Am I the only one noticing the increasing numbers of cameras on top of stoplights?

As I was driving through my neighborhood this weekend I noticed that damn near every stoplight had a camera on top of it? They can't be for traffic purposes because these streets are common neighborhood streets that have no traffic problems ever. When did we give our government permission to do this to the extent they have? Are we not supposed to care about it?

I find it a little disconcerting to be honest with you.

Peace

More than likely it is for red light violators, or a way to monitor the traffic in a specific,congested area. I first noticed cameras on highway overpasses in the 80's with my uncle, and the ever growing number of cell type towers with cameras on top of them to. Florida has alot of cameras monitoring streets and highways.

When you got your driver's license.... Typically they are used to photograph the intersection to catch people running red lights or MVA's involving pedestrians. Some schools are using them in school zones.

Basically the idea is that if you run a redlight it takes a pic of your license plate. Voi La.... ticket in the mail...

More info here...

www.stopredlightrunning.com...

They are there to catch the mindless idiots who have to disobey traffic laws just because they do not see a cop who can stop them. Put them up everywhere!! It can only make neighborhoods safer.

Anybody ever gotten a ticket in the mail due to one of these cameras? I don't even think that's legal in Texas, but I could be wrong.

There's a camera on almost every freakin' stoplight! Who watches all the footage to see if so-and-so ran a red light? The logistics involved seem to make this explanation not hold water.

Peace

The cameras you are think of are used for who know what purpose. Traffic flow studies, review of accidents, and probably criminal investigation if necessary. I think the red-light cameras are a different animal alltogether, and yes there are some in Texas.

The camras that many see on top of trafficlights are for letting the light know that there are cars waiting at the red, it sends a signal to a box at the intersection and the light changes, the red light camras are bigger and usally arent on the trafficlight it self but rather the side of the road pointing towrad the intersection

these are probably not even cameras but sensors designed to change the light when a emergency vehicle approaches, Fire ambulance and police all run a strobe that syncs with these sensors

Thanks for the posting of links to the 'redlight ticket camera articles.'

I am still suspicious, though.

They are present in Texas cities that DON'T do "camera traffic enforcement" tickets.

I think they are there for another reason.

I also saw an inconsistency in the articles I read. They say the camera is only activated when a vehicle runs a redlight.

But they also claim to record a movie "clip" of the infraction, beginning six seconds before the offense, and continuing for 6 seconds after.

The ONLY way you can have video from before the enfraction is if you are continuously monitoring. And they are present in my city, where there is no "automated ticket" system in place.

I suspect the PD use them for vehicle persuits.

They'd be really handy for tracking a vehicle getaway from a bank heist, etc.

Could also be used for 'counter-terrorism'

I got a hundred dollar ticket last year from the North Dallas Tollway, for "running a toll." I had sold the car a year before, and the company simply had not updated their registration records.

So don't sell your car to a scofflaw, or to anyone who won't immediately change the title like they promise to.

They dropped it only after the scofflaw agreed to pay the fine. I know him, and was about to bounty hunt his sorry self.

Most that I see (not all) are light sensors that trigger for flashing lights like the white strobe on emergency vehicles.

I do see many cameras, but those are generally for reporting of traffic conditions. Heck...I can access most of them via the internet.

Here in Las Vegas they are on almost every traffic light. They are sensors used to see how many cars are waiting, ect. I can tell they work, because only 2 cars in a turn lane=3 sec. light.. 20 cars waiting=30 sec. turn light. Kinda nice!

After 911, I forsaw the war on terror, partiot act etc. and invested in a surveillance camera manufacturing and installation company. I might have a more comfortable and early retirement than I thought. Cameras are being installed everywhere and they are so small and disguised they are almost invisible and a new industry is emerging for analysis of the videos.

Its a brave new world; smile your'e on.......

All the previous answers make sense. Could be anything, redlight ticket camera, emergency vehicle strobe, light sensors... who knows?

Occasionally the police are doing a pilot project to deter small-time criminals in a particular area of town. If that's the case your local newspaper would write about it, there's generally nothing secret about it. Those anti-crime cameras are not monitored live, it's recorded, they only watch the tape (well, computer hard drive actually) if a crime occured for investigation. It happens that those project goes nowhere due to lack of budget or lack of interest and some of the cameras were never even plugged.

A couple years ago I heard about a high-tech software in development for surveillance cameras in London, UK which was capable of detecting suspicious behaviour. Lets say you look nervous as if you were about to steal a car in the parking lot, the software would raise a red flag and alert the security guard. That was only a test project, I don't think it ever made it into wide use. Because that kind of technology is very primitive and tend to give a bunch of false alert, so it become more cumbersome than normal for the security personel.

You're not the only one. Here's an entertaining thread I started with updates and pictures :

Big Brother Is Taking My Picture

Enjoy!

[edit on 14-11-2005 by saint4God]

Yes, I'm positive there will come a day when another terrorist attack happens and the footage from one of these traffic study/traffic control cameras is used for apprehension. Everyone will get a warm and fuzzy feeling and the floodgates will open completely, if they haven't already.

Peace

This is from the Pennsylvania House of Reps, however it seems about the same for many other US states.
Red light violations
and red light cameras<-- PDF file

im going to assume ... because of the texas comment that you are from tx.... first of all those cameras and or the use of cameras at intersections have been in place for a longgg time. it is legal in tx if theres proof and its public property... proof of someone breaking the law.... i dont know where exactly in tx your from but in some .... how can i put this ... remote or hick towns there starting to use those types of cameras. i work as a dispatcher and from the cameras they have there not all the same
most of them can just zoom and take black n white. but the ones on the freeways and hiways can zoom far and most of them are color. most of society is ignorant and will say things like yeah cameras dont take away my freedom because im not doing anything wrong.... so lets go ahead and place cameras in there homes. your in there home and the father figure yells at his child 2 minutes later child protective services is there... but he did nothing wrong ... anyways the point is the gov is going to do more things like this so what we cant stop them anymore is out of our hands all we can say is yeah yeah im with you not againts u anyways we also monitor cameras with motion detection but there buggy and rodents can set them off





[edit on 14-11-2005 by bigworm]

Where are our British posters, to tell us EXACTLY what roadside cameras look like and how they are mounted ?

In my locale, I noted camera like objects being added to main roads and overpass areas with traffic lights around
Feb 2003. They also appeared on military installations shortly thereafter.

I also was familiar with the concept from association with Volunteer Fire Depts and the AMD ambulance
folks. The fire trucks have a unit on the dashboard that can "hold" the light green or force it to green on approach
from sufficient range to hold their speed.
I never would have thought of the camera angle. Seems they are all pointed wrong for that since there are no
front license plates for some states. Paranoia can be a good thing maybe. The sky is falling and we must tell
the King.

Ive seen em all through Charlotte, I personally think it has something to do with insurance companies, so they can see who is at fault for accidents as well as catching redlight runners, and speeders. Probably useful for the dept of transportation too.

Yeah they have them in my city too. I personally think that hardly any of them are real. They are just placed there as a deterant to people so they won't go through a red light. That is just my opinion, backed by some eperiments performed on whether I would get a ticket from those so called cameras. Don't worry, my experiments are performed late at night when no one is around. That way no one can get hurt.

So far, I havn't found the real deal out of any of them