You decide to stop for the red light. But, oh, this guy.
Nah, he's decided he's going to run it. And doesn't that just make you want to put a red light
camera in and send him a nice, fat, juicy ticket? Last time, we talked about how red-light cameras
do that. But what have I told you that even if we installed red-light cameras on
every corner in America, more than half the people who end up running red lights
would still end up running red lights. (show open)
Santa Clarita, California, is the forgettable backdrop that Hollywood uses
for hundreds of shows and movies. Ones I'm sure you've seen. But it wasn't just film cameras.
The city also used to have dozens of red-light cameras across these very busy street corners.
There used to be cameras here. A teen on a skateboard got killed in this crosswalk. He was
right about here when somebody ran. Red light cameras reduce some collisions.
But in the case of this very serious crash, the camera didn't do anything to help. The
74-year-old man just didn't see the red light. The goal of a red-light camera is not to catch
people running red lights. It's to reduce or eliminate the number of people running red lights—
so we can reduce or eliminate red-light crashes. So the flow chart isn't like this. If you want to
stop people running red lights, it looks a bit more like this. And all this middle part here
is actually really important. This is a book from the
Federal Highway Administration. "Red Light Camera Systems: Operation Guidelines."
And it has the three big tools to stop people from running red lights.
Education, engineering, and enforcement. And sometimes we get too excited about
enforcement because it's a flashy new toy, and so we forget about the other two. Now,
we won't talk about education in this video, but let's take a minute and talk about engineering.
There are two kinds of red-light runners. People who run red lights intentionally.
They might be racing a yellow light or just plain in a hurry.
Sometimes indistinguishable from people who run the light on accident. Like this Lexus
running the light near Kansas City. They might be distracted. They might not see the light. They
might not understand the light. All of us can be an unintentional red-light runner, including me.
It was hot, and I was tired, so I pulled up to the red light here and then checked
to make sure nobody was coming, and then just drove straight through like it was a stop sign.
(Not Usher:) "This is my confession." I'm driving behind this big RV,
and I can't really tell what color the light is. So I ran it.
(Me:) "I can't see what color the light is." (Conor:) "I know."
So years ago, I'm driving into Portland, and there were two stoplights really close together—
Barbur Boulevard and Hamilton. And I was so focused on the second light
which was green, that I didn't notice the first light had turned red. And so I ran it.
This is the big flaw with red-light cameras. A camera only deters somebody who knows they're
running the red light. But if I don't even comprehend that I'm running the red light,
no ticket in the world... It could be a million-dollar ticket... is
going to stop me from running it. Most people who intentionally run
red lights are really just stretching the yellow. And usually the cross-traffic,
with their fresh new green light, has not yet had time to get going. So, the intersection is clear.
But people who unintentionally run red lights— they can roll through at any time. Often,
when the intersection is most full of other drivers to crash into.
(Mel:) Gasps We have to fix
this. That's where we go back to the red-light camera manual and the three sets of tools to
stop people from running red lights in the first place. We're doing a lot of sets of threes today.
One, all drivers need to see and comprehend that, yeah, this is a red light.
Two, safely transition to a stop. And three, we should reduce the
number of times a driver needs to stop. So, let's look at the first category.
This windy road through the hills. And look at all those beautiful trees and bushes that people
have planted in their yards to make them look pretty. Those are visual obstructions. They block
the view of the stop light that's right around the corner. Without a little bit of extra engineering,
a lot of these drivers would be running that red light up there— with or without a camera!
Thankfully, good city engineers added this warning sign— an extra
chance to get a driver's attention. And very importantly, they added that extra signal head.
Way over on the left, mounted way up high. It actually looks kind of
silly. But when you're driving down the street, it's exactly in the driver's line of sight. So,
they know ahead of time that the stop light is there and what color it is.
You can begin to slow down for the red light before you even see the rest of the intersection.
This stoplight here is easy to see. No corners, no trees blocking it.
But the problem is, there are two lights in a row, 150 feet apart,
that are both easy to see. And, like I was talking about earlier with Portland, a driver
could end up focusing on the wrong stoplight. So, one thing engineers add is a filter.
A regular stop light bulb shines light in every direction. That's great for the first stop light.
We want drivers to see it. But confusing when the second light does the same thing.
Installing a programmable filter on the traffic signal limits the bulb's viewable
area. Engineers can set an angle so drivers can't see that green bulb
until after they pass the first traffic signal. Here's what it looks like driving down Alabama
Street in Redlands, California. That second green light magically appears. Drivers only
see the green light that they're supposed to see when they're supposed to see it.
Here's the same stop light in the other direction, that doesn't have those light filters.
And look how messy it is. A red light camera would just be a bandaid over the wound here.
Let's talk about the opposite problem. Sometimes the light bulbs on a stoplight blend
in with the pretty plants and the bright blue sky. And when a driver confuses a traffic signal for
shrubbery or sky, they're more likely to run the light.
