Redleg

That police dept aughta take those videos with them everytime they are up for the bargaining table.

Mike337

Red Light cameras are just a cash cow. Rear end accidents increased by 1/3 when they put them in.

rconkin

We have just had these cameras installed in our city over the past 6 months or so. I have noticed that one major intersection that I travel every day has only two cameras and they are positioned to where there is no way that they can catch violations in all directions. The loop detectors they installed only cover two directions of travel. I have just sent the second email to the city asking about this since they never responded to my first one. I'm just guessing that they decided which directions of travel would net them the most tickets.

Also, if anyone is coming to Bristol for the race, there are speed cameras on 11E between the race track and Johnson City. Please be careful and don't contribute to the fund. I had heard that the race track had asked Bluff City to turn them off during race week this past spring and they refused to.

bansh-eman

rconkin....

It is the same way in Houston. You can pullup to a intersection with and overpass, and only one camera will be posted, but you can bet your bottom dollar they put the sign out saying that the intersection has cameras.

My tarded wife just got a ticket from one of these. As a matter of fact she had to pay it today.... So much for that shopping money she could have had.

Jim Lane

At least once a month I'll be sitting at the red light when someone will come up behind me with their tires screeching.

One of the intersections near me is next to a High School and about 200 feet from out local Fire Station, I can watch fire trucks leave the station with all of their red lights and siren and have to wait at the intersection because it is blocked by cars and the drivers refuse to go through the red light, sometimes they will have to wait 2 or 3 minuets for the light to change.

Other times the trucks will go through the intersection and the Red Light cameras lights flash on the fire trucks even though the opticom is flashing.

There have been a lot of rear end collisions where there used to be hardly any before the cameras were installed, it has been proven that red light cameras cause more rear end accidents that before they were installed.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2008/03/new-study-says

Also they have caught cities tampering with the duration of the yellow light to generate more red light violations.

http://techdirt.com/articles/20080410/011257809.shtml

http://www.leftlanenews.com/six-us-c...or-profit.html

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/may.../me-redlight19

I never go through an intersection just because it is green, I am always cautious whenever I go through an intersection and always look for cross traffic.

When I worked for the county we were trained to have our foot off the throttle and hovering above the brake pedal as you crossed the intersection unless you just left the light.

Jim

Diesel_Storm

Ha Ha, I actually recognize some of those streets. That is Springfeild, Ohio, a couple of those are from North and South Limestone St.

gerry

They are only cash cows if someone decides to break the law and run a red light... Simple solution to red light cameras Don't run a red light.. If you don't want to have rear end accident don't follow to close... It is not the cameras fault that someone didn't leave enought stopping distance.

Mike337

That is all true, and in a perfect world they would meet all of that, but that is not the way people drive here, and yes it is a cash cow, otherwise it would not be a separate code section, under a civil penalty, paid to the county/city/town that has the device. It would be under state code with the state getting the cash for the literary fund, and DMV putting 3 points on your license. The driver of the car does not get the ticket, the registered owner does.

If the purpose is/was to reduce accidents at intersections as they stated here, and they then found that accidents increased by 1/3, at the intersections with cameras, I would say the goal was not met.

Rampage1967

Since when is mailing the registered owner of a vehicle a ticket with no proof he was the actual driver a ticket just because you got a photo of his license plate on a vehicle running a red light or speeding considered acceptable?? What if he was not driving the vehicle for some reason or he just sold it & the records at the DMV do not show this??

Cameras are simply revenue generation, nothing more.
Law enforcement requires an officer to stop the vehicle and ticket the actual driver.

Bark

You are probably aware that there are several sets of those “statistics” bouncing around that contradict each other. The ones that they should throw the book at are the runners who clearly deliberately run the light.

Redleg

Regardless of either statistic you want to believe, investing the money in a little overtime for a warm body to patrol problem traffic areas might be the better investment. A camera isn't gonna find out WHY the vehicle ran the light. Was he drunk, distracted, even valid? A camera's not gonna request a tow for an impound and get the idiot off the road.

Jim Lane

It is the cameras fault or at least it being there, you can be following through the intersection and where the driver would have gone through on a yellow light they will now jam on their brakes as soon as it turns yellow to keep from being caught in the intersection.

Also some of the cities have been caught tampering with the duration of the yellow lighto increase violations.

http://techdirt.com/articles/20080410/011257809.shtml

gerry

On this note... If someone Jams the brakes for a hazard in the road your will still rear end them... There is no excuse for running into the back of someone except that the person behind is either inattentive or impatient. If you rear end someone, even out of the officers presence the ticket will either be following to closely or driving faster than condition permit..

As for the mailing the ticket to the registered owner.. there is also a picture of the driver of the vehicle (by the way the registered owner is responsible for that vehicle) If it was not the regisetered owner driving it then all they have to do is advise the court who was driving it and they will issue the ticket to the proper person.. Also the camera is like an officer at the intersection.. An infraction must be witnessed by an officer in order to cite (or there may be evidence otherwise in a collision which allows the officer to cite). All citations from the red light cameras are reviewed by the contractor that has the camera and then forwarded to the agency were the officer reviews the photos and issues the citation.

It is simple people... If you give yourself an average of an additional 3 minuted to get where you are going then you don't need to follow to close, speed or run red lights to be there on time.

Figure it like this.. the average person probably breaks at least 5-10 traffic laws a day... divide that since the last time you got a citation and each citation is actually pretty cheap in relation to the number of violations actually committted...

Its really simple do the right thing and you have nothing to worry about.

Bark

People do the same thing when they see a marked car at the intersection.

I mostly agree.

Personally, I do not believe you should be ticketed by a camera for some of the reasons you guys have pointed out. However, I like the idea of having camera's at some intersections. They should not be used as an attempt to replace LEO's or to generate revenue. They should only be used as a tool for our LEO's to use in solving crimes.

bansh-eman

This is not true in all places. My wife just got one in the mail last month. The only picts it had was one of the car before turning, one as it was turning, and one closeup on the plates.