Roxanne

As a followup to my post about traffic enforcement, I want to mention that Pleasanton, California has decided to try out the (awful) idea of giving red lights to detected speeders. This isn't the first city in California to try punishing speeders with red lights:

At least one other place in California has put together a traffic signal that is deputized against speeders. The Ventura County city of Thousand Oaks installed one in 2000 that Pleasanton traffic chief Jeff Knowles, who used to work in Thousand Oaks, has been watching closely.

"The people who were concerned about speed are pleased with it, but you'll hear a different story from some of the users of the road," said Thousand Oaks senior civil engineer Jim Mashiko.

Thousand Oaks has discovered a few hiccups, Mashiko said. Pedestrians, for example, must be given the green on all four crosswalks in the intersection at the same time, so they are not confused by a sudden yellow and red aimed at a speeder.

In addition, [road] rage could become an issue as drivers can be guilty by association if a speeder is just in front of them, just behind them or moving simultaneously in the opposite direction.

I didn't even consider any of those problems! Just goes to show you how wrong this idea is.

P.S. In case the title of this post went over your head....