MOUNT VERNON — The new traffic control cameras recently installed at the intersections of Hamtramck and North Main streets, and Pleasant and North Main streets are working correctly, according to Mount Vernon Safety-Service Director Dave Glass.
The cameras were installed to detect traffic patterns of cars wanting to cross or turn onto North Main Street from the respective side streets. The cameras would determine whether there was at least one car waiting on those streets, and would adjust the cycle of the traffic signal appropriately. Many who have used those intersections since the cameras were installed have expressed a belief that the cameras were either out of sync or not adjusting the traffic light cycle accordingly.
“We’ve gotten some complaints about them,” Glass said. “But we’ve checked them out several times and they’re set up right. People don’t get the signal [changed] as fast as they think they should, is what it is. If you pull up there just as soon as the cycle starts in the other direction, you might wait there as long as a minute, or a minute and a quarter. But we’ve checked them out and you know, I had the same complaint. It wasn’t just people complaining to me but I made a complaint, too.”
Glass said he talked to Dave Carpenter, superintendent of the Mount Vernon Streets Department, and they both checked out the cameras.
“He showed me how they operate,” said Glass. “[The cameras] actually monitor up to three different spaces at different distances from the stop bar. Main Street does have the preference and the lights will basically stay green until the cameras detect cars waiting. But the lens will detect one car waiting. It doesn’t take two or three cars to set it off.”
