Red Light Camera -- good idea?

[capt. apathy]

we've had them here for a while.  at first I kinda liked the idea, we had a real problem with people running them, it was the norm to have to wait after your light to go green for the 2 cars that where running the tail end of the yellow.  one positive thing is this has improved since the redlight-cams.

but lately I'm begining to doubt them.  a major intersection by my kids school has them.  you can tell when it catches somebody because the flash goes off.  several times I've noticed the flash going off for every car on a green cycle. so basicly it's malfunctioning. it somehow has become 'confused' and is taking picks of all the cars rolling through the green (twice it's taken my pic,  many times I've seen it taken the cross trafics pic while I'm at red and they have green.

 I've never recieved a ticket for either of the times it's taken my pic.  so I'm assuming that they looked at the pics found 10-20 cars all getting popped one right after another, realised the machine screwed up and didn't send the tickets.  so far so good.

so my question is what if the machine screws up late at night and you are the only car going through the light on that cycle.  there's no 'parade of cars' to prove you inocent and I doubt that the sub-contractor who runs these for the city is going to make public that their machine screws up. they make their dime on the assumption that they are proof positive of a crime.

same thing with the automated radar trap.

how do you deffend yourself against this.  at least when a cop pulls you over you are imediatly aware of the situation. making it much easier to deffend the situation if you aren't guilty.

but how do you gather any evidence to deffend yourself when you recieve a ticket in the mail that says '3 weeks ago you where doing this, at this time, at this location'  hell it's nothing for e to put 1k or more on my car in a week.  thats alot of miles and time to go by before you are notifed that someone has a problem with the way you drive.

another issue is professional drivers or company cars.  when they pull up your lic #, they send the owner a ticket.  if it's not the owners face at the wheel he files a protest and they look up the pic on his license. if it doesn't match, case dismissed.  so only private citsens are ticketed by this means, corperations and pro drivers (included the city owned cars) are exempt. not exactly fair.

btw- I am sure about the pro-drivers  my wife is a driver.  she got a speeding ticket in the company car, by the camerra.  the ticket was dismissed and all that happened was she got scolded by her boss.

[narsus]

those reflective plates don't work to well at all BTW, had a friends who had them.

He ran a toll still got ticketed, with a picture of his plate. (numbers showed up quite nicely)

[AKS\/\/ulfe]

Not reflective plates.. the covers, there's different types out there... and they do work, and very well.. you need the right style tho.
-SW

[Mickey1992]

What's that one quote about the world producing better idiots?

Oh, BTW:
"California Vehicle Code 5201(e) states that no covers shall be used on license plates."

[ygsmilo]

I would like to see them with a Maverick option,,

Run a red light,,,

Get lit up by a Maverick.

I have been in 2 wrecks in my life and both of them involved a frickin moron running a red light.

[AKS\/\/ulfe]

Yeah, but that's California Mickey... plenty of people in and around the DC area drive with plate covers...

Certain types are illegal (if they prevent a police officer from making out the numbers on the plate and the state)...

but then again, driving with one headlight out is illegal... how many of those do you see every night?
-SW

[Eagler]

Originally posted by ygsmilo
I would like to see them with a Maverick option,,

Run a red light,,,

Get lit up by a Maverick.

I have been in 2 wrecks in my life and both of them involved a frickin moron running a red light.

yep

you guys came within 2 sec of losing me because of a light runner last week - put away the hankies

sitting at red, get turn arrow for left turn crossing 4 lane blvd.

hear something to the right, hestitate, look right - see nothing, look straight ahead about to press gas when zooom -- black Camero going bout 100mph blasts through the light from my left.

If I'd jumped ahead as soon as the light turned green, I'd been T-Boned big time. My little honda civic would have become part of me.

yea, I'm for cameras

beside the fact if we had enough cameras posted about, the DC sniper may have been caught sooner or been to leary to even start...

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by ygsmilo
I would like to see them with a Maverick option,,

Run a red light,,,

Get lit up by a Maverick.

I have been in 2 wrecks in my life and both of them involved a frickin moron running a red light.

