Let me tell you that these fucking red-light picture taking cameras are pop-ing up everywhere in California and Arizona these days much to the dismay of drivers who occasionally find themselves stuck in gridlock that stretches part way into the intersection when the light changes. As has been stated, the camera takes a picture of the front license plate and driver. The solution for a long time was…surprise…removing your front license plate, which works great until a cop pulls you over and gives you a fix-it ticket (i.e. get a new plate and prove it or else pay a big fine).
Now the latest greatest thing (which I have on my car) is polarized plastic covers that blur the plate if you look at it at more than about a 10 degree angle in any one direction. Thus, it is still legal because a cop or someone directly behind you can see it and you have a front plate, but the cameras CAN’T read it. It’s already saved my ass at least twice.
Incidentally, they claim these cameras prevent accidents, but just last week I saw a red light camera actually CAUSE an accident here in San Diego. Traffic was moving at a brisk pace perpendicular to me as I waited at the red light, but as it turned yellow, some asshole panicked and slammed on his brakes for fear he would have gotten caught in the intersection when he actually had plenty of time to get through. In fact, the guy in the truck behind him thought they BOTH had time to get through (which was true). Imagine his surprise when he sped UP and the guy in front slammed on his brakes. The only humor is, the guy in front car, in an effort to avoid getting nailed, actually got rear-ended INTO the intersection and the camera STILL took his picture! So he gets and accident and now, no doubt, a ticket as a bonus. How fucked up is that?
I’m tempted to drive around town with a BB gun and shoot out the lenses of these gadgets…
Last time I drove the Ohio Turnpike was maybe 5-6 years ago. I drove it all the way through Ohio, after midnight. When I got into Ohio I started out doing 70, but everyone, including those triple trailers, was hauling past me much, much faster. I eventually sped up to about 90 and was STILL getting passed left and right.
Needless to say I made it from one end of the state to the other pretty fast. And the folks at the tollbooth never looked at me twice.
Since then my impression has been that the Ohio Turnpike is pretty lax on speeders. Evidently I received the wrong impression!!!
I’ve driven in Ohio maybe ten times in the last ten years. I never noticed too many cops until the last trip, within the last few weeks. Of the 18 states I drove through this summer, Ohio has far and away the most cops per 100 miles. I saw over 10 cops as I was traveling westbound the length of the turnpike. I didn’t get stopped in any state on this trip. The Ohio fines described above sound pretty tame to me. My one and only ticket was $98 for going 75 in a 65 zone here in Maine.
As for having to pay on the spot, there was a (young female) contestant on Jeopardy a few months ago who was arrested in Wisconsin because she couldn’t pay her speeding fine on the spot. They let her go after taking her fingerprints, IIRC. This was the reason I made sure I always had several hundred dollars in cash with me on my recent trip.
I have been through the Michigan procedure, and I understand it is typical of how “pay-on-the-spot” states work.
You’re not paying your fine. The police have every right to issue summons, but they cannot find you guilty. Only a judge or magistrate may do that.
However, the police may be empowered to collect a bond, to ensure your eventual appearance in traffic court. As it happens, the bond by happy coincidence is the exact amount of the fine, so that if you choose not to appear in court, the court may find you guilty <i>in abstentia</i>, vacate your bond, and then collect it as a fine.
You are, however, perfectly free to show up in court, at which point are entitled to your bond back, and, if you are found not guilty, is the end of the story.
thing to do when you’re bored: Rent or borrow a white Ford Crown Victoria, park by the side of the road, and point a hair dryer at passing cars. Watch how much they slow down.
thanks to all who responded…i’ll be sure to slow down a bit while i’m driving through…
the license taking as a bond is done in illinois too. i got mine taken when i got in a fender bender a few years back, and a friend got his taken for speeding (43 in a 30) last week. some insurance cards have a bond certificate attached, from what i gather, that can be used instead of the license. i forgot if i was asked for money instead (i got socked for 120 bucks, with court costs, my friend’s shouldn’t be that much).
the neat thing is they use staples to attach it to the documents or folders or whatever. you know you hang out with the wrong crowd when their licenses look like some ant size army used the upper left corner for machine gun practice.
A question for you Ohio people: Do you have “state police” forces per se? Tomndebb mentioned that the Ohio Highway Patrol is pretty much limited to just patrolling highways, so does Ohio actually have a state police force? I live in Illinois, and the State Police here does it all, from manning the highways to helping out local law enforcement. Same question for California. We all remember the show Chips, so is a “highway patrol” force all California has? This whole concept puzzles me…I’m picturing squad cars parked every 2 miles on the highways just waiting for someone to break a traffic law.
