After two decades of continuous growth, the number of red-light camera programs is declining in the United States. The number peaked at 540 two years ago, according to records kept by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Today, there are 502 programs, a decrease of about seven percent.
A former chief executive officer of one of the world's largest makers of red-light traffic cameras was indicted on federal corruption charges Wednesday, along with two city officials in Chicago.
As of next Tuesday, October 1, motorcyclists, cyclists, moped and tri-wheel riders in Nevada will be legally allowed to run red lights under one condition: there is no other traffic around, and they have waited at the light through two red-light cycles. When light sensors under the road don't detect a two-wheeled vehicle it can leave a rider sitting a light until a car shows up, or the rider will need to dismount and press the "Walk" button to get the light to change. The law was passed in order
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
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.
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.
