New York Times Takes On Red Light Cameras
from the good-for-them dept
Over the past few years, we've seen plenty of stories about problems with red light cameras, from the fact that they tend to cause more accidents (though, rear end accidents, rather than t-bone accidents) to the fact that some cities have been caught lowering the yellow light time in order to catch more red light runners. One thing that seems quite clear at this point is that the cameras are not about promoting safe driving at all, but are purely about increasing revenue (both for the local government and for the private companies who usually manage the cameras for a cut of the fees). And while there have been some mainstream press reports about the problems with the cameras, there haven't been many public calls from the mainstream press to do something about them.That is, until a NY Times reporter got dinged by a red light camera (though, for some odd reason, he didn't find out about it until years after it happened). And then we get a nice report on all of the problems with red light cameras and how cities could easily increase safety by merely increasing the amount of time a light is yellow. It's nice to see this issue getting some more attention. Road safety is an important issue -- and it's a shame that governments have been making roads less safe in an attempt to increase revenue when there are much better solutions out there.
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Filed Under: accidents, red light cameras
Companies: new york times
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Cars...
And then, flying cars! :P
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Re: Cars...
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Re: Cars...
> working for everybody, it'll no longer
> be an issue.
The new issue will be people like me who don't want my car driving itself and being monitored every step of the way by some government agency.
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Red Light Runners Should Get Tickets
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Re: Red Light Runners Should Get Tickets
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Re: Red Light Runners Should Get Tickets
Safety is just a good excuse to milk the population of more money--and cops make a good enforcement measure, easier than taxes.
Plus, cops can beat and imprison you.
Violence, the ultimate authority from which all other authority derives.
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Re: Red Light Runners Should Get Tickets
Check these links: http://www.motorists.org/blog/red-light-cameras/red-light-cameras-increase-accidents-5-studies-that- prove-it/
http://www.motorists.org/blog/red-light-cameras/red-light-cameras-increase-accidents-5- studies-that-prove-it/
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Other link
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Re: Red Light Runners Should Get Tickets
For example, when they do things like artificially lower the speed limit near a speed camera (and only near the camera) in order to nail people. New York Avenue in DC is a major thoroughfare (six lanes, eventually turning into the Baltimore-Washington Parkway). The speed limit along most of its length is 45 MPH but for some reason, it drops to 35 right where the camera happens to be. There's no school or hospital or tight curve or anything that would make that stretch of road more dangerous and therefore require a drop in speed and consequently, drivers neither expect nor notice the reduction and the incidence of rear-end collisions along that stretch of road has increased. Now I'm sure some people can think up all sorts of rationalizations for this but Occam's Razor and a healthy dose of skepticism for just about anything the DC Government does leads to one inescapable conclusion: it's all about the $$$.
These speed cameras are generating millions in revenue for the city and when a politician can raise revenue in those amounts without having to raise taxes on the residents even one dime, you better believe they'll do whatever is necessary to maximize it. For that reason it's also no coincidence that almost all these cameras are placed on commuter routes and not residential/business streets. They do that so that most of the people who are ticketed are residents of Maryland or Virginia, not the District. Maryland and Virginia residents can't vote out a DC politician no matter how mad they get over these cameras so they are safe to prey upon.
It's nothing but a commuter tax, pure and simple.
Also, they delay the delivery of the ticket for a month or more and by doing so, the state knows that the driver probably doesn't even realize there's a camera there and if it's a route they travel regularly, they could conceivably end up being ticketed 60 to 70 times before the first one even shows up in the mailbox. This leads to massive revenue windfalls for the government and at the same time can effectively bankrupt a person when thousands of dollars in fines suddenly drop into their mailbox all at once.
If safety were the underlying concern, they'd get that ticket out to you as quick as possible to make sure you knew about the camera and modify your behavior accordingly. But safety isn't the real concern. It's revenue maximization. The state purposely delays notifying drivers in order to maximize its revenue stream. They don't want you to slow down immediately. Oh, no. They'd much rather you keep speeding through that stretch of road for a while so they can rack up the fines on you.
