Funny Red-Light Camera Situation

Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:32 pm

As sent to me by the National Motorists Association via e-mail:
www.motorists.org

Oh, The Irony -- A Red Light Camera Encounter

Sometimes a story crosses our desk that is so good, it needs little input from us. Tom Chamberlain submitted the following photo-narrative that truly illustrates a set of pictures is worth a thousand words. Enjoy.

I stopped to take pictures of a red light camera being repaired and the repairman called the police. I was lucky the Gurnee, Illinois police were very professional and allowed me to stay and take pictures. They did not even ask my name or for identification.

It is ironic that Redflex cameras take millions of pictures of unsuspecting motorists every day, but the Redflex repairman calls the police when someone on public property is taking pictures of their equipment and him.

Inside of RedFlex box.

Closer look at Redflex box.

Do not look behind the curtain.

You can't take pictures, only REDFLEX can take pictures here.

Calling police.

Now I'm in trouble.

Mr. RedFlex man learning that photography is legal.

Reinforcements.

Officers posing with red light cameras that make millions from unsuspecting motorists.

Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:43 pm

Good for you and that the cops were sensible

Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 3:18 pm

Great Stuff!

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 3:39 am

I bet they lost some revenue. Most likely, with the police cars there, NO ONE even came CLOSE to running a red light. Razz

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 4:58 am

Red-Light Cameras, I hate them! Government's way of extracting every bit of money we have from us... Seattle now have 28 cameras... Funny, on the way home from Backfire Bike night, we ran a "Fast Changing" yellow light and I saw a flash... The camera took a photo of the front of our bikes.. Didn't get anything in the mail. That was 2 months ago.

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 6:15 am

I have been flashed by the camera lights about 3 times in the last 2 years, but have not received one ticket. All it has done is made me madder than hell. Fuck that.

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:54 pm

All the little towns in GA loved them because "they enhanced safety and prevented accidents". The revenue stream was not relevant.

A study was commissioned and determined that the intersections with cameras mostly had shorter yellows than the average. The legislature passed an new law last year requiring that camera intersections have an additional second added to the yellow light. Tickets plummeted. In other words they were not catching blatant red light runners, they were catching people who were off by a fraction of a second on a short yellow.

The vast majority of the cameras have been pulled as too expensive to operate now that they don't make a profit. Safety is of course still the highest priority!

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 2:08 pm

A town near me has installed these cameras on the state route that enters the town. Not only do they do red lights but speed as well.

So many people have gotten "several" tickets,worth $100 ea,all at the same time. Merchants on this road have reported loss of business. As for me I used to go there often but since I heard of these cameras,not anymore.

CB1100F Joined: Jul 02, 2003 Posts: 3189 Location: Phoenix

What pisses me off here in Phoenix is that you don't just see one camera. You got a mile or two down the road and there will be another camera. I can handle a couple here and there, but when you flood the freeway with cameras? WTF?

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 4:22 pm

melchiro wrote:

The camera took a photo of the front of our bikes.. Didn't get anything in the mail. That was 2 months ago.

Motorcycles should be immune to tickets from red light cameras since they only take a picture of the front of the vehicle. Someday they may get wise to that and shoot pics of the rear or make us have front plates. It still wouldn't hold up in court if they didn't have picture of your face.

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 4:32 pm

Well they must have gotten wise I just got one a week ago on my bike

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 5:22 pm

Well that f'n sucks.

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 5:39 pm

headless wrote:

melchiro wrote:

The camera took a photo of the front of our bikes.. Didn't get anything in the mail. That was 2 months ago.

Motorcycles should be immune to tickets from red light cameras since they only take a picture of the front of the vehicle. Someday they may get wise to that and shoot pics of the rear or make us have front plates. It still wouldn't hold up in court if they didn't have picture of your face.

Depends. If the criminals running the show get a law passed that allows the ticket to go to the registered owner--they won't care WHO is actually riding the bike. You own it--you get the ticket.

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 5:49 pm

Schurkey wrote:

headless wrote:

melchiro wrote:

The camera took a photo of the front of our bikes.. Didn't get anything in the mail. That was 2 months ago.

Motorcycles should be immune to tickets from red light cameras since they only take a picture of the front of the vehicle. Someday they may get wise to that and shoot pics of the rear or make us have front plates. It still wouldn't hold up in court if they didn't have picture of your face.

Depends. If the criminals running the show get a law passed that allows the ticket to go to the registered owner--they won't care WHO is actually riding the bike. You own it--you get the ticket.

That is exactly how it is done in New York the ticket goes to the Reg. owner of the vehicle they don't car who is driving they just want the money

CB1100F Joined: Jul 02, 2003 Posts: 3189 Location: Phoenix

The red light cameras are actually shooting digital video as you go thru. And yes, they do get the front and rear. They have two cameras set up to take a pic of the front and the rear.

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 8:00 pm

They've got a handful of them up in Cleveland. I got caught once for speed, and the way it worked was the registered owner gets the ticket, and if you weren't driving you could report the who the driver was, and they would get the ticket. If you didn't want to rat out your buddy, or they put up enough of a fight, the reg. owner ended up with the ticket.

Here's where it clearly becomes a 'cash grab'. The deal was that if you sent in the $100, there were no points on your license and no record of the ticket. If you wanted to appear in court, you were on the hook for court costs, plus fines, and could have the points put on your license. It says right on the 'ticket' that judges usually go by what the camera says.

It's like a crooked cop, "I got you for speed. Give me $100, and we'll forget all about it"

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 11:02 pm

Some time ago I bought a spray "paint" the one would put on the license. It changed the reflective characteristic of the plate by making the picture look all whited out. It is clear so law enforcement can't tell that you have it. I used it on my bike and car and have never gotten a red light ticket despite numerous "flashes".

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 1:51 am

Georgia doesn't have front plates on cars either but they still get a picture from the rear. It goes to the owner. They had a case a while back where the owner could prove that he was out of the country when the ticket was issued. He had left it in the shop for repairs. He couldn't prove who was driving the car and the shop refused to fess up. Went to the state supreme court and the owner got the ticket regardless. It was one of the reasons that they got the new one second rule added recently. The law still needs some work.

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 3:37 am

Schurkey wrote:

It still wouldn't hold up in court if they didn't have picture of your face.[/b]

Depends. If the criminals running the show get a law passed that allows the ticket to go to the registered owner--they won't care WHO is actually riding the bike. You own it--you get the ticket.[/quote]

Man, what happened to "Innocent until Proven Guilty" ??? I can agree that a photo of the license plate proves that the vehicle is going through the light, but if the photo can't prove "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" the operator of said vehicle????? They are just a bunch of money grubbing bastards.

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 4:41 am

I have never seen the speed cameras here in Texas. I really don't see how it would work. Here you aren't supposed to look at the speedo. It says it in the DPS instruction manual you get when you go to get a motorcycle license. Hell, you don't even need a speedo to pass MV inspections!