We got one last year, and I was delighted to open the envelope and see a picture of my wife’s car running the redlight. She’s never gotten a ticket in our 11 years of marriage but I’ve had two.
So I tease her about it, and she’s all 
until she looks at the date - she was out of town that day! Then she remembers that she loaned the car to her brother-in-law. So he paid the ticket and I lost the opportunity to gloat :(.
I got one, here in California, and they just sent the ticket in the mail and I sent them back a check.
Exactly. My father got one and he clearly ran the red. It was a right turn situation and he rolled the stop, big time. No doubt whatsoever. I challenged the ticket by mail on the grounds that the sign said “No turn on red when pedestrians are present” and there were no pedestrians present (which is actually why my dad thought he got the ticket. He apparently didn’t realize he has to come to an actually stop before taking a right turn at a controlled intersection.) It confused them enough that they decided in his favor. I was dumbfounded but, hey, doesn’t cost anything to contest the ticket. Might as well give it a shot.
(Meanwhile, I get a parking ticket where I think I’m unambiguously legally parked, but get nailed on that one after contesting it, so I guess the system evened itself out.)
Wait, are you sure you’re getting a ticket? This just happened last night right? Are you just basing this on the flash of the camera behind you?
Most municipalities these days (after lots of problems and complaints) cannot issue a ticket until a police officer has reviewed the photo and determined if the person had actually run the light (and to make sure the license plate # is pulling correctly in the system.)
If it really was a yellow light and you were at the “point of no return” as far as stopping, then you’re probably fine. Or was it already a very red shade of yellow when you entered the intersection?
It may cost you. In Illinois, if you contest the ticket and win fine, but if you contest it and lose your not only stuck for the ticket but court costs as well.
No, I’m not sure I’m getting one. It was just last night. I believe the light was yellow when I crossed the line. I’m just basing this whole thing on seeing the white light flash as I was going through, and I was the only one there. Maybe I’m just being paranoid.
It certainly has never happened to me when I contested by mail, and I’m in Chicago. I’ve contested probably a dozen tickets in my life and won 7 of them. Never been charged more than the fine. The one I’ve actually showed up to court for (a moving violation), same thing, although it was a different scenario. The only time court costs were a problem was if I wanted to appeal a decision of the traffic court. Then, that would cost me a filing fee and all that sort of nonsense. Even though I thought I was in the right, I paid the fine, because I would have been out a few dollars even if I had won, because of the filing fee. Once again, I sort of felt it evened out with the times I got off the parking tickets when I was, in all honesty, in the wrong.
If it was yellow, you won’t get the ticket. When a notice was sent to me, there was a link to a website where I could actually view the video of the incident. The color of the stoplight was clearly visible.
On the advice of an atty, because I didn’t want to pay and it wasn’t me driving, I sent back the ticket, with the box checked that said I wasn’t going to pay it, and wrote in that it was not me driving. They sent back a form letter saying that the matter was dropped.
I still for the life of me can’t understand how these things hold up. So they have a pretty picture of my vehicle running a red light. How do they prove it is me driving it?
Answers I’ve heard:
Nonsense. If I loan it to my brother and he speeds, he gets the ticket not me. If he drives drunk (unbeknownst to me) he gets the DUI. If he runs a red light and a COP pulls him over, who gets the ticket, him or me?
Is that what the good ole USA has come to? I thought that I could sit silently while the state had to prove my guilt?
Here, if you go to the website, they can use that to prove that you got the ticket. So, not going to the website.
jtgain, here they take your picture in such a way that it very clearly shows that it’s you driving. If it’s obviously not you, you can get it dismissed.
That seems pretty weird. Wouldn’t getting the ticket prove that you got the ticket? And how the heck do they know it was you visiting the website?
Nope, as I stated earlier, apparently mailing the ticket is not the legal way to issue it here in AZ. They hope that you don’t know that when they mail it. Maybe they know it’s you because you enter a case number or some such?
Presumably you can only access the video on the website by entering a code off the ticket you received in the mail. By visiting the website, they can confirm that someone, at least, read the mailed ticket. Given that it’s a felony for one person to read another’s mail, either you’ve read your ticket or another crime has been committed that needs investigation anyway.
Dude, it’s Arizona. They check your ID when you visit the website under the premise of ensuring you’re not eligible for deportation. 
I see. I still don’t understand how the burden of proof is on them to prove you got the ticket. They issued it. That’s all the proof they need.
There’s this weird kind of balancing act with the red light cameras. It’s like legislators like the idea of them for being more efficient and allowing them to prevent maintaining a large traffic cop division, but they also hate the idea of actually being caught on camera (and there’s probably a lot of negative public pressure on them too). So they exist, but with a whole lot of weird little loopholes to give halfway-attentive citizens a way out.
So, their post(al) is their cite?
When my town had cameras, the city ordinance creating the parallel legal system that dealt with them simply decreed that the owner of the car was presumed to be the driver. The at-will employee of the police department who arbitrated at the hearings that they tricked people into attending was banned by the ordinance from dismissing a ticket on the grounds that the owner wasn’t the driver unless the owner named the driver and, if necessary, gave evidence showing that they weren’t the driver.
Pretty much, I guess, although usually there are two copies of the ticket, one of which they keep. That should be enough, shouldn’t it?
Is a red light ticket in IL a moving violation or a parking violation? In some states it’s a moving violation in some states it’s like a parking ticket.
I have never had a parking ticket violation but every ticket I got for a moving violation, if you showed up in court, they told you, if you contest and lose you pay the court costs as well as the ticket. I don’t know if the city of Chicago is somehow different, but they definitely told me that, before I pleaded.