Your recourse is the court system, but it sounds like the size of the fine is meant for revenue generation rather than safety concerns.
I could think of other things that I would personally do, but I think there is rules on the board regarding stuff like that.
If you end up taking the hit and paying the fine , be sure to visit that website that lists speed traps and add it. It wont help you , but your fellow drivers might appreciate it.
Declan
I can tell you living in Montgomery county that you have zero percent chance of winning. There have been a couple of stories of people fighting these tickets, spending tons of money and not changing anything.
I for one hate these cameras, not because I can get caught, but because all people do is speed anyway, then slam on their brakes and go 15 mph under the limit, then take off again when they are away from the cameras.
Where is the camera you got caught on? The only one I know of in Poolesville is on the eastern side of town, and that’s in a 30 zone. That means there are either two sets of cameras, or they told you the wrong speed. You know those damn things are only there to catch people coming over the ferry.
What interests me about this is the fact that there were three pictures. Three different pictures, I’m assuming. That means that, unless it’s a video camera (which tend to produce bad stills), the camera may have been operating in some sort of continuous or “burst mode”.
If you’re intent on fighting the ticket, find out how fast the camera’s “burst mode” is at its fastest speed. A super-fast digital camera can get 60 frames per second, but their camera may be operating at a more lackadaisical pace, like 1 frame every 1.2 seconds or something. What I’m getting at is, 40 MPH translates to just under 60 feet per second, and depending on how much time lapsed between the pictures, you may be able to show that your car didn’t travel far enough between pictures to be going 40 MPH. Better yet, do the pictures have time stamps on them? Pictures from the PD often do.
My opinion is like Max’s. If they have a time stamp and three pictures, the speed can probably be determined by the landmarks and the time between pics.
StG
For what it’s worth, it’s likely that this will not lead to points on your license; Typo Knig once got nailed that way on 295 in the District of Columbia for doing 55 in a 45 zone; he couldn’t really dispute that he was speeding so he paid. IIRC, there was something explicitly in the mail that said he would not get points - I think the rationale being they could prove the car was there but couldn’t prove the driver one way or the other as it was registered to both of us.
The OP mentioned that there were othe cars on the road. Radar systems - as opposed to laser ones - have been known to have issues with reflections.
I’m witnessing an amazing cultural divide here.
As an Australian, I accept speed cameras. They’ve been here for a very long time. Of course, as a motorist, I don’t like the things any more than anybody else.
What does surprise me is the way it’s seen as some sort of affront to be ticketed by a machine. Could there be calibration, reflection, or other issues? Yeah, possibly. But the machine isn’t going to do racial profiling, make socio-economic judgements based on the model of car, etc. I’m not convinced that my word versus a highway cop’s is any better than my word versus a machine’s.
In my jurisdiction, the OP’s offence would earn him a fine of A$243 (about US$230) and three demerit points of a total of twelve for licence disqualification. If the offence occurs on an official long weekend, the points are doubled.
Most UK cameras work by having a graded calibration strip painted on the road - as in this photo.
You get two pics a set time apart, and by measuring the distance travelled you find the speed. This presumes that 1) the calibration of the two pics is correct and 2) the lines are the right distance apart.
Assuming both of those to be true, you’re pretty much bang-to-rights.
With in-car GPS navigation it’s possible to log every fixed speed camera and set up warning tones, so there’s no excuse to be caught by one of these.
However, the latest technology uses pairs of camera gantries with Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology. They record your car at the first checkpoint, and then record it again a couple of miles down the road. They then calculate an average speed over the distance - so it doesn’t matter if you slow down as you pass the cameras, it’s the total travel time between them that counts.
They have a much better ability to slow traffic down than single cameras, and are (IMO) the best solution to speeding drivers.
The address that was on the citation was that of St. Mary’s Catholic Church. Since I’ve only been there once, I’m not sure where that is. I did take White’s Ferry to get over the river.
I got one of these served to my doorstep recently, only two weeks before my court date. I couldn’t afford to fight it. It’s $165 plus $26 to the dickhead who delivered it and if I even try to fight it, traffic school is off the table as an option. If I lose (and I will), I get the fine + court costs + points + my insurance goes up. The kicker is, I’m pretty much 100% I wasn’t speeding. I quit speeding awhile back after reading Tuesdays With Morrie, and now with gas prices so high I’ve been piddling around under the speed limit.