There is no state-wide police force with total police powers in Ohio. (Growing up in Michigan, I was surprised at the limits of OHP powers.)
They do have more powers than simply harrassing motorists, but those powers are severly limited. In special cases they can be called upon to investigate other police departments, I believe, and they do have training for and authorization to intervene in riots. (The OHP was originally on the scene at Kent State until the commandant of the National Guard begged the governor to let his boys show everyone how it “should” be done. (Right!)) But in a number of crimes that I would have expected the Michigan State police to be called to help investigate, the OHP has no jurisdiction. Since I haven’t been looking around to identify which cops will bust me during my spoardic crime sprees, I do not know the exact limits of OHP jurisdiction. (I do know I’ve never seen one running radar on a county road, whereas my first ever speeding ticket was issued by a Michigan state cop 7 miles from the nearest state highway.)
Speed traps were a major revenue source in Connecticut until Lowell Weicker and the Democrats sold us out on the State Income Tax. I have seen too many major traps since then but they still use lots of unmarked cars (both the Crown Vics and civilian cars that have been seized) and the occasional airplane. And, of course, sitting on the state lines bagging incoming tourists who won’t fight back (the fines are enormous and the courts were clogged with contested cases until they got rid of the 55 limit)is still an industry.
BTW…Connecticut was the next to last state to get rid of the 55, Hawaii still has it, last I heard. If you plan to drive through or fair state a good radar/laser detector (Thank you Escort) is an indispensable (and legal) accessory.
In California, where I used to live, there is a seperate force from the California Highway Patrol that is the State Police. IIRC, they do a variety of chores, including some protection, process serving, etc. They do not patrol. Perhaps someone can provide more information, or spend some time looking up the info in the California Code (I won’t cause it’s a hijack ).
Rick, don’t ya just love that neat trick with the ‘bond’?
One further note regarding camera tickets: if they don’t show the face of the driver reasonably clearly, they can’t stand up constitutionally if you challenge the citation (no proof YOU were driving, and the CAR can’t break the law). Of course, that means showing up, pleading not guilty, getting a trial, and taking your chance that the system will reach a correct result…
State law says the owner of the car is responsible if the car is observed violating a law and the driver is not observed. An example of this is if a cop is on his way to an emergency and a car doesn’t yeild to his lights & siren. He can copy down the cars plate and go after the owner later. In this state it is the owners burden to prove he wasn’t driving, not the states burden to prove he was. Sounds unfair,but it has already past muster with the state supreme court. I’m waiting for a U.S. Supreme Court challenge to this. One good thing: Photo radar is banned in Wisconsin by state law.
Not much to add, except my name to the list of those caught speeding on the Ohio Turnpike. They’re strict, those Buckeyes. I guess they want you to spend a lot of time in the state.
My Mom got busted once driving through Ohio in the 80’s. I’m glad to be in Texas where cops don’t even look at you if you aren’t doing at least 10 mph over. (Some small town cops excluded, of course.)
Most of the time I am a pedestrian in DC, and on more than few occasions I have been clipped by a car running a red light that I thought was stopping (since he hadn’t even entered the intersection yet and I already had the green). I don’t understand why people are in such a damn hurry to get to the next red light.
The cameras in DC take pictures of the rear plate, so they don’t even care who’s driving. You get the ticket. The cameras take two pictures spaced about 500 mSecs apart, so if your car has cleared the intersection in the 2nd picture, there was no traffic jam or gridlock and you get a ticket for running the red. If you are still in the intersection in the 2nd picture, then there must be a traffic jam or the intersection was gridlocked and you entered the intersection when it wasn’t clear to proceed all the way through. In this case you get a ticket for inciting gridlock.
If you’re not even in the 2nd picture, then you were probably speeding and should get a ticket for that… but I don’t know if they’re doing that just yet.
I live in CT. Town police are pretty much invariably marked, and it does seem like many of the state police aren’t. However, its not like it matters if its a speed trap; dont go speeding by any car parked next to the highway.
I can’t speak for everyone everywhere, but at least in New York, on some streets, the lights are timed in such a way that if you make the green, you’ve got green lights ahead of you for a good long way, but if you just miss it, you can count on just missing every green light for the next x number of blocks. One red light is one thing, but a whole series of them is incredibly frustrating.
).