Autoblog

MIT working on algorithm to predict red light runners

Chris Shunk — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 11:26:00 EST

Math geeks seem to think that complex algorithms can fix just about everything, and when it comes to red light runners, the geeks might be right. The Los Angeles Times reports that MIT researchers have developed an algorithm that can determine whether a driver will run a red light within milliseconds, which could one day save the lives of others.

The research is being published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems. The team measured the success of their algorithm with 15,000 vehicles at an intersection in Christianburg, VA, and the group found that the algorithm was correct 85 percent of the time, which is reportedly the most accurate that has been measured.

While this information doesn't do much now for the safety of others, the smart cars of tomorrow could do a lot with that info. Since the information can be calculated in milliseconds, if the information can be transmitted to other vehicles, those vehicles can take decisive measures on the behalf of the driver. MIT Professor Jonathan How explains that, even though a driver sees a green light, a heads-up display could warn the driver of an impending red light runner.

MIT working on algorithm to predict red light runners originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 11:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Red light-runner has ill-advised change of heart

Chris Shunk — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:32:00 EST

Filed under: Government/Legal, Videos

We've all done it before. The light is red, but you're turning right, so you stop and then proceed as soon as traffic clears. But then, just as you've committed, you spot a Crown Victoria, and your mind starts to race. Was there a no turn on red sign back there? Is that a cop? Oh snap, there goes my insurance premiums!

It's not a pretty feeling, but once you're committed, you know it's too late. Well, it's too late for most, but apparently not everyone in Russia agrees. Hit the jump to see video that illustrates what not to do after deciding to turn right on a red light. We don't speak Russian, but we'd like to think that the video's narrator is calling this driver a, uh, buffoon.

Continue reading Red light-runner has ill-advised change of heart

Red light-runner has ill-advised change of heart originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Illinois considers letting bikers ride through red lights [w/poll]

Noah Joseph — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:31:00 EST

Filed under: Government/Legal, Motorcycle

If you've ever ridden on two wheels, the following scenario might sound familiar: You pull up to a red light on your motorbike, scooter, bicycle, what-have-you, and you wait for it to change. And you wait, and wait and wait. The problem is likely that your wheels haven't triggered the sensor embedded in the pavement. So what do you do? Sit and wait some more, knowing that the light won't change? Or go through the red light and risk getting a ticket?

Well, a law under consideration in the state of Illinois could rectify the problem. While some municipalities are working at installing other types of sensors to accommodate two-wheelers, the state legislature is also debating a bill that would allow riders to simply go through the red light in question.

The proposal has been amended to include only cities with less than two million inhabitants, and appears to leave the matter of how long is a "reasonable" amount of time to have waited at the light before proceeding up to interpretation. Of course, traffic conditions would have to allow it as well, but as far as the law's concerned, well... that could be about to change for bikers in the Prairie State.

So what do you think - good idea or bad idea? Cast your vote in the poll below.

View Poll

Illinois considers letting bikers ride through red lights [w/poll] originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Study: Traffic lights should respond to cars, not other way around

Jonathon Ramsey — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 09:59:00 EST

Filed under: Etc.

Anyone who's sat at a red light for minutes on end in the middle of the night when there's no cross traffic can cheer on science for proving what we already knew: lights that adapt to the flow of traffic, instead of dictating the flow of traffic, can improve the flow of traffic. A team of researchers discovered that if you let lights locally decide how to time their signals based on how much traffic they're dealing with, and then communicate that with nearby lights, you get closer to the "green wave" of lights that keeps thing moving smoothly.

The issue with the centralized, top-down system of control is that it is geared to address an average traffic situation that rarely occurs as planned. The variations in rush hour traffic mean that lights are trying to apply one solution to a vast number of situations. In their trial in Dresden, Germany the team found that traffic congestion was eased by nine percent, pedestrian congestion by 36 percent, and bus and tram traffic by 56 percent. With rush hours spreading in time and distance, the proof and implementation of this can't come soon enough. Thanks for the tip, Toy!

[Source: Science News | Image: Corbis/Getty]

Study: Traffic lights should respond to cars, not other way around originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 09:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Study: Drivers in right-hand lanes tend to speed through yellow lights, left-laners do not

Jonathon Ramsey — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:20:00 EST

Filed under: Etc., Safety

It seems most studies of amber lights focus on whether cities are using them to gather revenue. The theory - and let's face it, sometimes the fact - is that the light time is so short that drivers end up tripping the red light camera and getting a fine. Conversely, a new study by the University of Cincinnati and Ohio Department of Transportation has taken a look at how drivers behave when they encounter a yellow light no matter how long it's illuminated.

