To All ,Blind and Visually Impaired Readers,  I live in San Diego,
California and our city has these traffic control devises on fire trucks
and other emergency vehicles.  We have some very wide intersections
(some up to ten lanes wide) where these devices operate regardless of
disabled persons who are crossing with audible signals and the blind and
visually impaired are at the mercy of these emergency vehicles.  If this
was an isolated incident only a few pedestrians would be hit by an
emergency vehicle.  In the last two months I have been in such a
position five times on crossing a wide boulevard.  Since I cannot see
beyond a few yards it is impossible to know which way to go.  It is true
I live only 1/4 mile from the local fire station and several blocks
further are two very large hospitals who have emergency rooms for
ambulance response.
If any driver can be his own dictator/emperor behind the wheel of his
moving mini domain we are in a really serious life threatening problem.
At least massive gridlock does not threaten pedestrian lives.
The problem has a simple short term solution.  Just deactivate these
devises until a workable solution can be found.  Fire trucks and other
emergency vehicles have operated more or less safely before these
devices were installed.  It is interesting that when the power to due
harm is removed the problem no longer exists.  And when the profit to
the vender and user is removed a lot of stuff becomes useless junk.
So please read the following article and be informed.
Gordon Wahl
XXXX
#####
Peter Altschul wrote:
>
> Gadget may wreak traffic havoc
> In-car device lets drivers change stoplights; officials fear gridlock, seek
> to block
> signal
> By Jodi Upton / The Detroit News
> Tired of sitting at endless red lights? Frustrated by lights that turn from
> green
> to red too quickly, trapping you in traffic?
> Now anyone can breeze through congested intersections just like the police,
> thanks
> to a $300 dashboard device that changes traffic lights from red to green,
> making
> nasty commutes a thing of the past and leaving other drivers open-mouthed at
> your
> ability to manipulate traffic.
> But what if everyone had one?
> That's the fear of traffic control officials, who believe chaos would take
> over the
> roads. That's also the potential facing communities from Troy to Washington
> Township
> as Internet-marketed knockoffs of the device -- originally intended only for
> police
> and fire vehicles -- have become available to the public.
> The knockoffs have traffic engineers investigating whether lockout measures
> will
> work against the copycats and whether hundreds of thousands of dollars in
> traffic
> technology investments will become obsolete.
> Police are worried about the possibility of intersection chaos if people
> duel over
> control for lights. But even more fundamentally, the dashboard device may be
> impossible
> to detect even from a police car right next to it, and it may be perfectly
> legal
> anyway.
> "The potential for chaos is enormous," Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel
> said.
> The traffic light changer, called the MIRT for mobile infrared transmitter,
> emits
> a beam with a 1,500-foot range to a receiver installed at the intersection,
> which
> changes the light immediately, allowing an intersection to clear before a
> fire or
> rescue truck approaches.
> "That's unreal. I want one," Hackel said while watching a test device change
> the
> lights at the touch of a button.
> The devices are normally installed on the fire truck and respond
> automatically. The
> MIRT requires the press of a button and plugs into the cigarette lighter.
> Unlike other devices, like radar jammers and certain laser detectors that
> emit radio
> signals, the MIRT and other signal changers emit an infrared beam, so it
> doesn't
> run afoul of the Federal Communications Commission, said Chelsea Fallon, a
> spokeswoman
> for the agency.
> Because no laws apply to the MIRT in Michigan and elsewhere, new ones may
> have to
> be written. "I guess I have something to talk to the (state) legislators
> about,"
> Hackel said.
> Copycats sold online
> While government officials search legal texts for possible legal
> infractions, dealers
> are lining up to sell MIRTs.
> Scott Pregler of Shelby Township was one of the first, adding it to his
> other business
> of after-market aerodynamic car body parts "like that stuff in 'The Fast and
> the
> Furious,' you know?" he said, referring to a movie in which a gang of
> drivers in
> super-fast cars repeatedly outwit the police.
> Pregler said he hasn't even tried the device yet, and plans to focus on
> selling it
> to small police and fire agencies that can't afford the more expensive
> version of
> the technology, marketed by 3M, which bigger cities and counties buy.
