Photo-enforced stoplights

[bottomups]

Get a route in farm country. I don't have a single stoplight on my route and I put on around 200 miles a day.
​However, I have many train crossings with flashing red lights but am not playing chicken with those.

 

[brownmonster]

Get a route in farm country. I don't have a single stoplight on my route and I put on around 200 miles a day.
​However, I have many train crossings with flashing red lights but am not playing chicken with those.

I have zero also. My last route I would have 3 minutes to get off my last air and 6 sets of traffic lights to go through.

 

[Catatonic]

Those red light cameras are notorious for short yellows and if they catch people in middle of intersection with the the light red they give you a ticket. It doesn't matter where you were when the light turned yellow. The companies running those cameras get paid per ticket so they make the yellows illegally short. Many lawsuits over it and the cameras are being removed from many areas.

In Georgia, if your front tires are beyond the stop line when the night turns red, you do not get a ticket.
I have always moved my vehicle into the intersection while the light is green or yellow so I have legal right to proceed through the intersection.
All the tickets I have received have been when I entered the intersection on a red light ... one was a u-turn.
​Just another government tax.

 

[Catatonic]

Had one in my town that got removed because of the short yellow. As soon as it turned yellow, the locals would jam their brakes causing the foreigners off the interstate to nearly run into the back of the locals.

In ​a survey done in Georgia, the number of rear end (minor accidents with no serious injuries) increased by 700% when these cameras were installed.
The number of intersection accidents (which have serious injuries and deaths) decreased by around 40%.

 

[soberups]

After 24 years of accident and ticket-free driving, I got hit by a red light camera in my personal car. I was driving on snow, doing 23 MPH in a 45 MPH zone (the cameras also have radar and will issue speeding tickets), and as I approached the intersection the light turned yellow. I slowed down, preparing to stop, but in my rear view mirror I could see a car coming up behind me going too fast. He started fishtailing, and I had to make a split second decision about whether I was going to get rear ended or not. I pulled forward to keep him from hitting me, crossed the line after the light went red, and got my picture taken. I went to court and made the mistake of going before the judge instead of asking for a jury trial. The judge (who is probably a shill for the traffic school) said I could either plead guilty and pay the $400 fine, or spend $200 to attend and online "traffic school" after which the charge would be dismissed and my driving record would remain clean. I bit my lip, coughed up the $200 and took the class. I dont have a problem with the red light cameras but the manner in which they are being enforced around here is downright corrupt.

 

[32F driver]

Had a pic taken of me when I was returning to the bldg one evening. Crap, oh well, what's done is done. I then made the decision to let management tell me that they knew. The next morning, a pic was posted in the bldg of the back of a pc, blowing through an intersection. Again, I thought crap, now the whole center is going to know. Upon closer examination, & a word in the pcm, I was relieved it wasn't me. It was a 22 year driver as he was going to his area in the A.M.

 

[Wally]

In NJ, the timing is formatted to produce bucks. It is not the red but the yellow that gets people. You can't win. Stop and wait for green. Take zero chances!

 

[HEFFERNAN]

Use the "stale green" driver method excuse and pay it. There's no way you can or should get disciplined for it but I would be more cautious in the future around that particular traffic light.

 

[oldngray]

The cameras are run by private companies in it to make money. A portion of that goes to the city but most of those companies are crooked and will bend rules to generate more tickets. Here there is a lawsuit pending because the company shortened the yellow to illegally short interval and would issue a ticket if any part of car was in intersection when light turned red.

 

[Nimnim]

We're about 6 months past the OP. Hopefully they got everything straightened out, but regardless this is a bit of a necro.

We can all easily complain about stupid systems though.

 

[The Driver]

We're about 6 months past the OP. Hopefully they got everything straightened out, but regardless this is a bit of a necro.

We can all easily complain about stupid systems though.

Yeah, nothing came of the whole thing at all. I think the camera didn't capture the side of the car with the license plate number.

 

[barnyard]

Mn found the cameras unconstitutional and they are not used here anymore.

 

[Mack Grant]

I was cruising along today and I might have misjudged a stoplight and, sure enough, the camera flashed, surely capturing my package car's license plate. I spent the rest of the evening worrying about what will come of it. Will UPS pass the ticket along to me, or worse?

Anyone have any experience with these "PHOTO ENFORCED LIGHTS"?

