From: Michael S. Lorrey (mike@datamann.com)
Date: Fri May 05 2000 - 09:33:24 MDT
Chuck Kuecker wrote:
> At 10:42 PM 5/4/00 -0700, spike wrote:
>
> >On a slightly lighter note, I have noticed how kids dont
> >drag race anymore. Mike, I am a few years older
> >than you, so I recall drag real racing. {8-] Since kids
> >dont drag, people now make a habit of running red lights,
> >a habit that never presented itself back in the days when
> >running a red light *could* result in being T-boned by
> >two roaring hotrods.
>
> Around here (Chicago) they sure haven't stopped! The big difference is that
> the racers today don't have classic hotrods modified for racing. They are
> more likely to be nailing the throttle in Mommy's Voyager or BMW.
Today on the way to work, I was coming into little old Wilder on Main street
(speed limit 30 mph) at 35 mph. I was passed on a double yellow single lane each
way road by not one but two cars full of teenagers going at least 45 mph. No
intersections around. This sort of situation I can completely understand my
taking pictures to use as evidence, because a) there was traffic, b) oncoming
traffic, and c) they were both speeding and passing on a double yellow line.
> Three intersections locally now have what appears to be cameras mounted
> above each center lane signal. There has been no public announcement as to
> these being for surveillance, and from the angle they are mounted at, it
> looks like they would have a hard time capturing driver's images and
> license plates. Perhaps an image processing traffic light controller?
Nope. Its a light pulse sensor unit that allows oncoming police, fire engines,
and ambulances with their lights going to cause the light to turn green. Here's
a fun thing to do, especially at night: Learn to get a sense of the strobe rates
of the emergency lights of these vehicles, then at night flash your high beams
on and off several times at that rate (hopefully when nobody is coming in the
opposite direction) as you approach the intersection. I do this and its pretty
good at turning the lights green for me at intersections that have this
capability. This is a good way to go through lonely intersections without
actually breaking the law... ;)
If you are really smart, buy yourself a hand strobe with a variable setting and
keep it set to a frequency similar to emergency vehicles....as long as it
doesn't look like a siren, you aren't impersonating an official vehicle...
Mike Lorrey
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