Telegraph Road Traffic Devices Not Speed Cameras

A week before the holidays began, a few readers contacted me asking, “What’s the deal with the new speed cameras off Telegraph Road?”

So in true Patch form, I set out to find these “speed cameras.” What I found wasn’t exciting, but it was interesting.

Along Telegraph Road, all the way to Odenton, small cameras survey traffic atop the traffic signals. The strange part is that based on the lights’s direction, the cameras face the wrong way, surveying vehicles after they pass through the light.

Turns out, the “cameras” aren’t really cameras at all.

The devices are actually called “video detection systems,” according to State Highway Administration spokesman Charlie Gischlar.

Unlike red light cameras that record images, the devices don’t store information, they’re simply an advanced way to make sure traffic lights change when needed, Gischlar said.

“When it sees an object on the roadway, to a certain point, it talks to the computer and tells it to turn from red to green,” he said.

The previous traffic-control system relied on metal plates underneath the surface of the road. But the new, technologically advanced system is more efficient and easier to correct if an error occurs, the SHA spokesman said.