More than 1,500 drivers were caught on camera in suburban Ohio as they approached high-speed intersections and entered the "dilemma zone." Without offering any hypotheses for the discoveries, a few of the most interesting finds were:

Drivers in the left lane - the high speed lane - tended to stop for yellow lights, drivers in the right, slow lane, did not tend to stop.
Longer yellow lights tended to have more drivers running them.
If the street had a higher posted limit, there was a larger tendency for drivers to go through yellows - more drivers in 55 mph streets ran yellows than those on 50 mph streets.
18-wheelers ran yellow lights more than pickups, SUVs, light trucks and sedans. According to some police records, however, truckers weren't more likely to run or be cited for running red lights.

America's lack of high-speed lane discipline tends to put drivers of different defensive inclinations at different speeds in every lane no matter how many lanes there are. Part of making yellows more predictable has been installing countdown timers at crosswalk signals so drivers can tell how much time they have before the light turns yellow. In our experience, a fair number of drivers either hit their booster rockets and zoom through a green light or start slowing down before the light's even turned yellow. We imagine we'll be seeing more of this kind of research soon enough...

[Source: Kansas.com | Image: Corbis]

Study: Drivers in right-hand lanes tend to speed through yellow lights, left-laners do not originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Arizona to abandon 'groundbreaking' speed camera program?

Dan Roth — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal, Safety

Speed cameras are at best a dubious safety enhancement sold on the premise of slowing traffic, while the more important proposition is often the promise of the revenue they can generate. Arizona residents have mostly cut through the bovine feculence around the state's big camera deployment program, one that's been described as groundbreaking. The state installed 76 one-eyed bandits, but profits are lower than projected, and some citizens want the cameras gone.

Further sabotaging the camera initiative are citizens who have taken to ignoring the automated citations in large numbers. A loophole surrounding mailed tickets is allowing many drivers to motor on with impunity, while an anti-camera group is trying to get a ballot measure to ban the cameras underway. The 700,000 tickets that have been issued since September 2008 should have meant $127 million into the coffers, but only $36 million has been collected. At that level, it's not even clear if Redflex, the ~~public scourge~~ firm that runs the cameras, is able to break even.

[Source: New York Times | Photo: Redflex]

Arizona to abandon 'groundbreaking' speed camera program? originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NYPD arrests couple for stealing traffic cams w/cherry picker

Sam Abuelsamid — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 12:17:00 EST

Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety

One of the more controversial developments in traffic safety enforcement in recent years has been the deployment of automated speed and red-light cameras, which use radar sensors to nab alleged scofflaws and ticket them via mail. According to the NYPD, pair of thieves allegedly spent the better part of a month trolling the city in a pickup truck with a cherry picker, raiding red-light camera for their valuable innards, including the Nikon cameras that actually take the photos. Police arrested the pair, identified as Brooklynites Anthony Cintorrino and Tara Laburt, after recovering some of the stolen items from a reseller and tracing them backwards from there. Following the couple's arrest, police found more stolen items in their homes, and reportedly expected to recover everything. All told, over $88,000 of equipment was swiped. Cintorrino apparently knew what he was doing -- in the past, he had worked as a contractor for the firm that installs and maintains the cameras for the city. Now, if you live in New York, don't go around thinking you start running red lights without getting snagged. The city claims all of the cameras were replaced within 48 hours of the thefts.

[Source: The New York Post | Image: Wikimedia Commons]

NYPD arrests couple for stealing traffic cams w/cherry picker originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 25 Jul 2009 12:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Houston study lauds red light cameras despite uptick in accidents

Jonathon Ramsey — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:31:00 EST

Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety

We all know we shouldn't mess with Texas. And Houston, Texans shouldn't mess around with statistics, because the folks running the show are going to come to any conclusions they want no matter what the statistics say. This is the easy part: a study of red light cameras in the city shows that accidents have actually increased at intersections with the cameras.

These are the parts that are open to interpretation: most intersections only have one camera looking at one (out of four) directions of traffic, but the accident rate went up for traffic in the other three unmonitored directions; and, in the one monitored direction, "accidents remained relatively flat or showed only a slight increase." What do you make of that?

Mayor Bill White and the study authors say the city in general is experiencing a swell in the number of collisions, and claim that collisions at the monitored intersections haven't risen as much as the wider municipal rate. Yet they have no data to back up an increase in citywide collisions, and no year-on-year accident data at intersections (let alone an explanation for the uptick). White said that a 40-percent year-on-year drop in red light citations in the month of October shows the program is working and keeping drivers more safe. Critics say that the program is nothing but a cash register for city government. The study's authors plan to study insurance industry findings to come up with more substantive conclusions.

