I drove through Memphis Saturday taking highway 78 down to Tupelo Mississippi.
78 is the main corridor from Memphis to Birmingham. But, that 10 mile stretch of highway 78 inside Memphis has a lot of traffic lights. Most have signs saying they are camera enforced. I always dread getting through that part of Memphis.
We don’t have camera enforced lights in Little Rock. I’m not sure of the rules.
I hit one light in Memphis that turned red just as I entered the intersection or maybe I was half way in. There was no way to stop without throwing myself through the windshield.
Is their any lee way on those cameras? If you’re in the intersection before it goes red are you ok?
What’s your experience? Are these just money makes for the city? Or are they fair?
yes they do not start taking pictures as soon as the light turns red. If you are in the intersection when it goes red you are OK. I have seen the flash myself once or twice but I never got a ticket, I guess it was for a car behind me. (They use flash during the day)
I got a ticket in VA once for running a yellow light. The law was if you entered the intersection when the light turned yellow you broke the law, you had to already be in the intersection to be in the clear when it changed. Red running therefore was illegal at all times because you had to ignore the yellow to be under the light when it changed. IDK if the law is still the same in VA or how other states did it.
That being said I learned in FL real quick NOT to stop for yellow, the people behind you would honk and zip around you to get through the red light. I can only imagine it is legal for the first 5-6 cars to run red in FL. Never never jump ouit on a green light without looking both ways.
Back to cameras on lights, I know in FL they are mostly deactivated due to some quirky Gov. decision.
They are everywhere in DC and I don’t know many people that have not been caught by them, especially the ones that trigger when you are speeding.
I’m sure there was a yellow. I was probably distracted for a second. I’m not familiar with Memphis and I was busy looking for my next turn. I had to merge onto I-55 to get home and didn’t want to miss it.
Red Light Cameras save a municipality money inasmuch as they can monitor the camera-ed intersections without having to keep a live police officer on the spot; this means (depending upon how many intersections you monitor) you can either have fewer officers on the payroll (a huge savings) or you can re-direct your existing officers to other areas of the municipality that have a greater need for patrol.
They also are a revenue source for muncipalities. In some cases, the cameras are installed and maintained by an outside vendor, and the vendor receives a fee for each ticket issued.
IMO, in the Chicago area, they are revenue generators first, and safety measures a distant second. In fact, it is not at all uncommon for accidents at affected intersections to increase, due to people slamming on the brakes when the light changes instead of simply (and more safely) progressing through. And often people refuse to turn right on red at all, simply to avoid any chance of a ticket.
Enforcement is all over the map - you cannot make any gereralities as to what will be violations at all intersections. One big one around here is to give a ticket even if you come to a full stop before turning right on red if you don’t stop entirely behind the white line. Further, there is no standard for the length of yellow. So you really ought not assume you can enter an intersection on the yellow and avoid a ticket should the light turn red.
On countless occasions I have been proceeding on major roads at the posted speed. When I come to a camera enforced intersection my attention is focused on not getting a ticket - which can be considerably different from simply proceeding through the intersection safely. Complete bullshit IMO.
Getting rear ended was my concern too. Those cameras are so intimidating. It’s a real OMG moment when the light turns as you enter the intersection. Your first reaction is to slam on the brakes. I’m glad I didn’t do anything stupid and wreck.
Even a couple tickets in a short time span can raise your insurance rates.
It’s been ten years since my last ticket. I should be ok if I get one now.
Most drivers are a lot worse than they think they are. I walk a lot and when you do, you quickly notice this. I also can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been blinded by red light cameras in Chicago. They seem to be well coordinated with the walk signals.
In Illinois the vehicle code clearly says you can’t enter an intersection on a yellow light. It say the yellow light is for cars, already in the intersection to have time to finish turning or going through. In other words if you’re in the intersection when the light is yellow it’s fine, but it’s not legal to enter it on yellow in Illinois.
It’s always been this way in Illinois.
