Red light runners bring peril to Belair Road
Richard Lelonek of Baltimore has what sounds to me like a valid concern about the state of safety at the intersection outside his church. Let's let him tell the story:
The intersection of Belair Rd. and Brendan Ave. is governed by a traffic light. The intersection also serves people attending church services at the Shrine of the Little Flower. In the rear of the church there is located a charter school. On week days it is a busy intersection for those going to or from church and the school.
The red signal for Belair Rd. is frequently ignored as drivers go right through the red light. Some months ago I, too, was almost a casualty when attempting to cross on my green when a car brushed me as he sped by on his red.
In the morning and afternoon there is a crossing guard for the school. The guard, too, has been ignored by drivers going through on the red.
Over the last several years, in behalf of the Parish Council of the Shrine and the Belair-Edison Community Assn. I have wrtten to the city about this problem, never receiving even an acknowledgment.
Perhaps, you can see what can be done before some one is killed.
A red light camera there would pay for itself in a month.Richard L. Lelonek
We'll see what the city has to say about this. It strikes me that this is the kind of problem that City Council members are in the business of handling. Mr. Lelonek's councilman is Warren Branch.
Comments
A camera will not fix the problem. You have to fix the intersection - put up bigger diameter red lights, lengthen the yellow, add an "all red" phase, make sure the relevant pavement markings are not worn away, remove unnecessary signage and pavement markings (it distracts drivers) - and then teach the kids, parents and school personnel to walk defensively.
Why won't cameras fix the problem? They don't stop the 3 D drivers: drugged, disabled, distracted. And then there are a couple groups of people who are immune to the tickets. 1. Unlicensed, unregistered drivers. 2. Cars with protected plates. A California newspaper wrote about this. In CA a million private cars have 'confidential' license plate numbers that are protected from easy look up, thus are effectively invisible to agencies trying to process toll and red light camera violations. Such "protected plate" lists exist in other states. (In CA the list includes local politicians, bureaucrats, retired cops, many other govt. employees, and their families and adult children!) The Sun should investigate to see how many, and who, are on the list in Maryland.
Posted by: JamesH | October 5, 2010 2:01 PM
Huh? I don't get it.
Google street view shows this as a large intersection with clearly marked, wide crosswalks and your standard installation of traffic signals.
So is he saying that drivers just go thru the red light as if there were none? There are signal-controlled intersections just like this all along Bel Air Rd, including a block away from this one.
Are drivers not stopping along Bel Air Rd for *any* traffic signals? What??
I mean I know that drivers are intelligence-challenged, but I find it hard to believe that no one stops at a normal, standard, red traffic light exactly like the kind encountered on a regular basis by any driver.
Does the crossing guard wear a day-glo vest? And is he only assisting crossers when they have the "walky man" symbol? And drivers ignore him, the persons in the crosswalk, *AND* a red light???
I guess I am not understanding... Mr Lelonek is not offering the percentage of driver who are doing this... is it 2%? 10%--- he makes it sound like it is 100% and I just don't believe that...
Posted by: CalcoGal | October 6, 2010 10:40 AM
Wait folks. Who cares about cameras? Why can't the Major for the Northeast District get off his duff and schedule a little traffic enforcement for a week or 10 days?
The TEU has all those nice Mustangs, why not use them?
Let's put real cops out of their cars and on the street, writing citations, having cars towed, and actually doing their jobs. Forget about the cameras.
Posted by: Gunpowder Chronicle | October 6, 2010 12:54 PM