The Politics of Freeway Cameras

April 27, 2005 by Eric Richardson

It's interesting to note the reaction to the recent freeway shootings that have taken place around LA. The Long Beach Press Telegram has an article today calling for Caltrans to record the freeway cameras so that law enforcement can use them as evidence to help in solving freeway crimes.

A veteran California Highway Patrol supervisor with an extensive background in freeway shooting investigations said the CHP and other agencies have repeatedly asked Caltrans to hook up the cameras to recording devices.

"They basically say they don't care about being in the crime- fighting business and claim poverty ... even though ... every 7-Eleven has a system. They are prevalent in Europe and at intersections throughout the United States. They are universally successful,' said the officer, while noting Caltrans' multimillion-dollar spending on its new 14-story office building in downtown Los Angeles.

A couple weeks ago my class went to visit the ATSAC center under City Hall East. That's where all of the LADOT traffic cameras pipe to. This was before the freeway shootings, but this was a topic that came up. Like Caltrans, LADOT doesn't really want to get involved in law enforcement. They don't want people seeing their cameras and viewing them as evidence that needs to be "taken care of." I would imagine that while officially Caltrans may say things about funding and such, they really just don't want to get the big brother stigma attached to their cameras.

Connectivity is Against Me

April 27, 2005 by Eric Richardson

USC's wireless would pick today to be acting up on me. It seems to me that it's just one access point, really. When I'm connected to 00:01:F4:ED:1B:6C I get 70% packet loss and 4000ms ping times. When it's 00:01:F4:EE:84:D4 I get no loss and 40ms pings. Yikes.

So right now I'm up on my bluetooth -> EDGE connection. It's not too fast, but at least it lets me browse the news and such while sitting here in class.

I finished a 20-page paper today (well, mine's 17 pages, but it feels done) only to find that I actually could wait to turn it in Friday. Oops. I guess I should read my emails more carefully.

One With the Bike

April 25, 2005 by Eric Richardson

I've mentioned in the last few posts that over the past few days I bought pedals (the SL-CR's) and shoes for my bike. Last night I very unsuccessfully tried getting my old pedals off to put the new ones on. Having failed at that, this morning I tried calling the LA County Bike Coalition (whose offices happen to be across the street, so it's not as random) to see if by chance they might have a pedal wrench lying around the office. They didn't, but they pointed me to a bike shop on 8th & Main, just three blocks from my apartment. A couple minutes and $3 later, I had new pedals on.

Tonight I finally got a chance to try them out. I'll admit it: I was a little scared. Even though I knew it was the way to go, I still wasn't sure about this whole thing of having both feet attached to the pedals. I practiced first in my apartment, holding myself up against the wall and then rolling from hallway to bedroom doorframe and working on unclipping a foot. Then, very cautiously, I headed outside. — Continue Reading...

Getting Around Town

April 25, 2005 by Eric Richardson

Yesterday one of my PPD professors hosted our class for dinner at his house in Manhattan Beach. Being me, I made my way there via bike and train, taking a stop off at REI on the way to pick up a pair of shoes and a multitool. I managed to just miss trains on both trips, so my trip time wasn't too impressive.

The oddest thing, though, was the Blue Line train I got on at Washington and Grand, heading south. Either that train had serious equipment issues and shouldn't have been running, or the operator is the worst I've ridden with. Twice before we even left Washington we had two complete stops of the variety where you can watch every passenger jerked forward and then back in unison. Then, after making the turn, at several station stops we would come into the station fast, start to brake hard, then you would hear a thunking sound (that seemed to me like the wheels locking up and skidding) and finally we'd stop and the doors would open to the smell of brakes.

I remember back to when I was younger and had a miniature railroad. The last power controller I had came with a feature of making stops and starts more gradual, to make it more realistic. With this on you couldn't just instantly stop a train, instead it would have to take a little distance to stop. It seems that's not a feature of modern light rail trains.

Bike Show 2005

April 24, 2005 by Eric Richardson

I went to the Bike Show yesterday, worried that the hour and a half or so I had until it closed might not be enough time. Well... It was, and then some. Whereas the website claims hundreds of exhibitors, their exhibitor list adds up to only 90 or so. And if there were 90 exhibitors there yesterday, some of them weren't very visible. The marketplace was heavy in some items while pretty empty in others. For instance, it had shoes, but only two models from the same company. I similarly only saw one type of pedals for sale.

I ended up buying pedals from one of the exhibitors, but didn't really get any special deal on them. Now I have to find shoes I like. I'm about to make a stop at REI this afternoon, and if they don't have them there (they have some I like on the web, but I'm not sure what they stock in-store) I'll have to stop by a shop in Pasadena over the next few days.