Physicist challenges a traffic case about running a red light. He Won [pdf]

arxiv.org

8 pointsnishantmodak4 comments

To get out of a red light ticket, I once successfully argued that given the size of the intersection, the length of the yellow light, and the speed limit of the street, I would have to speed or have a reaction time that was significantly better than average to not break the law.

When I was in highschool, to get out of a speeding ticket, I was prepared to show that I could not have come to a full stop where the officer pulled me over if I was going as fast as he claimed (53mph), even with ideal assumptions (zero reaction time and perfect braking performance), which is quite an assumption for the 30 year-old car I was driving at the time. I never got a chance to test it in court, because the officer didn't show up on my court date.

Discussed 5 months ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3842033

The original submission date for the paper is interesting (http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.0162) ...

Yes, it is real:

- http://www.sdsc.edu/News%20Items/PR041312_trafficticket.html

- http://www.caida.org/~dima/

Thanks for the pointer to original discussion. Some interesting points on that one.

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