Parked Car Gets Multiple Speed Camera Tickets
from the yeah,-those-work-great dept
We've seen all sorts of problems with speed cameras -- like the time one clocked a brick wall traveling 58 MPH (watch out!). It seems that they've got a problem with stationary objects. Reader Marshall points us to a story of a guy who parks his car on a road equipped with a speed camera and has received two speeding tickets while his car was parked. Don't you feel safer now?Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: parked cars, speed cameras
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Well, technically speaking, as the earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the sun the brick wall is moving along with the Earth.
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I accidentally beat one of these tickets many years ago. Like IP laws, speed limits are screwy because they are strict liability. If you have a good reason for exceeding the limit and it is not dangerous to do so (ie - conditions permit,) then you should not be ticketed for it. Cameras do a bad job of assessing such things. Cops are not perfect, but they beat cameras.
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According to what I once heard a Texas judge tell a defendant in court, speedometer error is no defense, you don't even have to have a speedometer, and you're responsible for your speed anyway.
If you start ticketing at 2% over the limit, you're getting to the area where overinflated (or even slightly larger) tires cause even the most law-abiding to speed.
If you're speeding, you're not really law-abiding, are you?
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"then your not really law-abiding, are you"
This must be either a cop.... or a judge.
All speed limits are made as a recomended safe speed by engineer's with a margin or error accounted for. I dont know about other states, but in florida its a 15% margin. so really all posted speeds are at 85% of the recomended safe speed.(supposedly) so even at 17.65% (85% of 100 = 85. 117.65% of 85 = 100) over the posted speed limit you are just reaching the recommended safe speed of the engineers.
Not to mention in my area, we have many cash cow streets in which the main roads have a posted speed limit lower than that of the neighborhoods(with driveways and kids in the streets) that criss cross them. I'd like to see the theory there. and the motorcycle(traffic) cops are always radar'ing on those streets.
Even if your breaking the law(within reason) you are still perfectly safe. And isn't that the whole purpose of the law, its not our fault we have over protective parents (BIG BROTHER) to tell us that we need to operate not only safe, but within a margin of safety. Which i'm sure they developed with some leeway due to over inflated tires and speedo error. so the law in florida does dictate some leeway and generally cops give it to you. I'd be surprised if the judge was correct in Texas. Thats the problem with judges, its to there discretion to interpret the law, thats why you can appeal and see a different judge, but the issue with that is your 150$ ticket can end up costing you several hundred dollars in lawyer fees and that doesn't even count lost time at work... My opinion on traffic law...its a faulty system at best.....
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By that standard no one is law-abiding.
The most conscientious driver will exceed the limit
on occasion through imperfection mechanical or human.
Even someone that intentionally speeds by a few MPH can operate within the spirit of the law while breaking it's letter.
The former case is certainly law abiding
The latter is open to interpretation but most officers seem
to agree.
As Officer Steve Pomper wrote in "Is there a problem officer?":
"During the course of an eight to twelve hour shift, officers witness dozens of minor traffic violations. an officer can't possibly stop them all. Why? because a patrol officer's main duty is to remain clear to handle 911 emergency calls. They can't be tied up doing traffic stops all day long. And another thing: Most officers don't feel they have the moral authority to enforce the traffic code to that extreme, because even cops are guilty of minor traffic indiscretions from time to time. Let's face it, we violate some minor law almost every time we get behind the wheel. With so many traffic laws on the books, just try to drive for five minutes without breaking one. Just within the Seattle Municipal Code refrence sheet I carry with me (which doesn't contain all the infractions), I counted 334 traffic laws available for you to violate while driving.
I guess by your standards everyone that drives is a scofflaw.
Colg
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Not just cameras. (Ask Rodney King!)
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love taylor
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Missing data
While it is unfortunate for Mr Buck ( and likely his plate is now tagged in the system for this camera ), I am confident that the vast majority of the tickets issued are valid, and that the presence of such as device (bright yellow and easy to see) has had the desired effects of lowering speed in that particular area.
I guess because mistakes are occasionally made that the entire system should be tossed out, regardless of any positive effects that might happen.
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The camera did exactly what it should - took a picture of a speeding car (with a stationary car also in the picture). It was the human oversight that failed - the human weak link misinterpreted which car in the picture was the speeding car.
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I saw you make a post once without a straw man in it. I guess that was just because you were too busy telling us to FOAD.
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Also, thanks for getting back to the whiny insults. But stinky still doesn't have quite as much punch as FOAD, so try harder next time, k?
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LOL - What country do you live in? They are increasingly grey and barely noticeable - some states don't even require notification that they exist.
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Looks pretty darn yellow to me.
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Yep, what a shame. According to Mr Anti Mikme, the end justifies the means.
