Today's Rant - Red Light Cameras (Automated Revenue Generator$)

[Jeff Higgins]

How do you tell when you get snapped?

[scottmandue]

Flash!

[the]

Usually there's a huge flash that goes off, even in the daytime.

When I lived in Cal, I did a u-turn in a signaled intersection, the light seemed yellow to me when I began entering, but the cameras definately went off.

I never got a ticket mailed to me, though. This was in Bakersfield.

If you do get a ticket and lose the big battle, definately do traffic school. And do the Internet traffic school. Instead of sitting in a room all day on a Saturday, you can do an on-line "school" that you can complete in about a half an hour. Then it won't be on your insurance. You still have to pay the ticket, though, and the $50 or so for the "school."

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I would but I used my traffic school option about 6 months ago (you can only do it once every 18 months unless you get special permission).

[the]

Ahh, bummer!

Good luck. Stick it to the Man!

[Noah930]

Jeff, you might not have anything to worry about. Wait until you get the letter, first. AFter all, they still go after the DRIVER, correct? (When I lived in Portland, there was a new law in Beaverton that went after the OWNER of the car.) There's a distinction, there. It's easy to take a photo of the license plates, and then figure out who owns the car. It's harder to figure out if said owner was actually driving the car.

The way it's done in CA, I've read, is that the photo is taken of your vehicle committing supposed infraction. The plates are noted, and they go to the DMV to figure out who's the owner. Then, they look up said owner's computerized DMV photo. If that picture matches that of the driver of the car (caught on film), then a ticket is mailed out. If no match, no ticket.

So if you weren't driving, they may not send you the ticket. Except in Beaverton, where they'd send the ticket to the car owner, regardless of who was driving. Either the owner had to pay up, or rat out whoever was driving the car. I think that law got canned, eventually.

So, if you know it's gonna be close (to the red light), you could try wearing a hat, covering your face like you're coughing, turning your head, flipping down the sunvisor, etc. to try to foil that photo identification bit. Not that I condone running red lights (and I am not just saying this tongue-in-cheek). I'm VERY against that type of reckless driving. But if municipalities are going to shorten yellows to take advantage of these red light cameras, I certainly don't think we should make it any easier for them to fatten up.

[GothingNC]

Originally posted by genrex
Here in Seattle, a red-light ticket is $101, and I've heard that it's basically the same as a parking violation, i.e. that it doesn't go on one's driving record. So no jump in the insurance premium?



But they scare the carp out of me.

$50 here in Raleigh & no points.

Some camera's have video also.

[Tobra]

If you get a picture of yourself running a light, pay the ticket, if you never get that photo, you shall not be cited. No way you beat a redlight camera ticket. If they have a photo of you breaking the law, you are busted.

[Rick Lee]

Originally posted by Tobra
If you get a picture of yourself running a light, pay the ticket, if you never get that photo, you shall not be cited. No way you beat a redlight camera ticket. If they have a photo of you breaking the law, you are busted.

Maybe in Kalifornia, but that is 100% false elsewhere in the US.

[Noah930]

Originally posted by Tobra
If you get a picture of yourself running a light, pay the ticket, if you never get that photo, you shall not be cited. No way you beat a redlight camera ticket. If they have a photo of you breaking the law, you are busted.

What if you weren't running the red? Law says you're legal as long as you pass the limit line before the light turns red (though there's also a little caveat that you can't be accelerating to make that red light--however, that's hard to prove with current camera technology). Limit line is the "first" line in a crosswalk, BTW.

[pwd72s]

Originally posted by genrex
Here in Seattle, a red-light ticket is $101, and I've heard that it's basically the same as a parking violation, i.e. that it doesn't go on one's driving record. So no jump in the insurance premium?



But they scare the carp out of me.

$234 in Albany Oregon. Dunno about points. Oregon bureaucrats must need more money than Washington burreaucrats...

[sammyg2]

If you stop at red lights, you will never have to worry about these cameras.
If you are one of those who like to run red lights or push your luck at a yellow instead of stopping, you will get what you deserve

in my opinion most people who get caught going through a late yellow are traveling well above the posted speed limit so they really can't safely stop in time. If they were driving the posted speed it would be no problem.
I exceed the posted limit sometimes, but there is a time and a place for it. Going through or approaching a traffic light is not one of those places. I appreciate the rest of you donating to the government, maybe it will take some of the burden off of me.

[Rick Lee]

Originally posted by sammyg2
If you stop at red lights, you will never have to worry about these cameras.
\

WRONG! If you enter an intersection when it's yellow, which is perfectly legal, and you get held up trying to make a left turn when an oncoming car fails to signal its own left turn and the light turns red, you get nailed. Sure, if you see it turn red and stop, you're fine. But if it turns red after you have entered the intersection but before you can exit it, you're screwed. And if you like writing checks to the state and having your insurance skyrocket, go right ahead. I will fight any such ticket all the way to the end.

[Tobra]

Rick, you are mistaken.

[rick-l]

They (Hazelwood MO) installed one of these out in front of where I work. It is $100 non moving violation. I have seen a couple of tickets mailed to fellow employees.

These tickets would be very hard to beat. It shows a photo 900 mSec after red with the car clearly behind the white line (And the red light in the picture) along with the vehicle speed. There is another picture at 2 seconds after red with the vehicle in the intersection along with the vehicle speed.

The yellow does seem shorter now and there have been some rear end collisions.

[red-beard]

Legislature in Texas is about to ban red light cameras.

[lilacRS]

Originally posted by genrex
Here in Seattle, a red-light ticket is $101, and I've heard that it's basically the same as a parking violation, i.e. that it doesn't go on one's driving record. So no jump in the insurance premium?



But they scare the carp out of me.

A friend was driving our car on Denny crossing Westlake and got nailed. She told me that evening that she thought she got caught, and sure enough within 2 weeks, I got a notice that showed a sequence of pictures, the first showing that it was red prior to entering the interection, and another picture showing that the car was past the intersection while the light was still red.

With the sequence of pics, it was pretty obvious she ran the red light. She paid the fine, and the ticket did say it was not considered a moving violation, so our rates have stayed the same.

In the pictures, the reflection of the license plate really shows up. I bet those license plate covers would keep the cameras from getting your plate number.