Simple, it is going to cost them so much money in fines ($271. to start with here in So. Cal plus increased insurance preminums) that the asshole in question will think twice before doing it again.
Maybe just maybe if those two assholes I mentioned in my last post had been nailed by a red light camara and paid the fine they might have done what they did.
Don’t lose sight of the fact that a red light camara is not doing anything that an officer on the scene would do. Enter the intersection on a red light a cop will give you a ticket. Enter on the red and a camara might get a clear enough photo for you to get a ticket. If anything you have a better chance of no ticket with the camara. With the cop it will be real hard to go to court use the SODDI defence.
That question is so easy to answer, it doesnt even need asking.
If you kept repeating an action that cost you $300 everytime you did it, how long would it take for you to stop doing it? Unless you were Bill Gates, or his personal driver, I think you would quit after the first, MAYBE second time.
Those cameras are popular here in San Diego. As a matter of fact, they just went back up about 2-3 months ago. It was found that the timing of the camera lights were different than of the non-camera lights. There was a quicker change from yellow to red.
After some court battles, the cameras are back, with supposedly the same timing as all other intersections. And they do make a difference. I have seen between 5-10 cars, depending on intersection, run the red lights, because they were late to work.
Now with the cameras up and running, you see that first car, that normally would have ran the red, stop at the limit line.
Yes Rick - I so totally agree with everything you’ve said there. As you know, we both love our cars and we’ve talked about some very technological aspects of cars in quite a few threads recently. And yet, I’m also a former representative road cyclist too, and I still train at least 4 or 5 times a week early in the mornings with the local elite cycling fraternity. We ride in the early morning to not be a problem to anyone - we leave before 6 am - and yet, every day we see motorists sail through intersections totally convinced that the “rules of the road” don’t apply to them in some capacity. Recently, one of our number was cleaned up by a guy who couldn’t stop at an intersection in time, and our buddy ended up with cracked ribs and punctured lung.
So yeah… this arguement that “red light cameras” are purely a cynical exercise in collecting consolidated revenue is total crap. The reality is that even the safest traffic light intersection in the world can still be transgressed by a driver who isn’t paying attention, or who is simply too impatient, or worst of all, simply believes that “they’ll never get caught…”
It just breaks my heart that so many people don’t respect their fellow road users. All it takes is just a little bit of personal responsibility, and just a little bit of “self training” to constantly “look ahead” to see what’s coming up. Sadly, those two ingredients seem to be the hardest tricks in all the world to teach to drivers.
So fellow Dopers, forgive me for not answering the OP Question specifically - except insofar as it strikes me as being a question that doesn’t need to be asked if one takes pride in being a safe, and responsible driver.
Boo You have expressed my feelings much more eloquently than I could have.
I do ride a bicycle (although I am no where near your level) and while I have never been nailed by an inattentive driver, it is not for a lack of trying.
The almost perfect device is a rear hitch and one of those bike racks (and a bike). I have always wondered how so many people drive around with them totally obscuring the plate.
In most states, it absolutely is illegal to obscure or paint your license plates. Check your own state laws. You may think no one will notive, but you’ll completely dull the special reflective surface all tates put on their plates, for safe visibility at a distance. At night, it will be clearly evident that you tampered with the plate, and I have no doubt that when one car in ten has dulled plates at night plates, they’ll crack down at will. Why do you think you have license plates? To identify your car. Why should they be indulgent of people displaying premeditation.
You may usually get away with having muddy plates, but the fact is you have absolutely NO right to drive that way; you re required to display clearly visble and legible plates. Most cops choose to be indulgent, but they’ll catch on to you after a few weeks or months. They’ll certainly crack down on it if that dodge becomes popular, and everyone with temporarily dirty plates will pay (eventually) for the few who used the dodge
People who abuse every ‘reasonable indulgence’ they can force cops to crack down - you know, like people who believe that the laws is a giant game of hide and seek, and unless there’s a cop at the traffic light to ‘tag’ them when they run a red light, it’s okay; or if the cop didn’t photograph them breaking the law, they should be able to contest it; or who feel their convenience or ‘common sense’ overrides the law, even though that belief directly kills tens of thousands of people every year.
