Dummies w
fast yellow lights
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This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate.
The original article can be found on SFGate.com here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/04/07/MNG8N61MGG1.DTL
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Wednesday, April 7, 2004 (SF Chronicle)
Stoplight to punish suburban speeders/Pleasanton finds a way to slow impatient
drivers
Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer
Pleasanton is about to turn the fast into the furious.
In a move unprecedented in the Bay Area, the city's traffic engineers have
created a traffic signal with attitude. 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.
Residents and commute-jockeys said Tuesday that the light, which the city
plans to unveil today on Vineyard Avenue at the intersection of Montevino
Drive, is either an inspired leap into the future or a blatant example of
government overzealousness.
"It's kind of big-brotherish, but sometimes it's the price we pay for
safety," said JoAnne Brewer, 49, who walked her golden retriever past the
new signal Tuesday morning and predicted it would be a success.
"I'm not much of a speeder myself," Brewer added. "It's my
husband that it
will catch."
Drivers on the two-lane Vineyard, as they approach Montevino, will see an
electronic sign that gives the speed limit -- 40 mph heading west and 35
mph going east -- then flashes their actual speed.
A camera about 350 feet from the intersection measures speed and tells the
light whether to do its business. Traffic engineers plan to give drivers a
few miles per hour of wiggle room. But once speeding is detected, the red
light will turn on for at least 10 seconds -- or 30 seconds-plus if cross
traffic is waiting.
It's all a little too much for Ken Pattee, a 52-year-old construction
inspector from Livermore who sometimes rides his Harley-Davidson down
Vineyard Avenue. He said he doesn't feel good about the electronic eye.
"It's depriving you of another one of your liberties -- going fast,"
Pattee said. "If they implement it everywhere, there will be nothing but
red lights. Nobody does the speed limit."
Except Pattee, that is.
"I do the speed limit," he said. "That's my story, and I'm
sticking with
it."
The signal is a sign of the times. The Bay Area is increasingly consumed
with its traffic woes, as seen in a recent fight over neighborhood traffic
barriers that divided Palo Alto residents.
Top political issue
Pleasanton has become a capital of traffic hand-wringing, with a spot
between Interstates 580 and 680 that invites cutting commuters. Traffic is
easily the No. 1 political issue in the city, informing nearly every
decision. The Police Department even allows citizens to borrow radar guns
to document speeders near their homes and send out warning letters to
offenders.
The punitive nature of the signal on Vineyard appears to have the united
support of neighbors and the Police Department, which hasn't seen an
unusual number of accidents on the route but envisions a low-cost way to
make people feel safe.
The intersection sits near large stucco and brick homes with manicured
landscaping. The route, connecting downtown Pleasanton to the Ruby Hill
gated community and Highway 84 in Livermore, is not the country road it
used to be, and it attracts a healthy stream of regional commuters.
Many neighbors are so peeved with the popularity of the road that they
didn't want a traffic signal at all at Montevino because it would allow
traffic to flow better than the stop sign it replaced. At least the stop
signs made speeding impossible and persuaded some commuters to steer
clear, neighbors said.
Pleasanton public works director Rob Wilson said the city has no plans to
build more of the signals. But police Lt. Mark Senkle, who heads traffic
enforcement, said, "If it works, I'd like to see it done in a few other
areas in town. I don't anticipate problems, but the truth is, we just
don't know. No one's done this."
Thousand Oaks light
At least one other place in California has put together a traffic signal
that is deputized against speeders. The Ventura County city of Thousand
Oaks installed one in 2000 that Pleasanton traffic chief Jeff Knowles, who
used to work in Thousand Oaks, has been watching closely.
"The people who were concerned about speed are pleased with it, but you'll
hear a different story from some of the users of the road," said Thousand
Oaks senior civil engineer Jim Mashiko.
Thousand Oaks has discovered a few hiccups, Mashiko said. Pedestrians, for
example, must be given the green on all four crosswalks in the
intersection at the same time, so they are not confused by a sudden yellow
and red aimed at a speeder.
In addition, red rage could become an issue as drivers can be guilty by
association if a speeder is just in front of them, just behind them or
moving simultaneously in the opposite direction.
Pleasanton plans to address at least one of those issues: the opposite-
direction speeder. The Pleasanton signal will allow a red light to shine
in just one direction, letting the light stay green for the nonspeeding
driver in the opposite direction. In such cases, any cross traffic will
continue receiving the red light.
E-mail Demian Bulwa at dbulwa@sfchronicle.com.
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Copyright 2004 SF Chronicle
Brain Conflict
causes Road Rage
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This excerpt is a lateral prefrontal cortex conclusion arrived at logically.
This research may account for road rage as well...
you decide!
A new piece of research from Princeton's Center for the study of the
brain came out last week. While poking around, the scientists thought
they found something new.
Decisions are made in two parts of the brain, the researchers told us.
The first part is the lateral prefrontal cortex. This is where advanced,
logical thinking is supposed to happen, such as when a person decides
which investment to make or which automobile offers the most value for the
money. Deeper down in the grey matter is another decision center, the
more primitive limbic system, which is where the real thinking takes
place. Researchers describe this part of the brain as deciding our
likes and dislikes...and telling us how to react to immediate stimuli.
When a dump truck cuts you off in traffic, for example, the limbic
system practically has your right arm and middle finger cocked in the
traditional salute before your lateral prefrontal cortex has time to
weigh out the pros and cons.
Copyright 2005 HI™