MACCLESFIELD Silk Road/Mill Lane fixed RED LIGHT CAMERA.

Right....

Macclesfield Traffic light camera and judging the distance....

The highway code, as I have quoted repeatedly... Says to USE SOMETHING TO HELP YOU GUESS/GUAGE DISTANCES. Because you will most likely not know them exactly....

And the Macclesfield Churchill Way traffic light fixed camera is about 12meters only from the stop line. SO if you are about double the distance from the traffic lights as the camera itself, you are ABOUT THE HIGHWAY CODE 23 METERS AWAY!

And the highway CODE SAYS IF YOU ARE THIS DISTANCE OR CLOSER, IT IS BEST TO CONTINUE AND NOT BRAKE HARD OR CHANGE YOUR SPEED, BECAUSE THERE WILL MOST LIKELY NOT BE ROOM TO COME TO A STEADY STOP.

AND YOU ARE WITHIN THE TIME DISTANCE ANYWAY TO MAKE IT THROUGH AMBER ADEQUATELY.

See images...

Macclesfield short distance.. aerial view



View from google car at approximate distance .. highway code to continue through traffic lights.




Right.... So USING THE POLICE PLANNED & INSTALLED CAMERA AS A GENERAL DISTANCE GUIDE, LIKE THE HIGHWAY CODE SAYS... YOU ARE OK TO MAKE IT THROUGH THE TRAFFIC LIGHTS AND CLOSE DISTANCE NOT TO EMERGENCY STOP USING THIS GUIDANCE.

(Note that Kirkles council traffic management TOLD ME in person that "The council do not install or operate the speed cameras. The police install them and maintain & service and run them) (yet traffic light cameras are rigged to the council control centre as well because they operate on the timing of the traffic lights)

Anyway....

So THE MILL LANE TRAFFIC LIGHTS... ALSO IN MACCLESFIELD...


USING THE PREVIOUS EXAMPLE TO HELP US GUAGE OUR DISTANCE, AND THE FIXED CAMERA AS A ROUGH GUIDE.... here are the Measurements (Who measures it properly when passing through? no-one. Its always a guess)

Here the distance IS 36 METERS! if you use the distance of the CAMERA as a guide and are that distance away again.. IT IS 36 METERS! MY DISTANCE! THAT I HAVE CALCULATED APPROXIMATELY! And it is NO CO_INCIDENCE THAT SOMEONE HAS PAINTED A DOOR RED ON ONE OF THE HOUSES! and you NEVER NOTICE THAT DOOR WHEN YOU ARE DRIVING PAST, BECAUSE ITS TO THE SIDE.

SO... the DISTANCE OF THE CAMERA IF YOU COMPARE TO CHURCHILL WAY, is FURTHER! so IT "CAN" easily TRICK YOU OF THE DISTANCE! if you use it as a GUAGE AND ARE TWO CAMERA DISTANCES AWAY... because instead of what you MIGHT BE LEAD TO THINK IS 23 METERS, IS IN FACT 36 METERS APPROX!



Red door is to the side and not noticed usually. Unless you explore the site.
Distance is about 36 meters away, not 23 meters.



So if you use the fixed camera to help you, and are used to knowing twice the camera distance away is OK to continue through.. here you will be mislead... IF you are not going at 30mph or over.... if you are.. like i was going at 27mph you might not just make it in time (0.7seconds) unless its Dorset information you were told, like i read online and was informed with.


ALSO.. BOTH ROADS IN THIS EXAMPLE ARE 30mph limit.. SAME SPEED.

BUT THERE IS THE EXTRA EFFECT HERE of BOTH ROADS HAVING 2 LANES!! so..... there will be CARS/VEHICLES in BOTH LANES... USUALLY GOING SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT SPEEDS! AT BOTH LOCATIONS! SO THAT ADDS TO CHANGE THE GUESSING GAME, BECAUSE THE OTHER CARS DECISION TO CONTINUE OR NOT WILL EFECT YOURS... AND IT CAN EFFECT IF YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING FASTER OR SLOWER! NOTE YOU WILL BE WATCHING THE LIGHTS AHEAD, NOT THE SPEEDOMETER!

ALSO... I have been thinking a lot about LAMP POSTS SPACING! and these DIFFERENT WIDTH 30mph & 40mph roads!

an Example is a computer game.... playing the game you dont really judge speed by the speedometer! its the rate at which the GRAPHICS MOVE! the ROAD MARKINGS AND LINES and the SPEED AT WHICH THE SCENERY OBJECTS PASS YOU...


OUTRUN is a GREAT EXAMPLE!



The EFFECT OF SPEED PERCEPTION that makes you BELIEVE YOU ARE MOVING IN THE GAME, it only by animation of the TREES THAT ARE SPECED AT SET DISTANCES and the ROAD MARKINGS.. (plus the road curves)

By LAW the traffic light timing is ALLOWED TO BE 0.75 seconds in error in total through the 3 colours phase! ALLOWED!
That IS THE TIME I WAS IN ERROR OVER THE LINE! And LESS THAN THE CPS DORSET THRESHOLD FOR PROSECUTION!

THE STREET LAMPS MUST BE NO MORE THAN 200YARDS apart?! or something like that.... THAT ALSO INDICATES THE SPEED LIMIT! BECAUSE THEY DONT NEED SIGNS UP! OR HAVE TO HAVE REPEATERS!

SO..... on a 30mph road.... as well as the WIDTH of the ROAD.. you have VISUAL FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE SPEED PERCEPTION....

The RATE at which the white lines pass...

And the RATE at which the Street Lamps pass...

And the rate at which HGV, Cars and other vehicles are PASSED or PASS YOU.

So...

IF the DISTANCE BETWEEN STRRET LAMPS CHANGES! or the ROAD MARKINGS CHANGE, or are DIFFERENT is in effect.. it will CHANGE YOUR PERCEPTION OF THE SPEED YOU ARE GOING!

You could in Theory... lay out a 30mph & a 40mph road & set the Street lamps & white lines so that at 30mph on one road the rate they pass is the SAME rate as if it were the same speed on the 40mph road.

This COULD have effected speed perception since BEFORE fixed speed cameras.. when villages were lit up at night and you ONLY HAD THE STREET LAMP SPACING TO GO BY! because you would be watching the road more & not the speedo as much. And in fact, the ROAD should be MORE a guage of your best driving speed anyway.. not a "NUMBER" on a screen. you drive to the ROAD not to a speedo number! the road is versatile, fluid and has percentile natural speeds, not mathematical speeds only.

I could do a basic animated gif image of the street lamp example, but I think the Outrun game is a decent enough example..