[Source: Houston Chronicle]

Houston study lauds red light cameras despite uptick in accidents originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Irony: Red light cameras a safety impediment

Dan Roth — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:58:00 EST

Filed under: Trends, Safety, First Drives

Red light cameras are nothing more than a surreptitious tax. Oh sure, they're sold to municipalities as a safety benefit, but what else would you say if you wanted to be paid to install, administrate, and monitor your little ticket-writing bots? The cities and towns that put the cameras greedily snap up the extra revenue generated by dangerously short yellow lights and overzealous cameras. Patrick Bedard has been poking holes in the theory that traffic cameras are the salve for behind the wheel idiocy, and a recent study by the University of South Florida Public Health agrees that the cameras actually cause accidents. Other studies also back up the findings that drivers are quicker to slam on their brakes at yellow lights when they spot the cameras. While it should not play out with a rear ending, nobody maintains a safe following distance, or even pays attention. In some cases, the rate of red light running is low enough that the cameras cause a spike in incidents, proving that the cure can sometimes be worse than the sickness.

[Source: Kicking Tires, Photo: Morning Chu Hi]

Irony: Red light cameras a safety impediment originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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They do it different in Texas: Speed cameras banned statewide

Dan Roth — Wed, 23 May 2007 09:37:00 EST

Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal, First Drives

Finally, someone's fighting back against the fleecing of the general populace. Famous for liking things big, Texas lawmakers have laid the smackdown on red light and speed cameras in a large manner. HB.922 states "A municipality may not implement or operate an automated traffic control system with respect to a highway under its jurisdiction," which means that cameras, automated radar or laser, or anything else designed to snag an image of a car, driver, or license plate and record its speed is now forbidden. The even larger racket of red-light cameras have had the brakes applied by HB.1052, which requires giving motorists notice of the devices at least 100 feet out.

These bills have passed through the legislature and are awaiting Governor Rick Perry's inscription. If the measures do make it into law, we hope that other states follow suit. Ticketing egregious speeders and actual red-light scofflaws is one thing, but the systems have been calibrated in a cynical manner to generate loads of revenue (and kickbacks) for the companies that sell and administrate the systems for municipalities. Rather than keeping people safe, random ticketing amounts to a tax, and that really sticks in our craw. We're pleased beyond words that Texas has taken up the motorists' cause, and we hope that the new legislation can stand as a precedent.

Thanks for the tip, Dylan!

[Source: caradvice]

They do it different in Texas: Speed cameras banned statewide originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 23 May 2007 09:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Townsfolk react to red light rigger on video

John Neff — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 16:06:00 EST

Filed under: Gadgets, Etc.

The story of the Colorado man who got fined $50 for using a device to change traffic lights on his way to work from red to green has made its way around the internet already. As much fun as it is to read about the man's eventual capture after two years of playing god in traffic, it's more fun to watch this CNN video of townspeople pissed off that the guy got off virtually scott free. Hilarity also ensues watching the authorities explain how after fielding two years of complaints about an unexplicably long red light at this particular intersection they finally went to the tapes and noticed a reoccurring Ford Ranger pickup that never got caught... by the light, that is.

[Source: CNN via AutoSpies]

Townsfolk react to red light rigger on video originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 20 Apr 2006 16:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Man fined $50 for using device faster than the speed of light(s)

Joel Arellano — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 13:28:00 EST

Filed under: Aftermarket, Gadgets, Etc., Government/Legal

Sister site Engadet has posted a report of a man busted for using an Opticon, a device used by public safety like firefighters, to change streetlights to his advantage. He continued to do so for two years until the Boys (and gals) in Blue noticed the pattern and tracked him down.

The man, Jason Niccum of Longmont, Colorado was fined the princely sum of $50, which has got to strike the offender as value-for-the-dollar.

Niccum had purchased the Opticon for a $100 on eBay.

[Sources: CNN via Engadget; Getty Images]

Man fined $50 for using device faster than the speed of light(s) originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 19 Apr 2006 13:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Minneapolis judge orders 'lights out' for traffic signal cameras

Chris Paukert — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Trends

A Minneapolis, Minnesota area judge has given red-light cameras a taste of their own medicine. Hennepin County District Judge Mark Wernick has put the red light on the county's automated traffic signal cameras installed this past July.

The judge found legal fault with the county's 'Stop On Red' program, which (like virtually all red-light camera programs) tickets the owners of the offending vehicles, not the drivers themselves. As Minnesota state laws put the responsibility for light violations on the driver, Wernick threw out the challenging ticket, saying that Minneapolis lacks the authority to make law an ordinance that would hold vehicle owners responsible.

The motorist who brought the case to court was represented by an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) volunteer attorney, Howard Bass, who argued that the ordinance was unconstitutional, though Judge Wernick didn't comment on that facet of their case.

The city is mulling whether to appeal the decision, but the case could set an important legal precident nationwide, as it is estimated that as many as 160 other cities employ red light cameras.

[Source: Associated Press via KMSP Fox 9 News]

(Top tip, Jenni!)

Minneapolis judge orders 'lights out' for traffic signal cameras originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 16 Mar 2006 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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