![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
All in all, yesterday was a good day, despite it being another of the running-from-pillar-to-post type. Four appointments throughout the day- none of them bad, two of them resulting, more or less, in positive results for the client, me, or both. I started my day securing an obscure, cheap but hard-to-find $1.60 part for one of our appliances, and ended it in the company of wife, child, and boyfriend (of latter) in many moments of happiness.
Yet one bad second interrupted all of that- possibly.
I'd scheduled an 11:30 appointment at a lawyer's office in the Rochester area, which I was heading to from an earlier one filing papers in their downtown. The faster route was to take either of the loop-around ones, either west on 490 to 390 to 104, or east on 490 to 590 to 104. Instead, I took the directer route from downtown, up Lake Avenue to 104. Which would've been fine, except for the traffic light before State Street morphs into Lake Avenue, at the cross-street known as Jay Street:
I ran a red light.
Truthfully, I had no reason to run a red light. I was actually ahead of schedule after the first two appointments, the latter of which I'd worked in to my schedule just to kill half an hour or so before heading up that way. But the flow of traffic was faster than the posted limit, and when the light turned yellow, I made that dangerous split-second decision to floor it rather than brake, which may prove to be a bad move.
Rochester, you see, has joined Noo Yawk in actually implementing a red-light camera enforcement mechanism- unlike Buffalo, where it remains mired in party and even racial politics (the city's mayor being accused of nominating suburban-border intersections for the installation of "honky cams" to trap incoming commuters). And in Rochester, one of the approved intersections for Teh Pogrom is the corner of State and Jay streets. I must say, though, that this particular intersection suffers from the biggest objection to such programs alleged by opponents: that, to increase fine revenues, cities tend to shorten the length of the yellow lights, even below National Highway Safety standards, in order to produce more violators.
That sucker turned red barely two seconds after I saw the light turn yellow. The most recent national highway standards call for at least 3.6 seconds of yellow, more depending on posted speed limit and intersection width.
There was no warning sign posted. I saw no flash of camera. And yet I fully expect that, within the coming weeks, a $50 missive will arrive from the Parking Violations Bureau berating me for my bad behavior. Which, most likely, I will pay rather than fight, because, you know, City Hall and all.
Yet one bad second interrupted all of that- possibly.
I'd scheduled an 11:30 appointment at a lawyer's office in the Rochester area, which I was heading to from an earlier one filing papers in their downtown. The faster route was to take either of the loop-around ones, either west on 490 to 390 to 104, or east on 490 to 590 to 104. Instead, I took the directer route from downtown, up Lake Avenue to 104. Which would've been fine, except for the traffic light before State Street morphs into Lake Avenue, at the cross-street known as Jay Street:
I ran a red light.
Truthfully, I had no reason to run a red light. I was actually ahead of schedule after the first two appointments, the latter of which I'd worked in to my schedule just to kill half an hour or so before heading up that way. But the flow of traffic was faster than the posted limit, and when the light turned yellow, I made that dangerous split-second decision to floor it rather than brake, which may prove to be a bad move.
Rochester, you see, has joined Noo Yawk in actually implementing a red-light camera enforcement mechanism- unlike Buffalo, where it remains mired in party and even racial politics (the city's mayor being accused of nominating suburban-border intersections for the installation of "honky cams" to trap incoming commuters). And in Rochester, one of the approved intersections for Teh Pogrom is the corner of State and Jay streets. I must say, though, that this particular intersection suffers from the biggest objection to such programs alleged by opponents: that, to increase fine revenues, cities tend to shorten the length of the yellow lights, even below National Highway Safety standards, in order to produce more violators.
That sucker turned red barely two seconds after I saw the light turn yellow. The most recent national highway standards call for at least 3.6 seconds of yellow, more depending on posted speed limit and intersection width.
There was no warning sign posted. I saw no flash of camera. And yet I fully expect that, within the coming weeks, a $50 missive will arrive from the Parking Violations Bureau berating me for my bad behavior. Which, most likely, I will pay rather than fight, because, you know, City Hall and all.