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Re: Red Light Runners Should Get Tickets
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Re: Re: Red Light Runners Should Get Tickets
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Re: Re: Re: Red Light Runners Should Get Tickets
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Re: Red Light Runners Should Get Tickets
I didnt ever think I would be challenging these "dumb cops" which are under under instructions from public servants, which havent a heart....or a brain to speak of.
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Longer Yellow huh - No more Gotta Get There Fast
The best deterrent is to stop people from always being in a hurry. I don't understand why people are always in a hurry on our roads. I make it a point to not be in a hurry because I watch the guy weave in and out of traffic with close calls and then stop next to him at the next red light. I call for a change to our businesses that are forcing people to always be in a hurry. I call for more work from home and flex time schedules at work.
In the mean time, just for fun, let's take off from our newly green lights really fast so we can scare the "hurry" out of our red light runners. Tickets may not do much more than cost unsafe drivers money but near miss accidents may cause them to open there eyes.
freak3dot
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Re: Longer Yellow huh - No more Gotta Get There Fast
That kind of frustration can build up in drivers and they respond to it even if they aren't aware.. and yes its still their fault and they SHOULD be aware, ..regardless lights and intersections need to be designed and properly managed to keep traffic moving as much as is realistically possible.
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Re: Longer Yellow huh - No more Gotta Get There Fast
They left later than you from their origin and will be 2 lights ahead of you in the next mile. Pretty simple logic really that tends to get missed to often.
Am I condoning poor driving? not at all! I am certainly guilty of trying to get someplace fast, I do not ever run a light though. Especially out in Vegas, the lights are so far apart with high speed limits that you could be traveling 55 when the light 20 yard in front of you turns yellow. I have been at that crossroads of slamming on the breaks to come to a screeching halt, or run through with just fractions of a second to spare, or worse run a red light.
How about this, instead of trying to coddle the masses with cute little things to deter, be a safer driver and look both directions before you proceed on your new green light. Its called accountability.
"he ran the light and hit me when I had the green"...."did you look out both directions before you went on your green?"...."well no, the lights do that for me"..
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Re: Re: Longer Yellow huh - No more Gotta Get There Fast
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Re: Longer Yellow huh - No more Gotta Get There Fast
If you time your lights properly, traffic flow will improve, reducing the number of people who are in a hurry. Enforcement has its place, but design will give you a much better return in terms of safety.
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Wrong problem
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Re: Wrong problem
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Re: Re: Wrong problem
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Re: Re: Re: Wrong problem
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local city
They put in countdown timers on the crosswalk signals.
They also put in delayed red-light changing. It works so that the cars are at a red light, in all directions for a second or 2. So that there is a time that you can pass through, if you can't stop in time. This also enables on-coming traffic to see you, and gives you the time to make it through.
We also have timed traffic lights, that change as you move forward, that is set the speed-limit. So as long as you are pacing yourself, you can make it all the way across town, without stopping. Traffic that is ahead of you being the execption.
We also have one way streets, that are sometimes narrow. There might be lights however, there might be no traffic, coming the other side. When there is an ambulance behind you, blareing his horn, I would rather take the chance, and rl through the light, then get it in the way. What happens if there was a camera at that light?
However, they did install red-light cameras, even though there dosent seem to be a need.
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Re: local city
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RED LIGHT TICKETS
I don't think anyone is advocating that people who break the law should not be punished for it, however, when you increase the accident rate before the intersection to decrease the it in the middle of it (granted survivability is higher)all you are doing is shifting liability instead of getting rid of it. I do have a problem with the justification of automatic red light enforcement in the name of public safety when it in turn creates a new hazard when there other avenues that can be used that actually help with everyones safety. They are a means of enhancing revenue, they are not perfect, able to be manipulated and are a waste of tax-payer money.
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Delay Green
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red light cameras (et al)
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Re: red light cameras (et al)
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Safer means...
