Do You Think Speed Cameras Suck?

g under p

Well I certainly do. In my neighborhood a mobile one was set up on the uphill side of a two lane street. The speed limit is 30 and it takes pictures on BOTH sides of the street. Two white strips were placed in the street on both sides, I gather to gauge the speed of the cars going by. Before it was setup we were given a flyer that they were doing place this mobile unit temporary. It's STILL there 4 months later.

They must be doing well cause my mother who drives 2 miles an hour has been caught twice @ $40 a pop for 5 miles over the limit both times. In the past I've been caught 2 times elsewhere and on one camera for NOT coming to a complete stop at a light which I did. I just had no way of disproving this camera at that stoplight $80 was that ticket. They get you tp pay quickly by saying this won't affect your insurance rate, it's a fricking racket.

I do think these cameras help slow speeders down for our safety but at the same time one has really no defense against these devices. I just think our city also uses them to unfairly bring in money.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_enforcement_camera

I had to tell my Mom try another route to her home.

Peace

blackredyellow

I don't mind the red light cameras, running red lights is dangerous, and one of my pet peeves driving.

But if you are using these speed cameras to get people for 5 mph over, then clearly it's a money maker. People drive too fast through residential areas, and if it gets the people who fly through there, then great, but I'd hate to get caught going 40 in a 35 or something like that. A lot of places around me are 25 mph, have you tried driving 25 mph for a bit of a distance? I'd be changing break pads twice a year.

gimmesometruth27

g under p wrote:

Well I certainly do. In my neighborhood a mobile one was set up on the uphill side of a two lane street. The speed limit is 30 and it takes pictures on BOTH sides of the street. Two white strips were placed in the street on both sides, I gather to gauge the speed of the cars going by. Before it was setup we were given a flyer that they were doing place this mobile unit temporary. It's STILL there 4 months later.

They must be doing well cause my mother who drives 2 miles an hour has been caught twice @ $40 a pop for 5 miles over the limit both times. In the past I've been caught 2 times elsewhere and on one camera for NOT coming to a complete stop at a light which I did. I just had no way of disproving this camera at that stoplight $80 was that ticket. They get you tp pay quickly by saying this won't affect your insurance rate, it's a fricking racket.

I do think these cameras help slow speeders down for our safety but at the same time one has really no defense against these devices. I just think our city also uses them to unfairly bring in money.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_enforcement_camera

I had to tell my Mom try another route to her home.

Peace

i think these should be illegal. same with the redlight cameras. the cop should have to physically witness you breaking the traffic law, pull you over and write you a ticket. isn't that what they are getting paid for?? i guess this is their way to keep from hiring more ploice and so the ones that are already employed can sit and eat more donuts while the city not only saves money they would be paying cops, but raises money because you can not dispute the camera evidence.

g under p

blackredyellow wrote:

I don't mind the red light cameras, running red lights is dangerous, and one of my pet peeves driving.

But if you are using these speed cameras to get people for 5 mph over, then clearly it's a money maker. People drive too fast through residential areas, and if it gets the people who fly through there, then great, but I'd hate to get caught going 40 in a 35 or something like that. A lot of places around me are 25 mph, have you tried driving 25 mph for a bit of a distance? I'd be changing break pads twice a year.

That's funny cause after my Mom told me and showed me her tickets. I saw the camera but I didn't think it was a speed camera mainly because it was a mobile unit and it seemed not enough white stripes was in the roadway. So today I went through driving 25 mph and I was crawling on the downhill side of that road. It's very difficult to unknowningly drive through there holding that speed.

It sucks getting these tickets in mail, oh and there's absolutely NO WARNING there's a speed camera about on that stretch of road.

Peace

_

I think it's a total bullshit, money-making, racket as well. I think we have a right to face our accuser, to explain to the cop that we're speeding to get our dying pet to the vet, to point out that we were already in the intersection when the light turned red, or whatever. It disables drivers from being able to make judgement calls about what's really the safest things to do in a given situation. And I think our justice system is in trouble when the human factor is removed.

Around here they've gotten away with it by making it a civil charge instead of a criminal one. You get a ticket in the mail for $75 and they say you can view your incident online. But frequently tickets don't arrive in a timely manner, they are sent to the wrong address, the online viewing system is down, etc. And if you don't pay it immediately, fines can increase to up to $400. They don't really give you the time to protest, only the threat that if you don't pay it immediately, the fine will increase. It's just a scare tactic to make money.

