BAKERSFIELD CAMERAS TO CATCH RED LIGHT RUNNERS?

Citizen activists conducted the most significant debate voluntarily recently. The issue of cameras at certain Bakersfield intersections was hotly evaluated! The data exposed was most revealing and widely diverse.

Of course what was most revealing was the varied opinions coming from a wide range of community activists. To share all the issues raised would be quite something to editorialize. This sharing was the healthiest thing that one can imagine between citizens who care about the community they live in.

The following is but another short opinion of some central concerns of cameras at intersections.

NO

Cameras affect the right to due process.

Tickets are sent to car owners who may not be driving the vehicle at the time of infraction, thus placing the burden of proof the owner. (The accused is considered innocent until proved guilty?)

Installation of cameras from which observation and picture taking and ticket mailing is more than likely conducted under a contractor. (The choice of intersections are for safety or for revenue maximization?)

Will the data captured by these cameras be used for other purposes?

YES

The result of this service provided should be auto safety. (Studies and statistics in Oxnard are quite positively persuasive)

Red light violations are predictable. (Statistics on highly traveled corridors – Just ask the Mayor where and why Hall Ambulances are stationed at the ready in the community!)

Red light runners kill more people than do bank robbers! (A spurious comparison but probably accurate!)

Like most local engineering solutions to traffic intersections, the addition of another capital and operating cost element to make them work is a solution which attempts to use a cannon to kill an ant.

Some time ago on this web page I wrote about how other more enlightened engineers have adopted “roundabouts” to provide a slowing of traffic as a reduction of accidents with a great saving in capital and operating costs.

One day in the future this will become a common and less expensive way to resolve such a problem. Until then the only thing we can do is educate engineers and citizens to travel a short distance in order to experience first hand the reality of how such a correct design can be adapted to our existing intersection problems.

Let’s just take a small bus with the people who matter in making these decisions to Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo!

BY Graham Kaye-Eddie – Master Urban Designer.

Makabusi Inc. – Bakersfield – California

Email – makabusi@pacbell.net

Chengdu Maps out Traffic Route of Maglev Airplane

The blue print for the traffic route of the magnetic levitation (maglev) airplane has lately been completed in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province in west China, according to sources from the local department. And Chengdu will be the first possible city in the world to have both maglev airplane production and operation lines in the near future.

Maglev plane is developed by an American university and has not been applied in any country. It is a new type of track vehicle for hi-speed transportation on land. Not touching the track, maglev plane could "fly" at a maximum speed of 500 km (311 mi)/hour.

Different from ordinary maglev train, the maglev plane must depend on track to run, but its automatic control system, apartment, satellite positioning system and other equipment are all designed according to airplane standards. It also claims stability as of a real airplane.

As reported, the project is a Sino-US cooperation for which the agreement has been signed last September. Currently, the first-phase of the project is in progress and the foreign investors will inspect the production base and operation line in Chengdu within the next few days.

(People's Daily July 2, 2002)

http://service.china.org.cn/link/wcm/Show_Text?info_id=36031&p_qry=maglev

Hong Kong again ranks as world's capitalism capital

Hong Kong, which this week marks the fifth anniversary of return to Chinese rule, was rated the world's freest economy for a sixth year in an annual report on the subject. China overall ranked 101 out of 123 countries in the index by the Washington-based Cato Institute, Canada's Fraser Institute, and affiliates in 54 other nations. The top 10 in this year's Economic Freedom of the World Report:

1. Hong Kong

2. Singapore

3. US

4. Britain

5. New Zealand

6. Switzerland

7. Ireland

8. Canada

(tie) Australia

(tie) The Netherlands

- Agence France-Presse

Fire avoidance: Unshoe horses, rent goat herd

Fire avoidance: Unshoe horses, rent goat herd Residents get creative in flame-proofing the West. By Todd Wilkinson

California Lawmakers Vote to Lower Auto Emissions

Lawmakers in California on Monday passed the nation's strongest legislation to regulate emissions of the main pollutant that can cause warming of the planet's climate.

How to assess real estate values within a trust

Our personal-finance expert tracks down the answers you need. By Guy Halverson

MIT scientist floats concepts for futuristic Spielburg film

"Take those cars, for example. How real are they? Very, says Underkoffler." ``In `Minority Report' there's been a huge ecological imperative for the world with the ozone and they got their act together and had to end some internal combustion pollution and that forced the rapid development of new technology and magnetic levitations.

``That stuff exists already on trains in Japan and Europe. There is no contact; it floats above the surface so there's no friction and it's all electric so it's not pumping carbon monoxide into the atmosphere. What we did was we went from a train track to anywhere, up and down sides of buildings as well.''

City’s monorail system takes its first passengers

KUALA LUMPUR: The much-awaited Kuala Lumpur monorail system took its first batch of passengers yesterday, paving the way for the “missing link” in the city’s public transport network to be finally in place.

The 15-minute ride by a group of journalists, starting from Bukit Bintang station in the heart of the city’s shopping district to Medan Tuanku and(P Hang Tuah stations, was also historic because the monorail train was the first of its kind to be manufactured locally.

KL Monorail Systems Sdn Bhd, the concessionaire of the RM1.18bil project, said the public would only be able to try the system for free from July 18. For the time being, only selected groups have been invited for free rides.

“Between July 18 and July 30, the public will be able to ride on the monorail for free from six stations; Hang Tuah, Imbi, Bukit Bintang, Raja Chulan, Bukit Nanas and Medan Tuanku,” KL Monorail Systems executive director Al-Jeffery Ibrahim said.

He said the public could obtain free tickets from counters at the six stations during the period, and adding that trains would operate between noon and 6pm and would run every 10 minutes.

Al-Jeffery said all 11 stations would be opened by September, while full operations, with trains running every 5 minutes during peak hours and every 10 minutes at non-peak periods, would only start in October.

He said at present, 80% of the overall project had been completed. Work on the two ends of the guideway as well as other aspects of the project were still going on.

When completed, the monorail will run along an elevated 8.6km track from Jalan Tun Razak near the Tun Razak bus terminal, to Jalan Tun Sambanthan in Brickfields. The alignment follows some of Kuala Lumpur’s busiest roads such as Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Sultan Ismail and Jalan Imbi.

The system was deemed the “missing link” because it would interface with Star-LRT at Titiwangsa and Hang Tuah, and Putra-LRT at Bukit Nanas and KL Sentral.

Construction began in 1997, but was temporarily halted during the financial crisis. Work resume in 2000 after the government provided financial loans.

Al-Jeffery said fares would range between RM1.20 and RM2.50.

By LEONG SHEN-LI