There are times of day where traffic means that you have to slow down and join the herd but that's the worst. And the timing is occasionally reviewed so that areas that start to get more traffic can get longer greens to keep traffic moving.
This is how you avoid accidents.
The problem with avoiding accidents is that you also avoid the situaations that create tickets.
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Cars!!!
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stopping every ten feet
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crash!
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Re: crash!
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Eliminate the lights altogether.
I think the cars should be smart enough to negotiate some protocol on there own to cross an intersection. Maybe a automatic digital cost bidding process during high congestion periods? How about that? The Rich can afford to cruse through intersections.
Hey I kinda like that. Your on board computers can have a high speed bidding war to cross an intersection so only if two billionaires come to an intersection will they collide.
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You see it coming ?
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red, green or yellow, it doesn't matter
I think it is referred to as cash flow.
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Traffice Cameras
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I want to be special too
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/dmv-police-confidential-2011354-program-records#
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Payback
I used to do all of my shopping in the closer town just due to distance, and the fact that the businesses were about the same as in the town a bit further away.
What I did was not to subject myself to the red light cameras anymore. I now do all shopping in the town that has no red light cameras, thereby changing the town that collects the sales taxes on my purchases. In recent conversations with others that live in the area, they too are doing the same thing. I have no idea how large the group is that's participating in this form of 'silent payback', but a recent local newspaper article was lamenting the substantial drop in sales tax receipts in the town with the red light cameras.
I suspect that recent changes in our economy probably has more to do with that situation than changing shopping habits, but at least I, and others, are contributing to that town's sales tax shortfall. I get a nice warm feeling every time I think about it.
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The solution to the redlight camera problem
In some states that revenue is shared between the city and the company. This kind of commission deal was all made illegal in California a couple of years ago.
Now the city has to pay the contractor by the month to run the system and they keep the revenues, which they share with the court in the form of a court "penalty assessment".
The solution is to take all the money from the redlight camera fines including all penalty assessments, etc., and have that money only used for affordable housing.
None to run the courts, none for the contractor, none for the city.
The city could still put in the cameras and they would then have completely clean hands, since they would not benefit a dime from their operation, and would have to pay for the cameras and their operation our of other funds. They would be a net cost to the city like other kinds of law enforcement. The court system would have clean hands too since they would have to process the citations free.
Then, they could really say honestly they put them in to enhance safety.
But I just bet if they had to use the money *only* for affordable housing they couldn't get those cameras out of there fast enough.
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I have heard...
And guess what, people speed to try to get through them, many running the light.
This just seems so counter productive to me.
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Silly at some point
Someting I noticed in the NOL was that it stated that the fine had to be paid a month after the NOL was issued or an extra amount of money had to be added. Surprisingly the issue date was somewhen in the middle of January and since the postal service took a month to deliver the letter, we obviously we were way beyond the NOL deadline. Either way we paid the whole fine with the extra included.
But a day ago we received a response stating that the amount we paid was not sufficient, that we still needed to pay $1.14 US Dlls. I suspect this was because of the currency change when they retrived the money.
So today for the first time of our lives we wrote a check for 20 mexican pesos (which is a little more than the amount they ask).
Isn't it a little bit silly that they spend almost a dollar in sending a letter to Mexico just to demand a one dollar payment for the fine?
But it's just my opinion of this...
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All New York City Red Light Traffic Camera locations finally revealed.
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yellow light
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red light cameras
QUESTION... since the cameras are mounted above they have to take a pic down at a angle,if one with a pick up truck drove with the tailgate down and a tinted plastic tag cover,would the redlight cameras still be able to get its target??
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red light cameras
QUESTION... since the cameras are mounted above they have to take a pic down at a angle,if one with a pick up truck drove with the tailgate down and a tinted plastic tag cover,would the redlight cameras still be able to get its target??
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Red Light Cameras
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Need a complete list of Red Light Cameras in NYC five Boroughs
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Red light to hell
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