First part, LOL! Great idea!

Second part, sorry to hear about that Hope your both okay.

[Ripsnort]

Eagler, thats what they teach in defensive driving courses (amongst other techniques) ALWAYS look both ways before proceeding thru an intersection even if you have green light.

[Vulcan]

Wow, I'm suprised they aren't more common, here in NZ we've got:
 - Red light camera's
 - pole mounted speed cameras (sometimes theres no camera, the shift the camera round randomly) that use sensors under the road, so the don't show up for radar detectors
 - mobile speed cameras, these show up on the better radar detectors, cheap units let you know your picture was just taken
 - heavy use of Laser, K, and digital Ka band radars

The cops also HAVE to ticket you if you exceed the limit by 10km/h (ie 110 in a 100 area). Rumour is they're gonna drop this margin to 5km/h. The traffic cops also have a quota, 3 'contacts' per hour, otherwise they get taken off traffic duty.

It all started of as 'safety enforcement' and has well and truely ended up as revenue gathering I'm sad to say. Hence I invested in a damn good radar detector and laser jammer.

[Mickey1992]

Originally posted by AKS\/\/ulfe
Yeah, but that's California Mickey... plenty of people in and around the DC area drive with plate covers...

You mentioned California, I thought you were from there.

but then again, driving with one headlight out is illegal... how many of those do you see every night?

Driving with a burned out or broken headlight is not usually considered an attempt to conceal your vehicle registration while committing a traffic violation.

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by Vulcan
Wow, I'm suprised they aren't more common, here in NZ we've got:
 - Red light camera's
 - pole mounted speed cameras (sometimes theres no camera, the shift the camera round randomly) that use sensors under the road, so the don't show up for radar detectors
 - mobile speed cameras, these show up on the better radar detectors, cheap units let you know your picture was just taken
 - heavy use of Laser, K, and digital Ka band radars

The cops also HAVE to ticket you if you exceed the limit by 10km/h (ie 110 in a 100 area). Rumour is they're gonna drop this margin to 5km/h. The traffic cops also have a quota, 3 'contacts' per hour, otherwise they get taken off traffic duty.

It all started of as 'safety enforcement' and has well and truely ended up as revenue gathering I'm sad to say. Hence I invested in a damn good radar detector and laser jammer.

Heh! ASHCROFT! HE MUST BE an NZ'er!

[AKS\/\/ulfe]

I didn't mention California, someone else prolly did...

Driving with a burned out or broken headlight is not usually considered an attempt to conceal your vehicle registration while committing a traffic violation.

Yes, but it's nevertheless a violation... but I was using that as a means to point out just because it's illegal, that won't stop people from doing it.

OTOH, you are allowed to have plate covers, even tinted ones, in the DC Metro area... but after a certain point of tint they are illegal. Kind of like tinted windows... certain amounts of tint are allowed, but too much and it's illegal.

I'm not for or against intersection cameras. They ticket people who blow through intersections.. either at the moment the light changes or after the light has already changed.

There's a grey area where you can get off from getting the ticket, depending on how good you are at providing convincing evidence.

Of course, in the end... it's still just a ticket. It doesn't prevent people from going through an intersection, especially if the light is just yellow.. they'll speed up and go through... light could turn red right as they hit the camera activation point... they get a ticket.. but keep traveling through at the expense of other, both pedestrian's and vehicle driver's safety, people's safety and their own...

A cop at an intersection, OTOH, would deter most people doing that, so arguing the cameras as a deterrant is like someone getting food poisoning... that won't deter them from eating.
-SW

[loser]

Im all for em. But let's do like Lepaul says.

Big "red light/photo dar" sign before the device.  That way it wont seem like such a cash grab.

But of course if these tickets open more youth centres, shelters, and soup kitchens, make the sign really really small.


Yeah AKSWULFE, those plate covers are illegal here too, but i think most of the good ones can be seen fine from level on, but not from any steep vertical or horizontal angle.


Btw Mickey that sounds super cool.

[Rude]

It's all about the revenue