Regarding the article “School crossing signs, zone signals in McCandless area to be replaced, upgraded” (Feb. 28, TribLive): The first problem is that the story seemed to say that red-light cameras are being installed in multiple locations, which is not correct. These are merely grants for safety improvements. Secondly, the grants should not be accepted.
While Automated Red-Light Enforcement (ARLE) grant projects can be worthwhile, no municipality should accept the money, since it came from red-light cameras (which should be banned in Pennsylvania.) If we had best-practice engineering and enforcement, then practically nobody would ever “run” a light. Most people do not “run” a light on purpose. Taking money from these grants sends the message that all this is OK. Please note that the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a story in 2017 saying that some of these cameras had accuracy rates of 3%.
It was reported multiple times that crashes went up in Philly at red-light camera intersections.
Nationwide, yellows may be too short, and people can be cited a split-second after the lights change, for stopping over the stop line or for a non-complete stop for a right-on-red turn. Who can defend this setup?
All you need are speed limits set to the 85th percentile free-flowing traffic speed, longer yellows, decent length all-red intervals and sensors to keep an all-red if someone enters late. No crashes! You can also sync lights and use sensors to change them and know where cars are.
After simple changes are made, only egregious violators should be cited.
James Sikorski Jr.
Wapwallopen