I missed the notice in the newspaper (and can’t find it anywhere on the Oak Ridger website), but it’s household trash pickup time in Oak Ridge — a once-a-year event.
According to the city website, pickup started yesterday on the west side of town. My street is on the schedule for tomorrow, which explains the junk that’s been appearing at curbside.
The trash pickup is scheduled to continue until about April 18. Brush pickup will follow, beginning April 28, 2008.
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Closely related to the subject of trash is recycling. There’s good news on the Oak Ridge recycling front — all types of recyclable plastic (numbers 1 through 7) are now being collected for recycling at the Waste Connections convenience center on the east side of town. Curbside recycling plastic collection is still limited to #1 and #2, though. Prepare for Earth Day (April 12th at the Civic Center) by expanding your household’s recycling effort!
There’s a lot of conflicting information “out there” on the results of traffic cameras. Whatever conclusions you want to support, you are sure to be able to find a study that supports that conclusion. Oak Ridge (and any other community considering cameras) needs to “proceed with caution” in making a decision.
I haven’t sorted out all of the various “pro-camera” and “anti-camera” groups. However, National Motorists Association is a consistent opponent, while Insurance Institute for Highway Safety loves traffic cameras. The research findings these two groups report and the manner of their presentations are strongly correlated with their positions on cameras.
Everybody seems to agree that there are no valid controls for any of the studies (for example, in any “before” and “after” study there are numerous other changes occurring that could influence accident rates and severities). There are suggestions that the findings reported are strongly correlated with the affiliations of the people doing the reporting (kind of like drug companies that don’t report the results of the clinical studies that did not find favorable results).
There even seem to be some full-blown conspiracy theories about red light cameras — I’ve seen allegations that one Insurance Institute for Highway Safety staff member is working with traffic engineering professional organizations, vendors, and possibly local governments to “sell” red-light cameras. One allegation is that standards for yellow-light durations have been so as to increase the number of redlight violations, thus creating a profitable market in stopping violations. Former U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Dick Armey sponsored some sort of Congressional investigation that found that since 1985, yellow traffic light timing had been cut “from an average of five seconds to three seconds in duration” (at the recommendation of traffic engineering organizations) and alleged that “revenue collected from intersections with these shorter durations have become a mainstay of many local governments.” (See this article on the National Motorists Association website).
One of the conspiracy-theorist charges that I don’t believe is true is the allegation that these are a big source of cash for local governments. The main money issue with these systems is that they are expensive to set up and maintain. As a result, they don’t get used except in locations where they are expected to generate a lot of revenue from tickets, and most of the ticket revenue goes to pay for the system (including both money for the vendor and local costs for operation). In many jurisdictions, ticket revenue is less than the cost of the system. Indeed, yesterday an Oak Ridge resident alerted city officials to an interesting article that discusses jurisdictions that have shut off their cameras due to declining revenues.
Added March 29th: Over at AtomicCityTalk.com, Ray Evans posted a link to Federal Highway Administration Red Light Camera Systems Operational Guidelines, which is presumably a neutral source and has comprehensive practical information on the whole topic.
If you attempted to visit this blog in the last day and were greeted by the mysterious message “Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL which is required for WordPress,” you will know what I mean when I say “back in operation.”
Apparently a new installation of PHP (the software that runs this blog) at the webhosting service yesterday morning caused PHP to stop interacting with the separate MySQL databases where PHP programs keep their data. I’m pleased to see that the hosting company has fixed the problem.
Thanks to those of you who contacted me about the error message. It’s weird to think how dependent we have become on technology that didn’t exist just a few years ago.
The proposed ordinance to authorize use of automated cameras in traffic enforcement was passed by Oak Ridge City Council on first reading. Several citizens made thoughtful comments before the vote. Among other things, they commented on the “Orwellian” aspects of this monitoring, the difficulty in slowing a semi-trailer in order to stop it before a stoplight changes from yellow to red, the high cost of a $50 ticket for a typical working person, and the dire consequences to motorcyclists who are struck from behind after stopping for a traffic signal.
In response to a question, city manager Jim O’Connor said that red-light cameras had been discussed in the past, but that Ashley Paine’s fatal accident was the impetus for pushing forward with a proposal. He acknowledged, however, that red-light cameras would not have prevented her death.
