairly regularly without taking photos just as one more way of alerting people to their presence.
One of the arguments against is that you don’t have the ability to face the officer, but you do. You can still fight that ticket in court just like any other ticket, so if you think you were issued the ticket unjustly, you can fight it.
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One more tidbit for those concerned about big brother! Some cities install devices in their traffic signal cabinets that ping off of the wifi and/or bluetooth of any device within range. If a device pings off of cabinet A at time A and cabinet B at time B we can now tell how long it took you and what your speed was. One thing to put you at ease, this in no way correlates to your personal information. The only thing the device knows is the mac address (I think) of the device. Only a machine ever sees or processes the information.
What this does is allows planners to learn more about actual traffic flow and travel times, making it easier to determine the best approaches to resolving problem areas. It also benefits adaptive traffic signals in running their algorithms.
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Good to hear that from someone in the industry. The city I live in now just installed its first traffic light camera. It is not labeled as such, and although it is visible, it looks nothing like a camera. There is a green status led that gives it away. In California. I only know they installed it because of a notification from the PD on Nextdoor. Maybe they are going to make a sign for it and just haven’t yet.
Then there are the mobile speed-trap vans that they have in Boulder. They have portable ground-level a-frame warning signs that they love to hide behind bushes and parked cars, or place several blocks from where the van is stationed. The vans seem to really like parking a couple yards back from where the speed limit increases, to maximize their profits. At least that’s how it was a few years ago.
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You have a very interesting job. At one point I was looking into getting involved with air traffic control. While I agree with most issues people have (including some of my own) with devices such as this , legal or not, morally I have no obligation. The way I see it is I’m not giving the guy a means to speed. He already got that on his own when he spent 120,000 on a car. This would give him an advantage over other motorists when questionable technology and laws are enforced improperly as a revenue generating source. Even at that I have no moral obligation. Will this guy use it as a way to break the law? I have no clue. Truth be told if we allowed ourselves to be governed by every faucet of authority and we’re held accountable most of us would be in prison. Using a fake name of incorrect variation of your name on an online forum is a crime. ( federal if I’m not mistaken ). Walking around in public with a sharpie in your pocket or connecting to unsecured WIFI networks also are crimes. The extend of piss poor enforcement and creation of “laws” and the miss use of them as a way to benefit a company rather than protect people is astounding. I’m not ragging on you or your profession. You seem like a good person and there is definately a need for your profession. Alternatively however I think the root of the problem is not lack of people following laws of the road. It is inexperience in how to control the machine they are using and taking the necessary personal precautions to ensure safe operation ( distractions like mobile phones, poor weather conditions, lack of proper maintenance of the machine, very little training to operate said machine ). There was a more involved and lengthy course and testing for me to get a warehouse forklift operating ticket than for me to be able to get my class 26 license which allows me to drive almost any vehicle on a public roadway ( including motorcycles, emergency vehicles and busses ) with the exception of an 18 wheeler.
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The other trick they use is where the limit goes from 35-25 and they point the camera uphill. So if you’re coasting with even just a little less than full attention you’ll hit that camera going 37 while applying the brake to get into a more reasonable speed but you’re fighting gravity. The red light camera I think is a great idea. That van though just seems like a revenue generator. 6 years in Boulder I never got caught by it but they clearly knew where to park it to maximize the tickets
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A town near me has an aggressive and possibly broken red light camera system. My wife got a ticket, not because she actually broke the law, but because the way her tiny car was shielded and then revealed by the motion of giant trucks nearby made it look like she did. It was totally bogus, but we couldn’t get it dismissed.
Then I started to really pay attention in that town and I noticed that the truck drivers would not make a right-on-red even in places where it was completely legal to do so. My interpretation was that they too were concerned about the red light camera system correctly interpreting their behavior. If you are a commercial driver a ticket is a big deal so I can’t blame them for being paranoid.
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At least our interstate freeways don’t have average-speed cameras.
Yet.
You are my kind of cynic. I mean, futurist. It does feel like just a matter of time, doesn’t it?
Lot of “ifs” there. And as a revenue generation device with humans involved, I’m skeptical. If there’s a profit potential then there’s a misuse potential as well. I’ve seen a fair number of studies that have shown things like yellow light shortening after installation of the cameras and safety studies that show that although accidents at the intersection may go down, the total rate within a nearby radius stay the same.
True but does that mean I should volunteer for every one who decides they want my info? If so, could you send me your driver’s license info? I won’t use if for nefarious purposes, I promise 
I use one-off credit card #s for transactions, I have a Coin credit card storage device that allows me to give it to the waiter and not have my number compromised. I don’t give my license to almost anyone. I attempt to restrain the number and places my private information gets promulgated. This is one that’s not necessary for me to play along with. They want to catch people running reds, stick a cop on the intersection. You want someone in Australia or India or somewhere else deciding that your car was the car they saw vs the guy you can talk to in realtime, that’s great but I don’t. [quote=“chadmart1076, post:29, topic:6507”]
We don’t hear about the 99% of people legally using the signal who don’t get tickets, nor do we hear about the 99% of people who actually broke the law and were cited appropriately.
[/quote]
This is a good example of the problem. If you are right about the %ages (and I suspect not because there would be an uprising, but…) then more people are getting invalid tickets than are being caught. It’s simple math. Since most people are law-abiding and do not run the lights, then it is entirely likely that if 1% of them are inappropriately ticketed (the converse of your 99% legally using who don’t get tickets) they outnumber the 99% who got tickets appropriately unless the red light runners exceed 1% of the population. The false positives outnumber the true positives.
It comes down to letting the machine and a profit motivated 3rd party far far away make the call or a human being you can talk to at the time of the incident. We let our liberties get slowly whittled away near daily and then we moan about how much government costs and how intrusive it is. Well, if you don’t fight back, then you’re letting it happen. Lots of opportunity now for Thoreau moments. This is one of mine 
And this is one of my favorites. As a volunteer ambulance staffer (EMT) I see a fair number of accidents. The rear-ender is becoming more common than the front-ender. In fact most of my calls for multi-vehicle accidents are rear-enders at intersections. Thank you for slamming on the brakes…or thank you for not paying attention when I slammed on my brakes
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I’m assuming adaptive algorithms are the ones that time a series of red lights on a highway so you stop at every single one 
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It’s also how things like Google Maps gets its real-time traffic data. Which, to me, is the most useful thing of all.
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I was thinking that, but wasn’t sure.
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Good detailed response. The only thing I take exception to is that you seem to think a few false positives are acceptable. They are not.
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