[wolffie]

In the school zone by my house, very close to where I saw Rocky the raccoon get hit. [Pedestrian fatality nearby last night at Northgate Transit Center area. Blind pedestrian fatality nearby there a few years back, too.] I mean, they'd even sent mass mailing warning us about the traffic cameras. Something creepy about being watched by robots. So look out for those school zones! Oh, yeah... look out for those kids, too. EDIT: these tickets are processed like parking tickets and don't go on your driving record.

[Bedivere]

I drive as fast as I can possibly go through school zones. The faster you go the less time you spend there, and the less time you spend there the less chance a kid will run out in front of you, right?

[reststep]

Even if that were true it could get very expensive. I don't know why but your post reminded me of the discussion about if you get wetter walking in the rain or running in the rain. http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/running-in-the-rain-minimyth/ They say running gets you wetter.

[I'm Pysht]

I added that to my (now long) list of reasons to avoid travelling to Seattle last year.

[Tom]

I got nailed by a red light camera in Bellevue last year. If I had been speeding I would have made it through unscathed. Everytime I go back to that light I want to time the yellow versus the lights without red light cameras to see if they shortened it to generate more revenue. At least it shows up on as a parking violation as opposed to running a red light on my driving record.

[boot up]

cars have certain requirements for minimum lighting and visibility. Bicycles have certain requirements for minimum lighting and visibility. (and people complain when they exceed that....which is a whole other thread) Pedestrians can wander about in pitch black, wearing long black wool coats, walking a black dog, walking in the middle of an unlit street, with a perfectly good sidewalk along the road, and people are shocked when they are run down by cars. ????? Shouldn't pedestrians have SOME responsibility to attempt to be seen? This seems to be getting worse, and visibility of the pedestrian is not tracked in pedestrian fatalities. The poor car drivers are supposed to just see these Ninja walkers/runners. On the other hand..... I thought car drivers had a thing against cyclists riding in the dark, even when well lit and reflectorized. Then I started doing a walking commute. I started out well lit with flashing lights, strong flashlight and reflective trim and light clothes. I have upped my game over time to be obnoxiously bright and strobing and reflectorized as a pedestrian and I still have to dodge cars that are oblivious to the laws of our state giving pedestrians the right of way. I think its a bit on both sides. Pedestrians need to take some responsibility to give a chance to see them, and the drivers have to get stop their damn texting.

[Brucester]

Read somewhere online about plastic license plate covers then spraying them some sort of coating that reflects lights or camera flashes....

[NacMacFeegle]

I have mixed feelings about traffic cameras; First off I'm not concerned at all about the supposed issue of privacy, if it were at all feasible I would advocate that the government plant a surveillance camera on every intersection of every publicly owned road in America! Secondly, I think it's a fact that people do tend to obey traffic laws when they know a camera might give them a ticket, so they are definitely effective. However, the problems I see are twofold: The margin for error/the fallibility of accuracy is one, where either camera and computer don't work properly or judge things too accurately without leaving room to allow for a moderate amount of error on the part of those they are supposed to be monitoring. Secondly, the greed of those who program the cameras is a factor, where for example they make it easier for people to get tickets by speeding up yellow lights or making speed cameras less forgiving. I have several suggestions for how the dilemma might be solved. #1. Design streets better, honestly it seems like no one knows how to design a proper street/intersection these days. One of the worst examples of which is longview/kelso, a town founded with a planned layout in mind that never quite came to fruition, and resulted in the haphazard mash of old and new streets we see today. You'd think the new ones would be better, but in fact they are worse. Simple, effective street design would do as much good as any camera! #2. Introduce a minimum length for yellow lights so that local governments couldn't reduce it to increase their income. #3. Introduce a standard "grace speed" for speed cameras, for the same reason as #2, but also make it so that people who were clocked within that grace zone would receive a warning in the mail. #4. Install more traffic lights, this might seem counter-intuitive, but I can think of dozens of intersections that would benefit from a light! #5. Schools near busy roads are a big reason for traffic camera, but if the busy roads weren't by the schools it wouldn't be a problem. Whenever possible we should move old/build new schools away from roads, and roads away from schools. This isn't something that could be done immediately, but whenever a new school or road rerouting is considered, maintaining a distance between schools and highways should be a priority.

[Alpendave]

My wife and Was driving in front of me in Bellingham some years ago. She put her turn signal on to turn right and nearly hit a byciclist who came flying up from behind us on the right (it was dark) doing about 35 mph. No way she could have seen him and he totally would have T-boned her. In Spokane, they had a red light camera along Division at the intersection where Aces Casino is. It seemed like whenever there was snow, the rest of Division would be plowed and de-iced except that intersection. It was as if they wanted people to be going fast enough on the good road that they wouldn't be able to stop once they hit the ice where the red light camera was.

[flatsqwerl]

Brewster...i should look into that...I've had two 125$ school zone tickets. I was only going 3mph over . Now I get PTSD in every school zone. The irony is that I'm the guy everyone is passing wherever I drive.

[Tom_Sjolseth]

[boot up]

[treeswarper]

It's kind of dark and stormy out there this morning. I decided to wear my brand new highway worker super bright and reflective jacket after noticing that people do not seem to be able to see me lately. They weren't slowing down or even giving me space. My neighborhood road is a county road with no shoulders. Sidewalks? What are those? This morning, cars were actually slowing down. I guess they can see after all. It'll be interesting to see if the same thing works for the Buck's Logging trucks which have been very non-courteous when compared to the other log traffic on the road.

[touron]

Why can't they have green light cameras and then give out rewards to those who successfully navigate a green light. I've seen cars go through Bellevue intersections with it looking like the paparazzi was chasing them.

[tigermn]