Man Ticketed For Changing Red Lights To Green

[KIISQueen]

LONGMONT, Colo. -- A Longmont man has been ticketed $50 for suspicion of interfering with a traffic signal, but he says he really enjoyed using it.

Jason Niccum told The Longmont Times-Call that he bought a device that let him change traffic lights from red to green, called an Opticon, on eBay for $100.

He told the newspaper the device "paid for itself" in the two years he had it, helping him cut his time driving to work.

Niccum was cited on March 29 after police said they caught him using the strobe-like device to change traffic signals. Police confiscated the Opticon, and informed Niccum it was illegal to possess it.

"I'm always running late," police quoted Niccum as saying in an incident report.

An Opticon shines a strobe light on the optical sensors set atop some traffic signals, causing lights to jam.

City traffic engineer Joe Olson said traffic engineers plan to update the city's system this year to block unauthorized light-changing signals. He estimated that a new system, which would be able to block out all unauthorized light-changing signals, will cost taxpayers about $75,000.

The Opticon devices, which are becoming more commonplace, are marketed through many different avenues. Dealers are instructed to sell only to "authorized users" such as volunteer first responders, doctors and security personnel, but it is easy for anyone to buy the devices online.


http://www.local10.com/automotive/8768516/detail.html

[Houdini]

I'd love to get one. It would be really handy when on call.

Then again, while I was racing down the interstate to work from MS today after an emergent call, some idiot in a Scion kept pacing me, even in traffic, preventing me from changing lanes, etc. I admit I was driving way too fast, but I had been held up for an hour due to a wreck on a bridge. Anyway, the asshat kept swerving toward me, getting in front of me, braking, giving me the finger, etc - really dangerous actions, moreso than merely speeding. So I, well, er...left him. He couldn't keep up, and I didn't care.

About an hour later, when I was walking to my car in the parking garage, there's this guy next to my car on a cell phone. As I approached, he asked, "Are you in a hurry?" I asked, "Why???" He said, "I was the guy in the Scion, and coincidently we were going to the same place. I saw your car and waited for you. He was confrontational, etc. I apoligized, told him I was a doc on an emergency run, and I didn't appreciate his road games when I was clearly in a big hurry, and admittedly speeding.

He wasn't overly hostile, and it ended in a handshake, but if the guy really waited 45+ minutes for me to emerge from the hospital just to confront me, he must have problems. It was a little spooky. I was ready for him to try to knife me or something. That would have been, well, bad.

Anyway, it ended in a handshake, and I watched my rearview all the way home. Major suckage.

[bachviet]

Repost

[DarkFury]

That deserves something special...

[Houdini]

That deserves something special...

Yeah, but my anecdote wasn't.

I'd have felt more comfortable if the guy acted really pissed off. The fact that he waited and was overly calm was the thing that scared me. Things could have been bad. Probably moreso for him.

[Merlin]

I'd have felt more comfortable if the guy acted really pissed off. The fact that he waited and was overly calm was the thing that scared me. Things could have been bad. Probably moreso for him.

Well he was probably going to kick your ass until you got there and he realized that you were bigger than he was.

[Houdini]

Well he was probably going to kick your ass until you got there and he realized that you were bigger than he was.

I was a little taller, but he was bigger. Then again he was older, and I'm probably faster. Also, I had a few tricks up my sleeve if it came to that.