> "We'll probably try to avoid (selling to the public) if it may cause
> problems in
> the future," said Pregler, whose company is named Vision Aerodynamics.
> The 3M knockoffs, like the MIRT, are available on the Internet, but they
> work only
> at intersections that have receivers. There are about 85 such intersections
> in Troy,
> along Big Beaver and Rochester Road and other main corridors. Farmington and
> Novi
> also have invested in the receivers, which can run $15,000 to $20,000 per
> intersection,
> including wiring and installation.
> But the real vulnerability may lie in whether the receivers can lock out
> devices
> like the MIRT and read only the signal from specific fire trucks. Many
> receivers
> already purchased by Troy, for example, can't be locked out and can't be
> upgraded,
> said Frank Carrier, the primary 3M dealer in southeast Michigan.
> Troy traffic engineer John Abraham said newer receivers are programmable,
> making
> it unclear how vulnerable the city is to MIRTs.
> "We had a scare a few years ago when we realized there was a potential for
> the technology
> to get out, so we upgraded," Abraham said.
> In Macomb, Washington Township along Old Van Dyke has been a test site. But
> the county
> has only six intersections with receivers, and the technology was able to
> lock out
> the MIRT on Friday.
> "But if something comes up that gets around the lock, I'll take them all
> out. It
> would be chaos," said Dan McInerney, traffic operations engineer at the Road
> Commission
> of Macomb County.
> For now, Macomb allows only fire trucks to have the device, fearing that if
> police
> and paramedics also have it, it would cause havoc at larger emergency
> scenes.
> Wayne County has none of the intersection systems, mostly because of a fear
> that
> if there was an accident because of the light change, the county would be
> held legally
> responsible, spokeswoman Vanessa Denha said. But there are some similar
> devices on
> traffic lights outside some firehouses to help trucks get out.
> Because Michigan's communities have not invested in the traffic technology
> as heavily
> as some states, problems with copycat devices like the MIRT are just
> beginning to
> appear.
> Competition, critics grow
> Tim Gow, who markets the device through his company, FAC, which also sells
> high-end
> weapons and accessories to police, said he's not using the Internet to
> appeal to
> the public, but only to level the playing field in a David-versus-Goliath
> market.
> "We will need an army of distributors to go up against 3M," Gow said. He
> said he
> is aiming to sell to small police, fire and emergency agencies who can't
> afford the
> 3M systems but can afford his $499 device, which is higher than his
> direct-to-the-dealer
> price.
> He says he has rejected some dealers -- including a pizza delivery guy who
> wanted
> to use the device. He asks dealers to promise not to sell directly to the
> public
> and to use their device for demonstrations only.
> Gow knows he may not hear about infractions. But if he does, he says he will
> revoke
> a dealership.
> "I have a highly unique product here, and I'm going beyond what I have to do
> to sell
> a legal product," Gow said. "The BATF (federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
> and Firearms)
> and the FBI, these are organizations I answer to every day. We have no
> issues with
> these governing bodies."
> But if communities start locking out the MIRT, Gow may not be able to
> compete at
> all.
> Frank Carrier, the 3M dealer, says that's only fair. If Gow wants to
> compete, he
> should create his own system, including a receiver that can be locked as
> well, Carrier
> said. Providing only a transmitter as his business is parasitic, he said.
> However long the MIRT survives, it's only one of a number of devices that
> frustrated
> and lead-footed drivers have snatched up over the years with an aim of
> having an
> advantage over the police. The difference is, few of them actually work.
> "People are gullible, and they have discretionary income," said P. David
> Fisher,
> professor emeritus of electrical engineering at Michigan State University.
> He said
> the issue of a national campaign to expose the businesses that sell radar
> jammers
> and laser detectors that, by definition, if they are effective are illegal,
> has been
> discussed at public safety conventions.
> "It's a very interesting ethical dilemma. Here are all these gullible
> people. Why
> should we protect them? On the other hand, they are causing a number of
> crashes."
> You can reach Jodi Upton at (313) 222-2310 or
> [log in to unmask]
>
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