Couldn’t find an appropriate existing topic, so starting a new one (if there’s a better place, my bad!)
I know the city converted most of the intersections in downtown to no turn on red in the last year or two, but what (if anything) are they actually doing to enforce that? I go on at least one to two walks around downtown daily, so I naturally am witnessing a lot of idiotic driving throughout the day, but one of the main things I see is people turning right on red. It’s actually more surprising to see someone NOT do that.
I get that folks coming from outside of downtown aren’t used to that sort of thing, but are people just illiterate, oblivious, or simply don’t care? Either way - combined with the rampant speeding - particularly on Dawson and McDowell streets, I think you could make the case that we need traffic cameras downtown. Start ticketing these folks bc I’m tired of seeing it and it creates a very unsafe environment for everyone, particularly pedestrians and cyclists.
I will say that I’ve seen several folks get pulled on N Dawson, but Raleigh City Police are maybe catching 1 in every 100 (if that).
I mean living downtown, I routinely hear people with excessively loud vehicles blast down the street (including off Dawson/McDowell), as well as people racing in parking decks (if anyone ever tells me that there’s no parking downtown, I leverage this story). I see people turning right on red (even though it’s disallowed). Like I’ve seldom seen City of Raleigh PD interact with cars for any reason other than impeding the flow of traffic.
I live downtown and I do not turn right on red. But I honestly think I’m about the only person who follows said law. Maybe a topic for City officials since obviously someone cared enough to put in in place.
Worldwide from Helsinki to Hoboken, relatively cheap and expansive street redesigns and new design guidelines for new streets have made cities safer. Hoboken, NJ hasn’t had a traffic fatality in years. It’s a small city but if all city owned downtown streets were redesigned with temporary but expansive safety improvements we could see a major drop in fatal and serious injuries downtown.
Enforcement almost always makes situations worse because drivers, for example, will pay attention at the red light camera intersection and not at the 5 other intersections without a camera. Also, RPD officers don’t seem to have the time and resources to pull over every speeding car going 15 over.
It’s supposed to be every intersection from Glenwood to East and Peace to MLK. I know when they re-signaled the intersection at Halifax/Salisbury/Wilmington and Peace St, they took down the no turn on red sign for Wilmington to Peace eastbound, and never put it back up. The one at Harrington and Peace is also gone for some reason.
My experience is that vehicles observe the no turn about 80% of the time.
I do agree the street design in places downtown is an issue. Makes no sense to me that we’d have roads built like highways (3 lanes for N Dawson and McDowell I believe) going through the core of downtown. The speed limits should also be lowered from 25mph.
The other thing I failed to mention that I see perhaps more than anything else is the number of folks who just…. run the red lights?
I’m talking like this light has been red for like 1.5 - 2 seconds or more and people just blasting through. Doesn’t sound like much time, but it is in a car..
I faced the intersection where the Hibernian was. Was pretty crazy to just observe out my window how many people run red lights. You’d see it happen multiple times a day.
HELLLLL no. I will always draw the line at more cameras tracking our every move and mailing us bills. That is some Big Brother / police state sh!t. Never gonna be on board with that. I was elated when they removed the red-light cameras. The money those generate NEVER goes back to the community, and in fact a majority of the money tends to go straight to the company that owns/installs the cameras. 1000% F that.
They honestly never did, everyone is driving to go nowhere important and arrive at their destination in 1 minute (as if that’s even possible, but people try).
This is the result of getting rid of streetcars, preventing dense and compact development until the 2000s and sprawling out for miles every year.
It also doesn’t help that statistically driving makes you less happy and less caring for others, even before you get in the car and after you get home.
Doesn’t have to be traffic cameras - naturally that’s one of the most extreme deterrents, but I do understand your point.
We just need SOMETHING to deter these shitty drivers. Maybe I’ll go around putting up fake “enforced by aircraft” signs until the city / state designs safer streets.
I also thought that all the money was going to the camera vendor, but I that was a bit of misinformation as I understand it now. I work with the former head of the City of Raleigh traffic safety program and he told me that every year he would cut a check in the amount of all the revenue that didn’t go to the vendor and deliver it himself to the WCPSS main office. It was on the order of hundreds of thousands of dollars, if I remember correctly. Not sure why they didn’t make that more public. I do agree with your sentiment about an over-surveilled population, though.
It was an exaggeration to say that all the money from the stop-light cameras went to the vendor. A portion of it did, and I believe in the case of Raleigh the vendor got about 20% off the top. The problem was that the court (1) said the so-called civil penalty was just a criminal infraction in disguise and (2) interpreted state law to require that 100% of the money go to public schools.