Stoplights to Mete Out Punishment?

gilrain writes "The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that traffic engineers have created a stoplight that deals with speeding. According to the article, 'It senses when a speeder is approaching and metes out swift punishment. It doesn't write a ticket. It immediately turns from green to yellow to red.' This is not just a prototype: it is in use now at an intersection in the Bay Area. Does stopping speeders before others serve a purpose other than petty revenge? Is it even safe to change expected stoplight patterns, especially for drivers in a hurry?"

It's really a security move.

[glomph]

The office of homeland security has determined that the Enemies of America (R) are using the public streets, and as such, these must be closely controlled, if not eliminated altogether. Dissent only helps the terrorists, and shows that you are not a true Patriot(R).

They're all grey to me...

[slipnslidemaster]

I'm colorblind you insensitive clod!!

Re:Timing it right could be tricky

[Rinikusu]

I'll go along with this ONLY if a spotlight also illuminates the offending car and it becomes legal to exit your own vehicle and pummel the offending driver for fucking up traffic for the rest of us.

Isn't this supposed to be covered by, I dunno, speeding tickets and cops? If speeding tickets aren't the proper deterrent, maybe we should stiffen the penalties if we wish to reduce speeding. Or maybe we should raise the speed limits.

California

[Anonymous Coward]

IIRC in california they already let cars run red lights if they are turning right, under the "pedestrian culling" program.

Re:Timing it right could be tricky

[UID1000000]

This would be nice, if we could make it similar to how the pisser in the pool turns purple. The car becomes some obnoxious color so that we can honk and flash (fingers).

We are on the ROAD to HELL

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the generation that will have to fight an unconventional war. Stop lights which spy on us, DRM which curtails our enshrined rights, ID cards and biometrics which stick our details into huge databases, which we have to basically trust not to share our information widely, all of these are fronts in the battle between individual freedom and the combined might of corporation and government.

This will be the World War one of our generation. I am just away out now. I will walk past McDonalds without going in as a symbol of my personal fight against consumer culture. I suggest you all do the same.

Speeding vs. running a red light

[radioactive-one]

These lights used to be installed in some residential areas around Herndon, VA. The speed limit was 25MPH, and if you were going over 30-35, they'd turn red. A friend discovered that if you went 60MPH, you could make it through before the light turned red :)

Re:what about other drivers?

[xjosh]

do we really need to give people another excuse to get mad at someone, blaming "that idiot speeder" for making them late?

Payback for all those times those slow fuckers made me late. I'd have been there on time if they'd taken their 140 km/h asses to the right lane.

Speed is boring, but acceleration is fun

[mudder]

I drive a fairly fast car, and the truth is, driving it at high speed isn't that much fun. Going 100 on the freeway really doesn't feel that much different from going 65 (apart from being really nervous about the impending ticket). However, acceleration is a totally different story. I really enjoy being at the front of the line at a stop light. When the light goes green, I accelerate as quickly as possible until I hit 5 - 10 mph over the limit. I then let off the gas and back down to whatever the speed limit is. I've been known to stop for yellow lights when I could legally continue, just to get that feeling from stomping on the accelerator.

So, a light like this is a dream come true for me. If I approach the light just a bit over the speed limit, I'm gauranteed to get an opportunity to race away when the light goes green. Yay!

Re:What a bad idea

[MoeDrippins]

What's safety got to do with it? It's the People's Republik of SF, NOTHING gets in the way of Social Engineering, comrade.

Re:great!

[bmwm3nut]

That's good, instead of speeding, now they can speed *and* run a red light

or you could speed up and go fast enough that the light looks green to you in your frame of reference :)

Severe Tire damage

[wowbagger]

So a speeder is supposed to be challenged by a red light. Open question to the designers of this system: "What is the speed of light in the little universe you are living in?"

You want to stop people from running red lights (and with these lights by extension speeding)?

Put retractable "Severe tire damage" spikes on the entrances to the intersection. Raise them on the directions for which the light is red. Couple the system to a SECURE RF system for emergency vehicles to lower them. Thus the only way a scofflaw can enter the intersection in these cases would be to veer to the other side of the road where the spikes are not facing the correct direction.

Extra points for putting spikes in the media to prevent that.

Teach people that YELLOW means "Stop if at all possible DAMNIT!" and RED means "STOP. No option. STOP. NOW!"

The great thing about this is that you need issue no fine to punish the bad drivers - the cost of replacing their tires will do that nicely.

Of course, I want to mount a land-mine dropper to drop mines with a two second delay behind me - that should teach people what "safe following distance" is (Fire the mine out at rest relative to the road surface, "One Mississippi, Two Mississipp-BANG!").

Seriously - stop people from needlessly tailgating, running yellow and red lights, and I think you could actually RAISE the speed limits in many areas without a reduction in safety.

Re:Aww, unfair to speeders!

[American AC in Paris]

Traffic laws are meant to be broken. Want proof? Look at how many times local law enforcement gets caught with their hand in the cookie jar, changing speed limits, moving stop signs, and in general, making traffic laws become a big fat cash cow instead of a safety precaution.

Then be a renegade! Buck the system! Fight The Man! Follow every single traffic law. That'll really stick it to em!

Won't their faces be red when they see an army of cars observing posted speed limits and following traffic laws! I can just see them now, huddled in their secret subterrainean command center, cursing and waving their fists as car after car proceeds down the street in an orderly, safe, courteous manner!

Take that, federal, state and local government! Muah-ha-hah!

have some fun with the light

[OglinTatas]

Drive the speed limit until you are within 7 seconds of the light, then floor the gas. Works best with supercharged or big block engines. I wish my car had more than 90 horsepower.

What happens when...

[Dutchmaan]

you get two speeders approaching an intersection at the same time?

Do you get a blue light of death!?

Re:Timing it right could be tricky

[reverendG]

With a single punishment for every 300 times you do something, there is a disconnect.

Obviously you've never gone driving with my girlfriend (or someone like her)...

Watch out for the yellow light! ... Aren't you going a little fast? ... That guy has his turn signal on ... You're a little close, could you back off?

She has other winning attributes, but sometimes I really wish I had the Homer-mobile. The funniest thing is that she gives me a hard time about my road rage, and I'm fine when she's not around!

Re:Stoplights say a lot about the people

[Anonymous Coward]

Red means stop. Green means go. Yellow means go real fast

Re:Excellent plan!

[drewness]

I guess you have smarter drivers where you live. I've seen plenty of cars sit out in the intersection at a red light until someone comes up behind and stops in the right place. I don't think people pay enough attention to how things work to notice that there's a correlation between stopping at the stop bar and getting a green light.

Re:great!

[PingPongBoy]

Even if you can't go that fast, just spin out hard enough to go through sideways. You'll see a green light.

Re:Timing it right could be tricky

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously you've never gone driving with my girlfriend

Actually, I have. Almost ran off the road too. Do you really want to hear anything more?