Regarding money, O’Connor estimated that cameras would produce $300,000 in fines the first year — that’s 6,000 tickets at $50 each. That’s a lot of money flowing out of local pockets! Unfortunately, most of that cash would go to the out-of-town system vendor to pay for the system and its maintenance and operation. That seems wrong to me, but then I remember that all of those people can avoid fines simply by following the law. If only people would follow traffic laws without the threat of tickets and fines…Â
City manager O’Connor agreed to hold a work session on red-light cameras before bringing a proposal to Council for a vote. I asked for a work session, and other Council members echoed the request. Work sessions, like meetings, are public meetings, and I expect this one to include lively discussion.
The Oak Ridge City Council will soon decide whether Oak Ridge should start using cameras and electronic devices to enforce traffic laws. It’s a complicated issue — there is a diverse variety of pro and con arguments regarding red-light and speed-enforcement cameras.
At the City Council meeting on Monday, March 17th, we will consider (on first reading) a proposed ordinance to authorize the use of these systems in traffic enforcement. Meanwhile, city staff has been reviewing proposals submitted to the city in response to an RFP on electronic traffic enforcement systems, and intends to bring a recommendation to Council on April 21st.
Arguments for electronic traffic enforcement include improved safety, more consistent enforcement of traffic laws (many citizens yearn for punishment of drivers who whiz through intersections as the light changes from yellow to red), and generation of revenue for the city.
Arguments that I’ve heard and read from the anti-camera-enforcement side are diverse. I’ve probably missed a few, but they include concerns about the accuracy (and possible malfunctions) of the electronic systems, concerns that this is “big brother” infringing on personal freedom, concern about the possibility of entrapment (notably, if the yellow light duration is set too short), misgivings about the involvement of private companies in operating these systems, concern that too many of the violators on our roads would escape penalties (for example, because they are driving unregistered motor vehicles that display invalid license plates), and concern about possible unintended consequences, including increased accidents (more on those below).
Some of the arguments I’ve heard for these cameras seem like “keeping up with Joneses” — joining the other cities, including Knoxville, that have started using cameras. That’s not a good enough reason for me, but it is interesting to see how widespread camera use is. According to the website HowStuffWorks, red-light cameras have existed for more than 40 years, but they have mostly caught on within the past decade. Around the world, support for these systems is high. For example, according to this poll 78% of Canadians surveyed supported the use of cameras to identify vehicles that go through intersections after the traffic light has turned red, 84% of Canadians supported photo radar to catch speeders in school zones, and 66% supported photo radar speed enforcement on the highway. Safety advocates and police particularly like the idea that an automated system can catch every violator and free up patrolmen for other work.
Electronic enforcement systems are not yet deployed as widely in the U.S. as in some other countries, but this list of U.S. Communities using red light and/or speed cameras from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows that camera enforcement is widespread in California. Other states where they have been adopted fairly widely include Texas, Georgia, and Illinois. Tennessee cities reported to be using red-light cameras right now are Gallatin, Germantown, Jackson, Kingsport, Knoxville, Morristown, Red Bank, and Selmer. In addition, Chattanooga, Jackson, Mount Carmel, Red Bank, and Selmer have started using cameras in speed enforcement.
For me, the one truly valid justification for electronic traffic enforcement should be improved safety. As the Canadian Safety Council points out (see “Red Light Cameras“) that the objective of this technology is to prevent violations — ideally, to give no tickets. “If the number of violations is high the program is not working properly.” Unfortunately, the commercial arrangements required to set up and operate a camera system pretty much require that there be a lot of violations. The sophisticated monitoring technology is not something that a city like Oak Ridge could buy and operate on its own, so it’s necessary to contract with a vendor such as Redflex or American Traffic Solutions (just two of the companies offering these systems in the U.S.). Under the contracts established between municipalities and vendors, the vendor gets a share of the fines collected by the camera system, so it’s in everyone’s financial interest to locate cameras in places where they will catch a lot of violators. That’s a paradox: If the program is working properly the number of violations should be low, but in order to maintain the program the number of violations needs to be high.
Contrary to the expectation that red-light cameras bring in revenues, many communities have found that they cost more to operate than they bring in from fines. I think that is likely to be Oak Ridge’s experience. Police Chief David Beams told the City Council budget and finance committee that he expects that one patrolman would need to be assigned to the electronic traffic enforcement program full-time — to view images of violations and write tickets. Beams would like to hire an additional police officer to fill the shoes of the officer who is diverted into writing red-light tickets, at a cost of about $50,000 a year. At $50 per ticket (the amount allowed under state law), it would take a lot of red-light tickets to generate $50,000 in revenue for the city after paying the system contractor its share of the fines. However, Kingsport reports having received an astonishing $512,550 in fines ($50 per violation) and court costs (an additional $50 per violation) in the first 9 months of red-light camera operation. Kingsport pays Redflex 80% of the fines for the first 95 tickets each month and 50% after that, so their net has been only a fraction of the $512,550 (and likely is not enough to cover costs of the four traffic officers who review the cameras and the two full-time and two part-time records clerks who support the program), but maybe Oak Ridge can break even after all.
