What are the cameras on top of traffic lights used for?

What are the thin white cameras on top of traffic lights used for?What are the cameras on top of traffic lights used for?
If mounted on top of the lights, they're not cameras, they're sensors for traffic flow and pedestrians.
The yellow cameras as seen on poles on motorways are average speed cameras, the blue ones on blue poles are NOT cameras, they are speed detection devices for a comany called "Traffic Master" theses are used for average traffic speed, you cant get a speeding ticket from these. You used to get a little gadget for your car that told you about the road speed ahead, it was many years before satnav.



Also some traffic lights have a "camera" but it actually a microwave detector that tells the controller is there a car there or is one coming, no car turn the lights red, as a car aproaches if none at the other lights turn the light green. (in theory anyway)



In london some traffic lights do have real cameras, nothing to do with speeding etc its for TFL to monitor traffic flow.



TFL Transport For London)What are the cameras on top of traffic lights used for?
In theory, the white ones are monitoring traffic flows.

The yellow and blue ones are average speed cameras. there is no point slowing down as you approach them, because they do not clock your speed as you pass them, only the exact time. Your average speed is calculated by the time it takes you to get from that camera to the next one.

Either way, CCTV cameras are evil and insidious and a tool of a police state. They are also a routine feature of life in the UK today.
their are 2 ways of looking at them. they are video cameras. they are not video cameras at all. if your definition of a video camera is something that records video and/or transmits it back to a central monitoring station, than no, it is not. these are strictly industrial cameras- meaning they provide an input directly to a computer program. the program tells the I/O board inside the traffic box to switch the sequence of lights and to also determine how many cars are in a given traffic queue- which in turns tell the I/O board how long to keep the lights green.

so to sum up these new "cameras" being used by the traffic light industry. they provide several advantages over traditional methods of detecting and/or timing traffic lights. instead of relying on a car to have enough metal to be picked up by OR even within proximity of the old "inductive grids" or metal detectors, it can determine exactly how many cars are in a given queue. not to mention how easy they are to install compared to having to take a jackhammer and a work crew to the road and installing cable for the inductive grid-affecting traffic flow, productivity, and safety. another reason these "cameras" are useful is they cut down or even eliminate all together traffic jams. a technician can plug in his/her laptop to the traffic I/O board or even remotely if it is Ethernet or wifi enabled, and they can view statistics on certain traffic patterns, max wait times, shortest wait times, times where there is no traffic at all and times where the traffic is backed up.

~no more waiting for red lights when there is no traffic

~less congestion

~easy to install

~maintenance free

~less complaining about lights-less service calls

~more energy efficient compared to inductive grids



here are a few examples

http://www.ustraffic.net/datasheets/Peek…



http://www.ustraffic.net/ptvideotkiq.htm



http://www.ustraffic.net/products/video/…



http://www.ustraffic.net/ptunitrak.htmWhat are the cameras on top of traffic lights used for?
It's quite reassuring they are used for programming traffic flow, rather than as a form of official bullying and fundraising.



There is one set of lights in Malvern Link which were installed recently that are very dangerous. It is controlling a T-junction, which had no problems previously. It is just a few yards from another set of lights controlling another T-junction, and invariably one is red when the other is green, so traffic builds up beyond the distance between the two lights, blocking the side road, and aggravating those trying to get through both sets of lights on the main road.



To add to the mayhem, there is a busy turning to a Lidl supermarket about fifty yards back. The traffic along the main road is solid except when the lights are red, in which case it is backed up. The only way to get out of the supermarket is to make a bolt for it in any tiny gap that emerges in the traffic, or cut in front of the stream of traffic just after its lights have turned green. I tend to barge out with my hand on the horn and hope for the best.



The two left turns at the first lights are often controlled on red when there is nothing coming the other way, and all it does is to hold up the traffic. I find myself often jumping these red lights, especially at night when the roads are almost empty, and I can see clearly what's coming.



There is also a large central reservation bollard for pedestrians, even though at that end of Malvern Link, all there is is a cafe, a junk shop and a petrol station, and of course the Lidl, which is mostly approached by car. Most pedestrians cross in the centre of the Link, where there is a crossroads well controlled by lights. When I cross the road there, I try to avoid the bollard and walk around it, since there is nearly always an opportunity to cross before the lights turn red, and the bollarded and barriered island just gets in the way.



This bollard prevents anyone turning right out of the first side road, so traffic is diverted along residential roads. If anyone forgets, it is fiendishly difficult to get back pointing the right way. It is not signposted, so you have to be a local to know where to turn right early.



It is a death trap. I often think these traffic lights are just put in to use up money at the end of the year, which is why my Council Tax on my small rural cottage is now about ￡1000, with very little to show for it. I am paying for these "experts" who are on good pay, while I am excluded from working because their public relations and interpersonal and multitasking competences make them more employable.



I wonder therefore if these cameras are a sneaky way of catching those who try to make sense of this stupidity. Reminds me of the arbritary speed limits on the East German transit autobahns used to take Western currency off those visiting West Berlin.



Incidentally, when they attempting to put traffic lights on the Ketch roundabout in Worcester (which just about copes with the traffic without them, even though the roads around this busy junction are too small), there was chaos where it took 45 minutes just to get through the lights. Thankfully, at least the situation was so palpably bad, the Highways officers got rid of the damned things there.
It can be used to catch speeders, and if there is an accident, they can check the tapes to she whose fault it was, or it there was like a hit and run to catch them. It can also be used to see the flow of traffics to control the timing of the lights.
They are watching for traffic jams and accidents. They can manipulate the lights to try and reroute traffic. And sometimes at night mess with me when I am driving. No person should have to drive from red light to red light when nobody is on the road!
well this is how illegals get free family photos, they just load up the truck with family and then run a red light, another freebie!!
Uncle Sam really wants you.
they're on to me ...
Some may be for people jumping the amber or red lights (you are supposed to stop on amber unless it would be dangerous to do so)



"No person should have to drive from red light to red light when nobody is on the road!" - try driving at the speed limit - you will find you get through on green each time cos that is how the lights are programmed.



For those giving thumbs down a) read the highway code b) I know one of the people who programmed the lights



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now 4 thumbs down for statements of fact - oh dear