And so one way to really make this stand out is to install this backplate here. It creates
contrast. It really makes a stoplight stand out as a stoplight, even if the bulbs were burned out.
The state of California is also excited: They're following this
idea from the Federal Highway Administration to add a one to three inch yellow border.
A yellow retro-reflective sticker. They can just slap it on there. And under a car's headlights,
it just glows! Makes the stoplight really visible. State engineers near Eureka, California,
started trying this in 2013. They found it reduced crashes more than they expected.
Can you imagine how useful that would be when the power is out at night?
(TV voice over:) "Breaking news!". Not that ever happened.
(TV anchor:) "A series of intense windstorms has been fueling wildfires and triggering power
outages throughout the Bay Area." Oh, and before I forget,
stoplight bulbs should be nice and big, not small like these. And there should be enough signal
heads that nothing is blocking your view. Like when I was stuck behind that RV and
couldn't see that the light had turned red. California's solution? Mount one down lower
on the right-hand side. You can peek off to the side to see what color the stoplight is.
These are just some of the ways to make a red light easier to see.
Up next, toolkit number two! Helping cars slow down for red lights.
Engineering for the "kind-of-intentional" red light runner.
You remember the first day of Driver's Ed class, and they taught you when you see a yellow,
you slow down— unless you don't have time to stop. This is Mission Boulevard in Fremont,
California. A short, busy street that connects two freeways. It's basically
a freeway itself with two stoplights on it. If you look on a map, you'd think this is a
freeway connector. Like a short one-mile freeway connecting Interstates 680 and 880 together.
So, no surprise: A lot of people used to run this red light. The
city decided to throw cameras up, and do whatever they could to try to get rid of
that red-light running. It was basically a mint. (TV reporter:) "The corner of Mission and Mojave
used to be the top money maker in Fremont.". But why would drivers suddenly be
bad... right here? (Jones on TV:) "These
things are not doing what we want them to do." Roger Jones told the local TV station that the
yellow arrow was too short. When engineers came to check it out, they found a bigger problem:
All the yellow lights were too short. This creates something called a "dilemma zone."
You don't have enough room to brake before you reach the intersection,
but the yellow light is too short to keep going. But no matter which option you choose,
you're getting a red light ticket. (Cartoon driver:) "Those
were both terrible choices." There's a science to eliminating dilemma zones.
If you want to learn how... check out my video on yellow-light timing. Link below.
So, back to Fremont: The yellow light time used to be 4.3 seconds, which properly reflects the speed
limit of about 45 mph. But the road's freeway-like nature, means we go a little bit faster than 45.
And that makes the yellow light time not long enough and creates a pretty bad dilemma zone.
So, even with the red light cameras, a lot of drivers were still running it anyway.
Thankfully, California has some smart engineers, and they knew
no amount of enforcement would fix this. (TV reporter:) "But while they were out here,
they noticed cars were coming off the freeway pretty fast and needed more time to stop."
So they changed the engineering. They made the yellow time a little
bit longer and rounded it up to a full 5 seconds. Better reflecting the speed people actually drive.
And when they did, red-light running dropped off by 70%. This worked.
Setting an appropriate yellow-light time may be one of the best tools an engineer has
to reduce red-light running and red-light crashes.
Other tools to help a driver safely transition to a stop: On faster highways,
they can install flashing lights to let a driver know the lights are about to turn red.
Or between greens, for safety, hold all of the lights red for a second or two.
This is called an all-red clearance interval. Just a few of the tools engineers have. Anything
that helps a driver safely transition from driving to stopping helps reduce red-light crashes. But
perhaps the best way to prevent red-light running is to not have a red light at all.
This is the approach road at Ontario (California) Airport. An extreme example
of "signal coordination." As long as I, and the drivers behind me, all stick to the speed limit,
we'll hit all greens for quite a while. Signal coordination creates efficiency on
busy streets, but it also reduces the number of cars that have to stop at red lights. Multiply
that by some number of probability, and you reduce the number of people who run red lights.
The red "Light Camera Systems Operational Guidelines" book here also recommends taking
out unnecessary traffic signals. Ones that used to be busy might not be busy enough now to justify a
traffic signal. So, now it's just a stoplight where another red light crash could happen.
Or finally, as the Europeans watching this video have been screaming for ten minutes.
Pull the signal out and install a roundabout. There's no red light to run and therefore no
deadly red light crash. Most crashes and a roundabout are sideswipes. Fatal car crashes
drop by more than 80%. A roundabout might not be appropriate everywhere, but it might be more
popular than installing a red light camera. So, after proper education and doing all that
engineering, trying to make the intersection safe so unintentional red-light running is as low as it
can be, then we can focus on the scofflaws the people running the red lights on purpose, bring
in the cops as warranted, install the cameras. But what if I told you red light cameras do too
good of a job. And they end up catching a whole bunch of people who technically run the red light
but really aren't posing a big safety risk? And the way cities pay for red-light cameras
might be making intersections a bit more dangerous. That's next time.
(Captioning made possible by Patreon supporters)