I did some research for school on the efficacy of red light cameras from a public health perspective and found that they decrease t-bone accidents but increase rear-end accidents. There's certainly debate in the public health community about whether or not these cameras actually improve the public's safety.

whatsgoingon

I heard the following somewhere so it may or may not be true..maybe a lawyer can tell us.

If you challenge the ticket in court you have the right to face your accuser and since your accuser is a machine it can't take the stand therefor you win. Now some police stations will have an actual human look at the photo and come into court but if he tries to speak you can object on the grounds of "hearsay" and he has to be shit down and shut up.

I also heard a rumor in philly (this might also be false) what they do is make so the yellow-light is a second shorter then it actually should be so you don't have time to fully stop if you are traveling a little over the speed limit and then it forces you to either slam on your brakes ( which is likely to cause you to get rear ended) or try and make it through the light which will check you on the other side. Now to avoid major accidents they have a delay between the one light turning red and the other turning green.

_

whatsgoingon wrote:

I heard the following somewhere so it may or may not be true..maybe a lawyer can tell us.

If you challenge the ticket in court you have the right to face your accuser and since your accuser is a machine it can't take the stand therefor you win. Now some police stations will have an actual human look at the photo and come into court but if he tries to speak you can object on the grounds of "hearsay" and he has to be shit down and shut up.

I'm not really sure about this either, but I believe that they got around that here by making it a civil penalty instead of a criminal one. Also, I believe you're threatened with hundreds of dollars in court fees (plus having to take time off work) if you go to court, so you'd basically have to be an independently wealthy martyr to try to fight the system.

CJMST3K

I got caught in DC once. It was mailed to my home. Couldn't deny it was my car... I had a headboard set strapped to the top.

Now I have my business name in giant letters on the side of my suv. I could drive without plates now!

Dirtie_Frank

The one good thing is that there is not points against your insurance so you do not have to pay surcharges. It sucks but I guess we broke the law.

Pepe Silvia

thankfully i've never gotten a ticket from one of these contraptions but 5mph over seems a bit excessive. the last 2 tickets i got were complete bullshit and at least a decade ago. the first one was 4 miles over the limit, yes 4, the cop was a total dick! the 2nd ticket i don't even think was for me, i was pulled over on the highway in my parents beat up minivan which was like 20 years old, he said i was supposedly going over 90! i went to court to fight it since the mini van had troubles just getting up to 65, the judge dropped it from reckless to a regular speeding fine but i still think it wasn't me. the funny thing is when the judge asked the cop if i had any prior infractions all he had to say was 4mph over the limit and the way he said it was in total disbelief that someone wrote a ticket for such a small amount, the judge even asked him 'did you say 4 over the limit??'

Commy

Dirtie_Frank wrote:

The one good thing is that there is not points against your insurance so you do not have to pay surcharges. It sucks but I guess we broke the law.

if its a fucking red light, and there are no cars in any direction, why the fuck should'n ti be able to go through?



my time is my time, i'm not waiting on an innefectual gov't systems to tell me what to do.

Dirtie_Frank

Commy wrote:

Dirtie_Frank wrote:

The one good thing is that there is not points against your insurance so you do not have to pay surcharges. It sucks but I guess we broke the law.

if its a fucking red light, and there are no cars in any direction, why the fuck should'n ti be able to go through?



my time is my time, i'm not waiting on an innefectual gov't systems to tell me what to do.

:roll: :roll: :(

Smellyman

Commy wrote:

Dirtie_Frank wrote:

The one good thing is that there is not points against your insurance so you do not have to pay surcharges. It sucks but I guess we broke the law.

if its a fucking red light, and there are no cars in any direction, why the fuck should'n ti be able to go through?



my time is my time, i'm not waiting on an innefectual gov't systems to tell me what to do.

I ain't stopping for a damn socialist light either.

Commy

Dirtie_Frank wrote:

Commy wrote:

Dirtie_Frank wrote:

The one good thing is that there is not points against your insurance so you do not have to pay surcharges. It sucks but I guess we broke the law.

if its a fucking red light, and there are no cars in any direction, why the fuck should'n ti be able to go through?



my time is my time, i'm not waiting on an innefectual gov't systems to tell me what to do.

