On 30 Jul 2006 15:09:20 -0700, "Jonathan Morris"
wrote:

congokid wrote:
police or traffic-light cameras. It's rare to see cars go through red
traffic lights (I see maybe one every couple of months)

That's odd. I used to see motorists drive through red at virtually every
junction on my commute to work from Fulham to the West End. Every day.

Yes, I have to say that at a junction you will see people accelerate on
amber (even though there's nobody behind them) or jump red. However,
you may get one car or perhaps two but after that, it sorts itself out.
This is why red light cameras are such a good idea, but surprisingly
rare compared to speed cameras.

I have to say that you either live in an area where car drivers are
spectacularly well behaved, or you're rather naive.

At certain junctions in the Hammersmith and Shepherds Bush areas,
where there are no cameras and the drivers know it, I see cars pile
through red lights for a good ten seconds after the lights went a firm
red. I see this every single day. There is a traffic light controlled
T-junction on to the Hammersmith Road near my house that may as well
not have lights on the minor road because so many drivers (generally
on foreign plates) just ignore them and drive straight on to the main
road. Similarly with banned turns, completely ignored, even if the
banned turn is one to protect crossing pedestrians. There is a section
of The Grove in Hammersmith where car drivers consistently sit in the
wrong side lane and to hell with any oncoming cars.

The answer is not number plates on bikes so that cameras can pick them
up, it is to return real human police officers to the road and
properly police both cyclists and cars. No need to have stacks and
stacks of traffic police, just enough to swoop at random (unmarked
cars would be best) and control the roads through fear that one might
get caught.