Good work Brodbeck

Yes, to clarify I was agreeing with Jondo. I was recalling a bunch of articles I had read in probably the early-nineties in motoring publications (Road and Track, Motor Trend etc.) that dealt with this exact same issue. Basically that red light camera's were nothing but a cash cow that only changed the make up of the traffic violations/collisions at the intersections they were installed at, and did nothing to actually reduce the number of violations/collisions. It's funny that they learnt this lesson over a decade ago in the US and had already come to the conclusion that a longer amber light was the way to go, and yet we still followed the exact same failed patern here. The only conclusion I can draw is that it's about the money and has very little to do with safety, even if that was the original intention.

You want less collisions, get the women off the road!

Hi and thanks. I was just correcting what is an old, accepted presumption that we will also refute with fact. GROM wrote:

"that red light camera's significantly increase the amount of rear end collisions due to the afore mentioned "dilema" zone, while decreasing the amount of collisions caused by left turns etc. The net effect is no real increase in safety, just a change in the types of collisions seen and".

That is not correct. All types of accidents increase - including the serious category of side-impacts. What you refer to is a reasonable assumption - because that's as much as the operators have partially conceded to in the past. In fact - they've been sitting on much more damning information than that. All accidents increase. Short-ambers have no logical purpose other than to needlessly increase danger (intersection panic) in order to maximize infractions. A full inquiry is required.

....an inquiry into why our mayor and police chief are liars and continue to lie to us.

I think all lights at all intersections should blink green for a few days. That way when they get re-set, drivers will pay attention!

What happened to the story today?

Is it postponed?

Actually I just wrote about that but in the wrong subject stream. Seems we missed the deadline yesterday. The Freep was taking pictures of us measuring an intersection and that was delayed due to heavy rain. We expect the article will be Monday now. Incidentally, that intersection (Lagimodiere and Grassie - the #2 red-light cash earner) measures out to 100'. At 80kph with no grade, that formulates to a minimum 5.0 second amber time. If real safety was the goal - and the Georgia law formula were applied (one additional second to the minimum) then it would be a 6.0 amber by law. While we were doing that photo - a guy approached and asked what we were doing. He's a 60'ish guy who moved to Winnipeg from Brazil 40 years ago. He asked because he lives in the area and has observed this dangerous amber in action for a few years. The first thing he noticed about Winnipeg when he arrived in 1970 was how needlessly dangerous our intersections were - including short ambers. Then his kids got in a serious car accident and he decided to do something about it. He took us to his office nearby and showed us his product and patent. He's created a new light-tower that replaces the 3 circle standard. It has three bars that decrease indicating the duration remaining on that colour. He's sold 10,000 of them in Brazil and the results have been nothing short of incredible - accident reductions and improved traffic-flow. His efforts in Winnipeg were described as talking into an echo-chamber. Look for his perspective to be featured in some upcoming reporting. Oh and he adds this - as dangerous as he sees these short ambers - he wonders why nobody has challenged this over the years - inlcuding the obvious fact that these inadequate ambers are doubly-dangerous when Winnipeg's winter conditions apply. It's great to run into people that "get it" (the simplicity of the dangerous issue).

Hey! Every single member of the sandbox "get's" it. What are you implying?

We iz real smart like.

Most of Youz does gets it.

Heh heh... As most sandboxinians know I have little patience for the smug arrogant brodbeck. But credit where credit is due:

Best headline in a long time: "Stupefied by ideology"

Column: http://www.winnipegsun.com/news/columnists/tom_brodbeck/2011/01/20/16971921.html

Letter: http://www.winnipegsun.com/comment/letters/2011/01/20/16964501.html

megan leslie is a twit...

hey Megan

"Wait times for diagnostic imaging can be reduced through better
educating doctors on the systemic over-ordering of diagnostic tests
occurring across the country."

frick YOU.. I can hardly even get in to see a doctor so when I do he damn well better be using all the tools at his disposal to find out what the frick is wrong.

It is NDP need we say more their biggest job creation happens in health care .