[geeks] Stuff fo' sale

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 @ 21:07 -0400, Phil Stracchino said:

> Five seconds is the standard, not just nationwide but in the UK as well
> to the best of my knowledge.  Virginia got taken hard on the red-light
> camera scam, and was the souyrce of quite a few of the stories of cities
> shortening yellow lights to keep from going bankrupt.  I seem to recall
> a year or so ago that as a consequence the state had decided not to
> permit the cameras any more.

OK, I was just curious.

They sure as hell don't follow that rule here.  Even in the last month
I've seen sub 2 second yellows.

Of course, for the last few years our traffic systems are supposed to
all be computer controlled.  Hampton in particular was one of the last
cities to finally lose its old hard-timer based system from the early
1900s.  I don't know if the system changes yellow times automatically or
not.  Seems to me there should be a minimum even then.

Of course the big problem now is the local cities fight about who should
should control traffic.  Each one is afraid the other will alter traffic
patterns to favor themselves.  It's all quite ridiculous.

I really don't know if they ever unified the systems, or they are all
still city-separate.  I was keeping track of the system build out, but
eventually stopped watching.

I *think* Norfolk and Virginia Beach are now unified, not sure about the
Peninsua.  Newport News and Hampton fight constantly over one thing or
another.

I guess its the heat... :)



-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["I wish life was not so short. Languages
take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about." - J.
R. R. Tolkien]