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Comment by Someone1234 | Hacker News Reader

It is an interesting idea, but retractable barriers aren't super reliable, get hit semi-frequently, and you'd need to design additional tools to assist emergency vehicles.

Red light cameras could likely solve the situation with no physical or mechanical considerations.

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Red light cameras don't increase safety [1]. They may shift some of the injuries from pedestrians to drivers, but overall there's no benefit.

[1] https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3078079

I didn't see it mentioned, but I wonder if the study also accounts for the practice of reducing yellow light duration to increase revenue from red light cameras as a means of generating more revenue.

https://www.motorists.org/blog/6-cities-that-were-caught-sho...

That was my first thought. Chicago's red light program is rather infamous, and, as a pedestrian, I do feel less safe at the intersections that had them installed. The lights change so fast that a motorists who presumably don't realize how ridiculously short the timing on Chicago traffic lights can be often sail through the intersection a good 1-2 seconds after the lights have signaled for crossing traffic - both vehicles and pedestrians - to proceed.

IMO, the best system is the one they have in Montréal. The traffic lights work a bit differently from the rest of North America in several ways, but one is special "vertical green bar" lights indicating that you're only allowed to go straight. No turns allowed until the regular green lamp illuminates. This does a pretty effective job of encouraging motorists to wait for pedestrians. Québec drivers are somewhat famously aggressive, but I still felt safer as a pedestrian in Montréal than in any other North American city I've visited.

I've seen green up arrows (to mean the same thing) plenty in the west suburbs of Chicago.

Cameras can cause abrupt breaking and more collisions. Maybe if paired with gradual light transitions and barriers they could be a net benefit.

That sounds like short light transitions, not cameras.

NYC is already stuffed with red light cameras as well as cameras that automatically give you speeding tickets.

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