Now there are cameras on the cars and at the intersections, and those people are crying “foul”. It’s not fair. It wrecks the game.
Yeah, I think that 100% compliance is an unreasonable expectation. We all make mistakes somtimes, but its the people who pushed the limits of indulgences like “warning” for the rare offense, or deliberately breaking the law whenever a cop isn’t in sight, who forced 100% enforcement on us.
If you can’t afford a ticket, drive more carefully.
Note: I think stop light cams are a good idea. I just think They should focus on the saving lives aspect instead of the I’m greedy, oh I am greedy, give me some money, aspect. If they need money so bad how about they raise taxes instead creating a traffic hazard?
No, I believe that in most states, they were tcicketed for not slowing to a safe stop. A yellow light is not a signal to hurry up and 'beat it. It is a signal to those who can stop safely to do so, while allowing those who can’t stop safely to continue. They also help people making turns clear the intersection [or prepare to].
If you can show that a traffic light doesn’t allow enough time for a car travelling a legal speed to slow to a convenient stop (all it takes is a stopwatch and a single math division), then you can easily have the ticket thrown out - but if you see a yellow light and think “I could stop, but I beat the last light, so I should be able to beat this one”, you’re ignoring the meaning of a yellow light, and you -not some ‘innocent’- will get a ticket.
The problem is that many people are simply unwilling to accept the purpose of the yellow light; they’ll even nitpick the heck out of statutes trying to prove that the yellow light means something other than “slow and prepare to stop”. They tell you “not to tell them how to drive”. Yet that’s what traffic laws do -usually for good reason- and if you don’t care, I’d happily see your license revoked.
If you got caught short-footed at a light that allowed enough time to slow to a stop, you weren’t slowing and preparing to stop. In which case, what color do you think warns you to slow and stop? Red? No, by then, it’s too late for anyone close to the intersection to stop. If you’ were speeding (because YOU know the safe speed) or racing the yellow, you’re exactly the person the cops should be catching with a ‘quick’ (but safe) yellow.
Alas, many of the people who get caught will refuse to acknowledge this, and cry unfair. Every whiner who refuses to ‘get it’ make it harder to address the genuinely unfair traffic enforcement policies
In NY you can get a ticket for blowing a yellow light (if you had time to stop), however in NJ you can get a ticket for stopping on yellow. - go figure
I don’t think this is accurate. I lived and drove all my life in NJ and on at least a couple occassions I was warned about not stopping at a yellow when I could have. I never got an actual ticket for it, but I got the distinct impression I could have.
In Michigan I have heard your fine legaly as long as your car is in the intersection when it turns red. However I have seen cars who were right under the light when it turned red with cops in plain view. If it turns red up to the moment you enter the intersection your goose is cooked if they see you. So it’s either law or a convention by the cops instead of the law. The cops here have a lot od discrection. All the traffic lights here have a few second delay before turning green so this is not the hazard it seems.
We have a lot of large 18 wheelers coming through Michigan. On the highway it’s safer to plan your course of action figuring 18 wheeler stopping ability (otherwise you could get rearended). So in many cases blowing through a yellow light you could have stopped for is safer. Not the reasoning most go-for-it-if-you-think-you-can-make-it’ers use admitadly but something to think about. Also I believe we have a minimum yellow light time that most stop lights use, some have more, making it so you have standard time to assume for your calculations.
The cameras are both good and bad. I do HATE the big brother feel of the lights, it seems terribly wrong for a private company to get part of the take from the cameras, I have read about studies that say there has been no reduction in accidents at camera equipped intersections, and the insurance companies studies that claim safer intersections have been called into question for reasons of money - it has been a windfall as the insurance companies are able to charge some higher rates because of tickets - same risk people that otherwise would have been paying lower rates.
However the jackasses that run lights and also block intersection in rush hour traffic need to get it. Maybe we should be permitted to burn their cars.
I just recently went through a defensive driving class (train the trainer, not because I had to) my instructor claimed that yellow lights are timed at one second per ten miles per hour speed limit, rounded up. 50 mph = 5 secs. 25 mph =3 secs . I have been checking and found that it is mostly true at least here in NJ