Oak Ridge has some intersections where residents believe the number of red-light violations is high (mostly vehicles entering the intersection just after the light turns from yellow to red), but it’s not clear that these frequent violations are a serious safety problem. There’s a lot of research (for example, in these 2001 articles from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) that indicates that adjustments in timing of yellow lights, and in the duration of the “all-red” interval after the light changes from yellow to red, can reduce accidents. My personal observations in Oak Ridge indicate that the “all-red” interval on our stoplights is effective in preventing collisions, because the stoplight doesn’t turn to green until after the people who ran through the intersection as the light was changing have cleared the intersection. Thus, while red light cameras at these locations probably could generate a substantial number of tickets, it’s not clear that the cameras would prevent many accidents.
Red-light cameras have had mixed results in reducing accident rates. There’s a widely reported study of red light cameras in Oxnard, California that found 7% fewer crashes overall and 29% fewer injury crashes at intersections after cameras were introduced, and an impressive 20% fewer crashes and 46% fewer injury crashes related to red-light running. However, results often are not that good. For example, in 2005 the Washington Post reported that in Washington, DC, the rates of right-angle crashes had actually increased at intersections with cameras.
Another serious concern is the many reports of unintended consequences from red-light cameras. It should be obvious to experienced drivers that cameras can lead to increases in rear-end collisions (because of more people stopping for yellow lights). These accidents are less serious that the right-angle accidents that occur when people run red lights, but a large increase in rear-end accidents is a poor trade-off if the intersection is one without a history of right-angle accidents. A particular issue for Oak Ridge is that the introduction of red-light cameras at an intersection often causes people to change their route to avoid that intersection. It’s easy to foresee that red-light cameras on, for example, Oak Ridge Turnpike could lead to increased thru traffic on streets like Tennessee Avenue and Outer Drive, and the overall effect might even be reduced traffic safety in the city.
Based on my experience as a driver, passenger, and pedestrian, I think camera-based speed enforcement has greater potential for improving safety in Oak Ridge than camera-based red-light enforcement. Excessive speeds on streets are a concern all over the city. Monitoring speed reliably is technically more challenging than monitoring red-light compliance, but traffic engineers seem to think it can be done reliably on city streets (for example, in this Technical Evaluation of Photo Speed Enforcement for Freeways, Arizona Department of Transportation, 2005). When electronic speed monitoring is used, folks generally are ticketed only for the same clear exceedances of the speed limit (for example, 10 miles over the limit) that a human officer would ticket them for, so it would be hard to argue that the enforcement is unreasonable. On a trip to Australia (a country with widespread use of speed cameras) last year, I was impressed to see that drivers generally obeyed the speed limit in spite of the absence of highway patrols, so I believe that these systems might actually work to improve driver behavior.
Like some Oak Ridgers who’ve talked with me about the matter, I’m bothered by the idea of people’s movement being recorded by a hidden camera. However, I believe that we relinquish some privacy when we drive on public streets and highways, so I think that use of cameras is acceptable as long as their images are used only for traffic enforcement. The American Civil Liberties Union has warned against “mission creep” — allowing camera data to be used for other surveillance purposes.
As for the entrapment issue, I’ve been given assurances that stoplight timing would not be altered to increase the rate of violations at red-light camera locations (for one thing, it turns out that state law controls the minimum duration of yellow lights). However, I believe that over time the presence of cameras could reduce the incentive to make other intersection improvements that would enhance safety. One of my biggest concerns about stoplight compliance is the occasional driver who runs a light because they did not see it. The consequences of that kind of mistake can be very serious, and I would hope that the presence of red-light cameras at an intersection would not prevent the city from implementing measures (such as addition of strobe lights) to make stoplights more visible, if visibility is an issue. Another example of a safety measure (one discussed in those IIHS articles) is restrictions on right turns at red lights during specified hours, which can reduce pedestrian accidents — I hope the presence of red-light cameras at an intersection would not prevent the city from considering adding that type of restriction.
If you’ve made it this far, you are probably asking “How does she plan to vote on this?” On first reading, I expect to vote for the ordinance to authorize the use of these systems in traffic enforcement. Before approving any contract to implement electronic traffic enforcement, however, I will want much more detail about its implementation and its potential safety benefits. Additionally, I hope to hear citizens’ perspectives on the topic…
In yesterday’s Oak Ridger, Sam Suffern told about 3 reliable reports of cougar sightings here in Oak Ridge. The cougar thus joins the coyote as a large predator we need to worry about in our backyards. (I’m not aware of black bear sightings here, but it’s possible for them to be here, too.)