:roll: :roll: :(

???



do you think i should wait at an emtpy intersection for 5 minutes when no cars are coming in any direction?


life is too short to obey. do your own thing, nobody gets hurt, nothing changes, i'm just on my way. this country is about freedom yeah? i should have the freedom to ignore an innefectual system.

Pepe Silvia

Commy wrote:

Dirtie_Frank wrote:

Commy wrote:

if its a fucking red light, and there are no cars in any direction, why the fuck should'n ti be able to go through?



my time is my time, i'm not waiting on an innefectual gov't systems to tell me what to do.

:roll: :roll: :(

???



do you think i should wait at an emtpy intersection for 5 minutes when no cars are coming in any direction?


life is too short to obey. do your own thing, nobody gets hurt, nothing changes, i'm just on my way. this country is about freedom yeah? i should have the freedom to ignore an innefectual system.

when i worked 2nd shift sometimes i'd come home pretty late and sitting a red light waiting for minutes with no one around....what's the point? some of those lights take several minutes to change to a turn signal. if there's cars coming but you think you have time is one thing (which i know you weren't saying), no one around at all is another and seems silly to get a ticket and points for

justam

g under p wrote:

Well I certainly do. In my neighborhood a mobile one was set up on the uphill side of a two lane street. The speed limit is 30 and it takes pictures on BOTH sides of the street. Two white strips were placed in the street on both sides, I gather to gauge the speed of the cars going by. Before it was setup we were given a flyer that they were doing place this mobile unit temporary. It's STILL there 4 months later.

They must be doing well cause my mother who drives 2 miles an hour has been caught twice @ $40 a pop for 5 miles over the limit both times. In the past I've been caught 2 times elsewhere and on one camera for NOT coming to a complete stop at a light which I did. I just had no way of disproving this camera at that stoplight $80 was that ticket. They get you tp pay quickly by saying this won't affect your insurance rate, it's a fricking racket.

I do think these cameras help slow speeders down for our safety but at the same time one has really no defense against these devices. I just think our city also uses them to unfairly bring in money.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_enforcement_camera

I had to tell my Mom try another route to her home.

Peace

What city do they have these in? We don't have 'em here.

I don't like the idea of this though in the long run because if there were cameras on every corner, it would be so invasive!! :evil:

g under p

justam wrote:

g under p wrote:

Well I certainly do. In my neighborhood a mobile one was set up on the uphill side of a two lane street. The speed limit is 30 and it takes pictures on BOTH sides of the street. Two white strips were placed in the street on both sides, I gather to gauge the speed of the cars going by. Before it was setup we were given a flyer that they were doing place this mobile unit temporary. It's STILL there 4 months later.

They must be doing well cause my mother who drives 2 miles an hour has been caught twice @ $40 a pop for 5 miles over the limit both times. In the past I've been caught 2 times elsewhere and on one camera for NOT coming to a complete stop at a light which I did. I just had no way of disproving this camera at that stoplight $80 was that ticket. They get you tp pay quickly by saying this won't affect your insurance rate, it's a fricking racket.

I do think these cameras help slow speeders down for our safety but at the same time one has really no defense against these devices. I just think our city also uses them to unfairly bring in money.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_enforcement_camera

I had to tell my Mom try another route to her home.

Peace

What city do they have these in? We don't have 'em here.

I don't like the idea of this though in the long run because if there were cameras on every corner, it would be so invasive!! :evil:

This is in the DC/MD area and they're ALL over our cities. When I'm living in Palm Beach Florida they are nowhere to be found, however I get the feeling these cameras will be catching on around the country.

Peace

justam

I noticed they had them in London on the corners and it seemed intrusive to me.

I hope they don't spread everywhere.

_

justam wrote:

I noticed they had them in London on the corners and it seemed intrusive to me.

I hope they don't spread everywhere.

They're not video cameras or anything. They basically only snap a picture of your license plate if you speed or run a red light. I still think they're total bullshit though.

justam

scb wrote:

justam wrote:

I noticed they had them in London on the corners and it seemed intrusive to me.

I hope they don't spread everywhere.

They're not video cameras or anything. They basically only snap a picture of your license plate if you speed or run a red light. I still think they're total bullshit though.

Oh. I was thinking they were cameras.