This has to vary from area to area because I could have sworn I got popped by a speed limit camera in a school zone about 3 months ago. I was covering a route I'm not too familiar with and turned onto a four lane boulevard doing 30 mph when I saw a couple flashes going off in my mirrors. Looked up and realized I was in a 20mph school zone with speed cameras set up.
Like you, I was sweating the rest of the day about it. I never heard anything about it though. I've turned in parking tickets before and my sup just tossed it into the trash right in front of me. I think here UPS just pays a flat rate to the city each month to cover tickets but I could be wrong. I may have just been lucky.

 

[Foamer Pyle]

Those red light cameras have been fought here in court, and people win. They found that the lights were not synchronized properly, and that was the loophole to beat em in court. Now all of the lights have been properly adjusted, and you wouldn't get a ticket unless it was blatant. Many areas are removing them now because they are not generating revenue anymore.


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[1BROWNWRENCH]

Where I am, the system is rigged to prevent you from disputing them. "Ok. We'll reduce it from $112 to $100......NEXT!!!" (Well, that was worthwhile.)You'll have a hard time convincing me it's not for the money. I was on a trajectory to easily make it through but was forced to check up due to a slow accelerating tractor-trailer in a left turn ahead, so it turned red with me 2 feet from the line.
On a side note, pickup owners should get themselves a large hitch that will obstruct at least one plate digit. I saw it work.

 

[retiredTxfeeder]

I got one, or I should say my pickup got one a couple of years ago. I think my daughter was driving, not sure. There is like a 2 or 3 month lag time between the time they take your picture and you get your ticket. $75.00 money grab. Here in Houston the city was singing their praises about the lights and had plans to install more. They were citing statistics about less intersection accidents..it was challenged by a couple of lawyers who took these cameras personal. Come to find out, not only had the company who installed the lights fudged on the yellow light timings but there were actually a large increase in rear end accidents before you got to the intersections because people were scared of getting caught in the cameras and stopping short. Voters said hell no. The mayor pulled the plugs on the cameras. The company who owned the company (somewhere in Arizona) sued the city saying they broke their contract. It might still be in litigation but the cameras are off here in the big H. A lot of the little bergs around here, tho, still have them and you can also be cited for not stopping on red as well as speeding.

 

[1BROWNWRENCH]

Where I am, the system is rigged to prevent you from disputing them. "Ok. We'll reduce it from $112 to $100......NEXT!!!" (Well, that was worthwhile.)You'll have a hard time convincing me it's not for the money. I was on a trajectory to easily make it through but was forced to check up due to a slow accelerating tractor-trailer in a left turn ahead, so it turned red with me 2 feet from the line.
On a side note, pickup owners should get themselves a large hitch that will obstruct at least one plate digit. I saw it work.

PS- My home town leases space to hold traffic court while spaces in the new City Hall go unused.

 

[joeboodog]

Where I am, the system is rigged to prevent you from disputing them. "Ok. We'll reduce it from $112 to $100......NEXT!!!" (Well, that was worthwhile.)You'll have a hard time convincing me it's not for the money. I was on a trajectory to easily make it through but was forced to check up due to a slow accelerating tractor-trailer in a left turn ahead, so it turned red with me 2 feet from the line.
On a side note, pickup owners should get themselves a large hitch that will obstruct at least one plate digit. I saw it work.

Ever notice the price of the ticket is such that it is cheaper to pay than to miss a days work without pay.

 

[1BROWNWRENCH]

Exactly, and even if you don't take the day off (like my case) it isn't worth your time if you do go.

 

[brownmonster]

I got one, or I should say my pickup got one a couple of years ago. I think my daughter was driving, not sure. There is like a 2 or 3 month lag time between the time they take your picture and you get your ticket. $75.00 money grab. Here in Houston the city was singing their praises about the lights and had plans to install more. They were citing statistics about less intersection accidents..it was challenged by a couple of lawyers who took these cameras personal. Come to find out, not only had the company who installed the lights fudged on the yellow light timings but there were actually a large increase in rear end accidents before you got to the intersections because people were scared of getting caught in the cameras and stopping short. Voters said hell no. The mayor pulled the plugs on the cameras. The company who owned the company (somewhere in Arizona) sued the city saying they broke their contract. It might still be in litigation but the cameras are off here in the big H. A lot of the little bergs around here, tho, still have them and you can also be cited for not stopping on red as well as speeding.

Did they have them on the parking lot known as Westheimer?