Get those dang perps no matter what ... it takes. Collateral damage is acceptable if it does not affect Mr. Anti Mike or his "friends".
Mr. Anti Mike lives in a strange world where the good for a few (him and his friends) out weighs the rights of the many (everyone else). In this world anything goes - if it means that the rightous have been served.
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As usual, you try to twist reality. The theoretical desired effect is not to lower speed in the particular 100 foot stretch of the road overseen by the camera, but to lower the speed on the streets while maintaining safe conditions. There has been no proof that the speed cameras do either of those.
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I guess because it's Mike making the post, it has to be bad, and wrong, and shouted down.
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Taken by itself, the post is just about how one unlucky guy stupid enough to keep parking his can in the camera's direct line of site has gotten a couple of misdirected tickets (out of how many issued, we don't know).
Taken as part of the Techdirt website, it is another one of Mike's kicks at automated identification, tracking systems, and the like. The logic? If a police officer looking at a still image can't figure out which car is speeding, how can an ISP tell which user is file sharing illegally?
The fail is that humans (and machines) are not entirely perfect, but that in the vast majority of cases, they are right. Mr Buck got a couple of misdirected speeding tickets, and a printer got a copyright violation notice. Rather than note all the correctly directed tickets or correctly directed violation notices, Mike chooses to work the exceptions as if they are the rule.
You really do need to step back and understand the underlying themes of Techdirt.
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The fail in your point is that you seem to believe these devices are a legitimate means to an end, instead of the revenue generating devices they appear to be.
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These sorts of cameras have been around for a long time in the UK (I got snapped by one on the highway up to Edinburgh about 10 or so years ago). Painting them bright yellow and making them obvious is pretty much making it clear that it isn't just about money.
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All the cameras do, is make people slow down within a couple hundred yards of where the camera is at. Now if they were to set up an temporary camera 1/2 mile past the original one occasionally, then they would realize how many people slow down for just the camera and then go right back to speeding.
I'm all for trying to find ways to make people drive more safely, but from everything I have seen while living in Germany, speed cameras don't provide that.
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I'm sorry, I must have missed the bit where Mike said, implied, alluded to, or referenced file sharing in this post. Could you please point it out?
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"...the post is just about how one unlucky guy stupid enough to keep parking his can in the camera's direct line of site..."
I am guessing your argument is 'How foolish of the man to park in front of his own house when he knows darn well that he could be wrongfully ticketed?' So he parks in front of his house and because of where they setup the camera he should jump through hoops to ensure he does not get wrongfully ticketed? I believe that sums up your mis-guided argument quite well. Maybe you would like a police officer to follow your car when you drive and pull you over for each infraction that a different car does?
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Notice the appeal to his own confidence/authority.
Call me a skeptic, but your mere confidence is not enough to convince me of anything.
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ZERO!
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That is exactly correct. You were being sarcastic and that just goes to demonstrate how stupid you really are. It's better for 100 guilty men to go free than for 1 innocent man to be punished.
This country was founded on freedom, not the "common good".
Everyone bitches left right and center about communism when it comes to health care, but when it comes to fundamental rights no one seems to give a shit.
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I see people like you still use your own thoughts, instead of facts or studies to back up what you say. What should concern everyone is that traffics laws were designed for a person (a Police Officer) to witness an infraction taking place and then enforce the law. When you start down the dark path of letting machines police humans then you are taking 'human judgement' out of the equation, I fear for your society to come into being.
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A new record?
To answer one of the earlier posts, I'll bet the ratio of legit tickets to bad tickets is about the same as the ratio of crap posts to good ones.
I've even made up some data to support that.
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Misdirected Blame?
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Think about it and then return with some valid points to discuss.
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Speed cameras in England have to be painted (or marked) yellow and be clearly visible. The cameras take 2 pictures with a 0.5 second interval between them. There are also markings on the road to identify scale and distance travelled between the photos. These photos are then verified by hand.
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Apparently, that step was skipped in this case.
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Speeding ticket from cameras
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Typical Gene Cavanaugh.
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Visible?
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(This refers to cameras out in the countryside. The ones in the cities all have film all the time, as they are the real "cash cows".)
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1. All yellow lights will last for a period of 5 seconds EXACTLY.
2. There shall be a period of 3 seconds when ALL lights are red during the transition period. This way, if someone still runs the light, nobody will be coming through the intersection.
3. ALL traffic lights, regardless of location will be on a traffic sensor instead of a timer. No more red light at an empty intersection at 3 am in the middle of nowhere delaying you for 5+ minutes.
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Solution: drive your car through mud before parking it in a speed trap.
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Speed Cameras
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And in Victoria where you recieve a $150 fine for doing 63kph in a 60kph zone. Robbery.
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Solution
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Re:Parked Car Gets Multiple Speed Camera Tickets
Our product price concessions, quality is excellent.
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