It’s romantic to think that native cougars have somehow managed to survive in Oak Ridge’s extensive green spaces, but wildlife experts say that any cougars sighted around here are almost sure to have been individual “pets” that escaped (kind of like the peacock that roamed my neighborhood and other parts of the city several years back). It’s very unlikely that there’s a wild population of cougars here.
Coyotes, on the other hand, have “gone native,” here and everywhere — like it or not, they’ve become part of our world.
Fortunately, all of these animals generally steer clear of humans, but (as Suffern’s letter says) they are dangerous and we all should be aware of their presence.
Added March 13th:
By e-mail, Warren Webb (one-time ORNL wildlife manager, now retired) tells me :
I read the letter. I wasn’t convinced, and I can’t judge the reports reliable on the information given. And yes, we have had black bear reports (probably more likely) . . .
Added June 10th:
As it happens, just this week a black bear was spotted in town, not to mention being photographed… In spite of the extent of Oak Ridge’s greenbelts and the fact that black bears are reported to live in relatively developed places (such as suburban New Jersey), I imagine that this bear was feeling confused — and anxious to get out of town and away from people.
Added June 15th:
Now it seems that “our” bear is in west Knox County, according to the News Sentinel. Those critters can move fast! The family cat and I both spotted another reminder of our ubiquitous wildlife: a large snake slithered through the carport today. It looked like one of the various nonpoisonous varieties, but impressive nonetheless. Too bad that neither snakes nor bears seems able to discourage the deer from eating our tomato plants…
Tonight’s the night to “spring forward” — set clocks ahead one hour for the beginning of Daylight Savings Time.
I like Daylight Savings Time in the summer, when it extends the hours of daylight after work or school, but I dislike the fact that it causes people to get up in darkness at the beginning and end of DST. (It’s particularly troubling that children need to head off to school in darkness.)
Now comes an interesting story of unintended consequences – it seems that in our modern world Daylight Savings Time (which is supposed to save energy) might actually increase residential electricity demand. Researchers have found that DST does reduce the use of electricity for lighting, but it increases its use for heat and air conditioning. The researchers said that savings from reduced lighting demand are “more than offset by having to turn on the heat during the colder early morning hours,” at the beginning and end of daylight-saving time and when people turn on their air conditioners when they came home from work an hour earlier in the summer months. Those findings make sense; they reflect what happens at my house.
I doubt that this surprising research finding will lead to a change in the laws governing Daylight Savings Time, but it’s a reminder that many of our actions have unintended consequences…
Recently I’ve gotten involved in planning for an Earth Day event in Oak Ridge. On Saturday afternoon, April 12th, at the Oak Ridge Civic Center, there will be exhibits, speakers, a “kids’ village,” and live music from some of the region’s best-known bands. The theme of the event is Planting the Seeds of Change, and the event goals are “to educate, encourage, and empower the citizens of Oak Ridge and surrounding communities to create a sustainable community.” The people behind this event have a lot of energy and a lot of good ideas, so I’m looking forward to a fun (and free) community-based festival that will help make Oak Ridge a greener community. See OakRidgeEarthDay.com for details and updates. (Note: It’s not too late to volunteer to be an exhibitor or to help out on the day of the event, and the organizers are still looking for financial sponsors.)
The week before the Earth Day event, on Friday evening, April 4th, folk musician John McCutcheon will be performing in town, thanks to the efforts of up-and-coming local impresario Allen McBride. In years past I’ve enjoyed hearing McCutcheon perform at the Laurel Theater in Knoxville and at the Children’s Museum in Oak Ridge, but this will be our first chance to hear him in the new performance space in the former Grove Theater. All profits will benefit wheelchair accessibility at the
Children’s Museum. Check out Allen McBride’s website for details.
On the subject of festivals, Oak Ridge’s annual Secret City Festival is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, June 20Â and 21, 2008. I’m told that this event brings a lot of people to town who wouldn’t come here otherwise, and that many of them go away with a favorable impression of our city. (Based on conversations I had last weekend at the Children’s Museum’s International Festival, it has the same type of effect, but on a smaller scale.) The “big name” musical entertainment on Friday will be the ’60s-’70s rock throwback The Turtles and Saturday night’s entertainment will be by Mary Wilson of the Supremes, of Motown fame.