I still think people need the freedom to move around without feeling like someone is watching them constantly! Who wants to be caught on film when they drag the garbage out in their slippers and robe one morning? :x

TriumphantAngel

scb wrote:

I did some research for school on the efficacy of red light cameras from a public health perspective and found that they decrease t-bone accidents but increase rear-end accidents. There's certainly debate in the public health community about whether or not these cameras actually improve the public's safety.

they don't in Australia. i know, i lived there and worked there as a paramedic. speed cameras actually caused the road toll to increase because they were not being used for their intended purpose. they were initially designed only to be situated at certain stretches of the road where there were lots of accidents, in order to slow traffic, not to be hidden away just to raise revenue. so what you have now is people are driving on the roads, changing their focus from safety, and instead worrying about avoiding the cameras.

revenue raising at it's finest. disgraceful. they don't give a shit about reducing the road toll. it's all about the dollar to them.

_

TriumphantAngel wrote:

scb wrote:

I did some research for school on the efficacy of red light cameras from a public health perspective and found that they decrease t-bone accidents but increase rear-end accidents. There's certainly debate in the public health community about whether or not these cameras actually improve the public's safety.

they don't in Australia. i know, i lived there and worked there as a paramedic. speed cameras actually caused the road toll to increase because they were not being used for their intended purpose. they were initially designed only to be situated at certain stretches of the road where there were lots of accidents, in order to slow traffic, not to be hidden away just to raise revenue. so what you have now is people are driving on the roads, changing their focus from safety, and instead worrying about avoiding the cameras.

revenue raising at it's finest. disgraceful. they don't give a shit about reducing the road toll. it's all about the dollar to them.

Exactly. And the part I bolded above is a particularly excellent point. One thing they made them do around here, for better or worse, is have some kind of warning - either a sign or a few bumps in the road - that warn people they're about to go through an intersection with a camera. Although I don't think it's fair to have the cameras hidden, I know everyone slams on their breaks when they feel the bumps in the road, before they even have a chance to check their speed. Half the time they probably weren't even speeding to begin with.

JR8805

We've had them in our city for several years now. Our city does not make the money. 1/2 the proceeds go to the state and the other half to the AZ company that runs them. They are money makers, but not for any purpose that really helps the city in which the tickets originate. I think they are stupid...they help regulate the intersections at which they're set up, but I swear I see worse driving everywhere else as people feel joy in "beating the traffic cam." Another thing I don't like about them is that I don't think they treat all vehicles equally. I was once about to go through an intersection, but decided to stop. Two other vehicles didn't make that decision. One was a large truck, the other a midsize car. The truck got the camera flash, the car, going through even later, did not. Our current mayor is looking into whether the cams make a safety difference for the city. I think if they really don't (and I think intersection just before and after them should be studied carefully for stats on collisions), the mayor will yank the plug on them.

g under p

TriumphantAngel wrote:

scb wrote:

I did some research for school on the efficacy of red light cameras from a public health perspective and found that they decrease t-bone accidents but increase rear-end accidents. There's certainly debate in the public health community about whether or not these cameras actually improve the public's safety.

they don't in Australia. i know, i lived there and worked there as a paramedic. speed cameras actually caused the road toll to increase because they were not being used for their intended purpose. they were initially designed only to be situated at certain stretches of the road where there were lots of accidents, in order to slow traffic, not to be hidden away just to raise revenue. so what you have now is people are driving on the roads, changing their focus from safety, and instead worrying about avoiding the cameras.

revenue raising at it's finest. disgraceful. they don't give a shit about reducing the road toll. it's all about the dollar to them.

I just came across this article on red light cameras, they can cause more accidents.

Toss Your Redlight Camera Ticket

The Times, of course, recommends this drastic course of action for a good reason. Accidents skyrocketed in Washington, DC and Virginia wherever the cameras have been used. In 2005, The Washington Post proved that accidents doubled at monitored intersections in the District. In 2007, VDOT proved injuries and overall accidents likewise increased in the Commonwealth as a whole, and Alexandria in particular.

Peace

SundaySilence

http://www.phantomplate.com/

(This is not an endorsement, I've never tried this)

gimmesometruth27

if the police are behind this they should change their motto from "to serve ane protect" to "to do nothing to justify me keeping my job, yet raise money for the city i work for"...