Re: Challenge every Red Light Camera Ticket!

You are not to even enter the intersection if you know you would need to stop in the middle of it. For example, if you need to make a left turn you must wait for oncoming traffic to clear before going. You are supposed to do that waiting OUTSIDE the intersection. Just because nobody obeys this, and it is rarely enforced, doesn't mean it isn't the rule.

Reply to
SgtSilicon
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Around here, Santa Clarita CA, these lights have put a stop to turning left long after the light has changed red. Before the cameras, as many a eight or nine cars would continue to turn left long after the red thus clogging up the intersections and causing accidents. Now, everyone (or nearly so) complies. I vote to keep the cameras.

Reply to
Reece Talley

Something else you might want to think about. Not all of the cameras are there for ticketing purposes. Some cities have them setup for real time monitoring. Interesections with unusually high traffic accidents will be monitored real time so that there is no delay in dispatching emergency personnel to the scene.

Don Manning

Reply to
2.3Sleeper

I've yet to see an "unmarked" car that I couldn't tell was a police car

Dave

Mir welle bleiwe wat mir sin (Letzebuergesch)

Reply to
munir fi Taiara Amudia

Drive in NY or parts of Ontario. There's cops in oddball cars with chrome wire wheel covers, tinted windows, stickers etc. I know that in K/W Ontario there was a plain white police van that looked EXACTLY like a plumbers van replete with ladder & tubing on the roof rack that used to nail people all the time. Bet you'd never expect a plumbers van to throw on a set of dash mounted cherries would you. I handled a claim a while back where an insured hit&run an "undercover" Yukon, crushed the running boards & smashed a chrome low profile rim....

The only consistency with police vehicles is that they tend to be freshly washed as they start their shifts (b/c of the walk around).

Smart police officers quickly take them down gravel roads though...

Reply to
Full_Name

haven't been to NY since 1976 :(

Go to NW ON quite often, up there you rarely see a cop as it is, and I've not ever seen an OPP unmarked.

Then again, they so rarely enforce the speed laws on Hwy 17, fi they did the pulp trucks would quit running, the paper mill would shut down and then the hue and cry agin the OPP would commence, LOL

Seriously, if you run on Hwy 17 and a log truck comes up on you, you'd better hit the shoulder, or else they will. Being passed on the shoulder by a 65' semi loaded with logs running 90+ MPH is a thrill not to be missed!!!

Dave

Mir welle bleiwe wat mir sin (Letzebuergesch)

Reply to
munir fi Taiara Amudia

Bandaid fix that raises revenue for the county. The real problem is probably that the intersection is poorly designed and needs to be re-configured. The red light cameras will not prevent accidents that will happen because of the poor design. The real solution would be to have an engineer study the intersecion and re-design the intersection. Then implement the new design. That way you minimize the number of red light runners and make the intersection safer. Of course this won't raise revenue for the politicians to spend, so it is not a popular solution.

-------------- Alex

Reply to
Alex Rodriguez

They could spend a bit of money on getting an engineer to study the intersection to see why it is so dangerous. Once they identify the cause, they can come up with a solution. Having a camera there to send help when necessary is better than nothing, but not by much.

----------- Alex

Reply to
Alex Rodriguez

More and more, especially in urban areas, signals and boulevard stops are becoming merely suggestions that motorist follow/heed.

Reply to
JailhouseKey

Good thing most states wont allow these as you have to be handed a citation in hand in person at the time of the infraction by the officer who witnessed the infraction.

Once in a blue moon, you read in the paper about the occasional challenge to a citation that a cop mailed to the registered owner of the vehicle. In my state, every single one of those gets tossed as they are "constitutionally invalid". The problem is, most people just pay up and don't fight.

Reply to
Mark

Would you pull over for one? I know I wouldn't. Too many loonies out there pretending to be cops.

The state police in my state uses lots of different unmarked vehicles (Taurus, Crown Vic, even a few Chrysler products) and they will call for a marked vehicle to make the stop.

I think I'd just get on my cell phone to verify that the guy behind me was real before I pulled over.

Reply to
Mark

You must not live in an area with high traffic volumes. Simply "redesigning" intersections isn't going to stop red light runners.

Reply to
Threeducks

Alex, the REAL problem is that there are people who are willing to disobey the rules if they think they won't get caught. The cameras make it far more likely they will get caught, and thus reduces the vary serious problem of red light running.

Reply to
SgtSilicon

Many years ago I recall hearing that the German approach was to have large numbers of clearly marked police cars -- to deter rather than simply apprehend lawbreakers.

MB

On 09/22/04 08:06 pm 127.0.0.1 put fingers to keyboard and launched the following message into cyberspace:

Reply to
Minnie Bannister

About 10 years ago when I lived in socal I lived in Hacienda heights and worked in Whittier. Using city streets instead of the freeway there was a short (maybe 2 mile) section of 4 lane road with almost no side streets. traffic would run at 60 or better. The local cops put a patrol car on the shoulder. Sometimes it was manned, but sometimes it had a dummy in it. Needless to say, traffic slowed down to the speed limit (40 or 45) because drivers were never sure if it was a real cop or a dummy.

Reply to
max-income

Maybe this is why I haven't seen a lot of these cameras in Texas: the traffic code there states that if a driver enters an intersection legally, he/she can leave the intersection legally.

Therefore, it doesn't matter if the light turns red while you're in the intersection-- you don't get a ticket so long as the light was yellow when you entered it.

There is no ability to shorten yellows to trap drivers so the profit motive just ain't there.

Reply to
BTR1701

How do you know?

Other than just you saying so, I mean.

Reply to
BTR1701

Depends on the redesign.

If you redesign it so that one road passes under or over the other and you eliminate the need for the signal entirely... well, I'd bet that would lower the number of red-light runners to zero.

Reply to
BTR1701

Sure there is, even so. To give you an extreme example, let's say that there's a 50 MPH speed limit on a road you typically drive. The yellow light at a camera-controlled intersection lasts only 0.5 second. You may see the light turn yellow while you're a few hundred feet away and (logically) assume that it's going to last 4-5 seconds based on the speed of traffic, so you keep your foot in it, as you could probably barely stop before the intersection without locking 'em up as it is, and you will likely have cleared the intersection within 5 seconds if you maintain speed. However, the light turns red before you enter the intersection, and smile! you know the rest.

An extreme example, but the same sort of thing happens all the time with RLC's, just not quite as short yellows.

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

That would totally eliminate all left turn accidents as well. Round-abouts minimize the severity of the inevitable accidents. They're even starting to now bring them to this continent.

Reply to
Full_Name

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