Last night coiming home from work I got photographed....I was fully stopped & never entered the intersection ...but I think the flashes were activated because of the speed I was still traveling in the detection zone relative to the timing of the red light....hopefully the people that review the 2 pictures will see that I never went thru the red light??? Car stops on a dime (OEM brakes).

 

Red light cameras are just tax collection devices. It's not about law enforcement. It's about revenue. I hate the trend. But then again it's been going on for years with the speeding ticket racket.

 

You could argue that, I would agree that it is a monumental revenue generator.


You could also argue that it IS for law enforcement. Whether the officer is going to write you a ticket or a machine (that might be more accurate who knows), the outcome is the same. You're going to get a ticket and chances are you will think twice when you see that yellow or red light.

If it's a machine that doesn't miss them, ever, you will probably never try to beat that light if you're at risk for a ticket (no cops no ticket days in the past)... so the LEO can go do better (productive?) things with their time, such as catching bad guys.

Sure it sucks when you get nailed, but laws are laws, they're just choosing to enforce them more strictly. It's not like they're creating an outrageous new law or anything.

 

While that may true. It is also true that many times they shorten the interval from green, yellow, to red. This is to maximize the likelihood that the light will be ran. This isn't done out of safety. It's revenue.

Did you know that the camera's are given to the city. The camera's provider get a cut of all the revenue received.

What happens when someone steals your car and runs every red light in town? The vehicle was ticketed, not you. Do you see a problem with there being no officer? Will you remember every light you went through the day you were ticketed, days or weeks after you receive the ticket. Will you remember petty details of that day? What will your defense be? Will the ticketing officer, IE, the camera be there as a witness to testify that there weren't circumstances to the light being ran? Camera's capture a moment in time, nothing else.

 

Remember this moment because it won't happen again.

I actually agree with you!

It is not that I am afraid to get caught because I don't run red lights. I am afraid of the sensitivity of a machine and camera. It is proven that these red light cameras are not accurate.

I think only humans can make a judgement call like this. That is why you still need a ref in a hockey game, umpire in a baseball game....etc. Only humans can make a judgement call.

 

I try never to push the possibility of getting a ticket, a quick glance in the mirror to see if its safe to stop with my foot already over the brake pedal and I make the decision stop or go through the intersection.
You should have a pretty good idea of the chance that the light is going to change well before you get there. There is a big difference between seeing the chance of having to stop and seeing the chance that you have to speed up to get through.
Just last night I was in the outside lane with a car in front of me which was about level withe back of a city bus. The lights changed to orange and the bus stopped but the car in front of me sped up and went through. The light was red when he was in the middle of the intersection, no real danger but WTF.
Someone like that behind you puts you in danger of a rear ender if they think you are like them.
Stop means Stop.

 

You have Organge lights up there in the Northern Territory?

 

Yeah and polar bear crossing signs too.

 

I'm shocked that I agree with Rush too!

Anyway, he makes an excellent point. They are ticketing the owner of a vehicle without any regard for who actually perpetrated the crime. You can't blindly associate the registered vehicle owner with the driver of a vehicle. Who is to say that the driver wasn't your wife, or one of your kids, or one of your kids friends! Or as Rush points out: a thief.

The fact that these tickets are getting pushed through just underlines the degradation of our legal system and the power of the almighty revenue dollar.

I'm not arguing the legality of running a light. That's wrong and unsafe whether someone catches you (cop or camera) or not. The point of my anger is the system of revenue generation is the FIRST priority, rather than the safety of the citizenry or the enforcement of the laws of the land.

How long will it be before they find another convenient little snippet of the US Code to enforce with a camera? Before long they'll be putting them in front of our houses and ticketing you for not cutting your grass or watering your lawn. Or they'll mandate monitoring devices IN YOUR VEHICLE. And you'll just get a speeding, parking, and cell phone ticket in the mail. Maybe they'll even force you to setup a direct deposit-like payment system so they can just take the money right out of your bank account. It's not that far fetched.

 

This sounds like a public service announcement for over-hormoned teenagers LMAO

 

Maybe they'll force us to buy government run healthcare. Oh.....wait.....they already did that.


It's not IF, but WHEN!

 

Big Brother is here!

 

The ones that they had in Germany when I lived there take a picture of the car, the license plate, and the driver. You get all pictures in the mail.

 

Yeah, there's an intersection near me that must have the camera set up correctly; about 1/3 of the time it flashes on me. I haven't gotten a ticket in the mail though.

Maybe I stopped just barely over the line, who knows. Regardless, they shouldn't have them that sensitive, because they do have people reviewing the pics, and they have to sort through a lot more pictures = more labor required, which lowers their revenue (somewhat ).

The little municipality that has these near me now has all new cop cars, etc., when they didn't have them before. They made over $1 million in the last 2 years on 4 speed/red-light cameras, and the city population is only 12k. The company that sets up the cameras gets over 60% of the proceeds

 

I didn't run the red light, my fear though is that the whole process is automated ....if in fact there were 2 pictures taken....& if in fact humans review the pics...then I assume I won't get ticketed. But if they are set up to take the pic because the approach speed in the sensor zone triggers the picture....& there's no picture proving that I did stop....??? I'm toast??

Fred would never run a red light.....or speed....well....forget that part...

 

Here in the UK we also have cameras that capture speed, car, registration and a picture of the driver!

The cameras cost around £50,000 each, which easily pays for itself within a few months. The police claimed that they were being positioned at accident blackspots to reduce casualties.......the positive side of which was that they had to legalise speed camera detectors as they were, in fact, accident blackspot detectors! Good for reducing casualties right??

The most profitable £50k camera in the country is down near me at the end of the M11 motorway. It makes over a million pounds a year profit so it's obviously doing a good job then? Except casualties at that particular blackspot have doubled since they installed the camera!

Bet they don't take it away though!

Regards, Andy.

 

i haven't received a citation from one of these cameras yet though i think i am setting them off routinely judging by the flash. i simply put a decal on my rear window that reads "FUNERAL".

 

As far as I'm concerned...... If they start that here in Michigan, and send me a picture of a infraction......I'll send them a picture of a check in their name.

 

Yeah, that's the old joke ... then they sent you a picture of handcuffs