Comments on: Squadron: Red Light Cams Needed at Dangerous Intersections

By: howard kaemerer

howard kaemerer — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 08:45:10 +0000

Can I say, “Bastard cop?”…hjk

By: howard kaemerer

howard kaemerer — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 08:44:25 +0000

Why don’t we just do the intelligent thing like Germany, Norway, Iceland and other more enlightened European countries do and replace every stupid bullshit, (am I allowed to say “bullshit”?) intersection with roundabouts? I am a victim of law enforcement financial rape. I got a $200-ish ticket for making a left turn, at a turn signal at 3 am in Palm Desert, in the middle of the summertime. I was careful to observe that there was no moving traffic for as far as the eye could see. As most would know, who know anything of the desert, it is pretty much deserted in the summertime, because a large % of people snow-bird out of there when it gets hot. The bastard cop pulled out from the shadows and pulled me over like I just robbed a bank. I tried to explain to the bastard cop that , “If a traffic control device is designed to control traffic, yet there is no traffic to control, then why should I have to stop sir?” He grinned and said, “Tell it to the judge.” Unfortunately, I was on a job assignment, and could not appear. I almost got my licence suspended because one of my payments got lost in the mail. I fought tooth and nail to unsuspend my licence. People in America just accept the intersection scourge as normal. Please America, wake up to the reality that intersections and the cams are evil. They are only profiting the companies that build them and the cam companies that get a percentage of the tickets that are mailed to us. Hello!!! (…as I wave my hand in front of our un-blinking, decieved, hipnotized by BS, smoke and mirrored, eyes.). hjk

By: Cap'n Transit

Cap'n Transit — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 14:26:56 +0000

I’m waiting for a comment from Larry about how even when it seems that state legislators are doing something for the community, they’re still focused on their own self-preservation.

Sorry, everyone, I couldn’t resist.

By: downtown guy

downtown guy — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 13:50:42 +0000

Are you sure that fatality wasn’t Marty Connor, who lives near there? That was the last Bklyn Hgts fatality related to Squadron’s district. LOL

By: Gatemouth

Gatemouth — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 01:51:57 +0000

I believe the fatality at Tillary and Adams was one of Squadron’s predecessors in the Senate seat, Paul Bookson

By: Kaja

Kaja — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 20:26:57 +0000

I get the impression traffic cameras are being used differently – and more responsibly – in New York. I also believe they’re solving different problems here than they are in largely suburban America. This leads me to support traffic cams in NYC, but /not/ in the rest of the country.

I’ve been in towns where they’ve lowered the yellow light timing after installing cameras. It’s extremely common throughout America, judging by my anecdotal experience and the news. There, these seem to be primarily a revenue measure.

Some proponents of the cameras have even admitted that shortened yellow light timings induce folks cruising along suburban thoroughfares at 45 or 55mph to slam on the brakes, inducing rear-endings.

Here in New York, the yellows are all of ample duration – being one second per 10mph of design speed, plus one extra for good measure in trouble spots. Our DOT doesn’t appear utterly corrupt, and our traffic police may be the best-behaved bit of the NYPD.

And the cams here are solving different problems. In America, drivers seem to blow through reds immediately after the light’s gone red, as if the cross traffic awaiting the green is their only concern. Because that _is_ their only concern: There’s no pedestrian traffic, and anyway cross traffic light timings are predictable. You can literally run reds and get away with it.

Here in my parts of Brooklyn, drivers roll to a stop, then roll forward into the crosswalk lookin both ways. Then they proceed to either chillax in the crosswalk, forcing pedestrians out into traffic; or they continue rolling forward, and sprint across the road when they get an opening. It’s massively dangerous, involves abrupt unexpected jolts of four-thousand-pound cars usually surrounded with swarming pedestrians (because in the crosswalk) — it’s about the most antisocial and irresponsible act I’ve ever seen with a car, because so deliberate.

I’d love to see traffic cameras all over NYC — and a bunch of stop lights transformed into stop signs, to boot. But their applicability here shouldn’t lead us to believe they make sense in the rest of America. Traffic cams are also a favorite tool of an increasingly fascist and militarized police force.

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:31:28 +0000

So the number only went up to 150 in NYC?

I wonder how many are permitted elsewhere in the state, and what the ratio to street miles is.