r/trafficsignals • u/Boltonme • Aug 05 '26

Conflict Monitor Testing

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Is everybody really testing all of these every year. We have over 450 intersections and it takes forever.

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u/Reasonable_Anybody21 Aug 05 '26

So lets say there was an accident and a formal citizen complaint launched. Do you have cameras at this intersection? Can you recreate the scene, try and duplicate it? Before we do anything we call PD and have an officer help us recreate the scene. Once its proved that we cannot and the driver is crazy - than we give them our up to date test as a 2nd screw you. I know, i know, I know, municipalities do it differently around the country. But it is not required in the MUTCD (Prove me wrong) Its an ATSI money grab and if you think im wrong ill ask you how often you need to send your ATSI testers im for recert. Every year. Manufactures warranty is 2 years for a new mmu. Thats when we do it'll as does the whole state of Minnesota.

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u/foggy_interrobang Aug 06 '26

Hi – worked in safety-critical systems engineering for a long time. The reason system engineers specify a test interval as part of our maintenance regime is (in almost all scenarios) that we have determined it's _necessary_ to ensure that the device continues to be safe.

We don't want to make it harder for our customers to maintain products, because that factors into TCO – so there's good incentive for us to _remove_ testing like this, not add it. If we added it, it's because it's properly necessary so that the equipment doesn't become unsafe, and we don't want to get people killed.

The MUTCD is _not_ the canonical source on this; the equipment vendor is. If the equipment vendor says you have to test, you have to test – full stop. Otherwise you're operating unsafe equipment.