Most everywhere red light cameras are not classed as moving violations but are in the same class of violations as parking tickets. This allows the police to enforce it to the car not the driver. Though that class isn’t universal.
Yeah, I nearly got rear-ended on North Avenue over the weekend - the speed limit there was 40 mph, I was pretty close to the intersection, and whoosh, light goes yellow. I slammed on the brakes out of a panicked reflex, and looking in the rear-view I only then noticed how closely the guy behind me had been following. Fortunately there wasn’t an accident.
Yeah, this may be so, but it certainly does not comport with the reality of driving. In the situation FH describes, do you really believe it is better for her to slam on the brakes instead of proceeding through the intersection? If a human was giving out the tickets, he could apply his discretion. But instead, they are done by a private business which earns a bounty on each ticket issued.
I agree with you that a great number of drivers are unskilled, inattentive, and inconsiderate. But these cameras are set up in ways to punish what I strongly believe is responsible driving.
This is certainly the case in Chicago (and I believe throughout IL.) There was a 7th Cir. decision recently upholding them. (I linked the decision on these forums, and STRONGLY disagree with its reasoning.) Bottomline - be careful who you lend your car to, because you, and not the driver, will be responsible for any camera tickets.
Maybe it’s the way you worded this. But it makes no sense to me. What if your going 35 miles per hour and the light changes to yellow 10 feet before you enter the intersection. It would be physically imposible to stop in time.
Do they really expect you to stop a moving 1-2 ton vehicle going c. 40 MPH in the space of a foot?
Nobody here in Florida (except me I guess :D) fully stops for a right turn on red-and no police officer ever enforces it. I’d hate to be in a city with a camera, have some huge SUV next to me in the left lane, blocking my sight of the other road, eke over the white line to get a better look, and get flashed.
The assertion that the Illinois code says you cannot enter an intersection on yellow does not look plausible to me either - you could not comply without violating the laws of physics. For me the rule is on yellow to brake if you can safely brake before you reach the light, elso proceed.
(Two years ago I ran a red light not because the signalling was unreasonable but because of a moment of absent-mindedness. Got a heavy fine because I passed the light more than 1 s after it turned red (to wit, 1.14 s), and points on my license one third of the way to having it revoked (German regulations in my instance). That taught me.)
Do you have a link? I checked the Secretary of State’s “Rules of the Road” website, and this is what it says for yellow lights:
Sounds to me like this means, “If the light is yellow, just be warned, it’s going to be red soon.”
My husband got a red-light ticket for not stopping at the line before doing a (legal) right on red. He saw there were no pedestrians or cars from the right, so he was poked into the intersection a bit. And several years back I got a “failure to follow traffic signals” sort of ticket for causing a fender-bender - the light’s yellow was insanely short, and I couldn’t stop in time and literally bent the fender of a car (it was a one-way street, so neither of us was far into the intersection, so it’s not as bad as you might think from that description). Even the cop said that light was weird.
I’m rather paranoid about light timing now, as you might guess.
In the UK, a fair percentage of lights (usually ones at major intersections) now have cameras, and have done for some years. There is always a yellow (amber) light, for which the universal rule is stop unless it would be unsafe or impossible to do so. This means that the cameras will never flash if you go through an amber light, but if you go through it on a red, it is assumed the light was amber for long enough for you to stop, and you will almost certainly get a ticket in the post.
This means that although I tend towards the “amber means speed up” school, I am a lot more wary about it having got a ticket for doing just this and not making it.
I like the yellow light cameras. They make people actually stop, if they can, when the lights change. They also stop three or four people from turning left on the yellow.
I don’t know what the law says, but I do know that my personal experience - and the unanimous experience of the several people I have discussed this with - is that red light cameras introduce a measure of indecision into driving. For the vast majority of experienced drivers it is extremely routine to pass through a light-controlled intersection. You simply develop a feel for comparing your speed and stopping distance to determine whether you can continue through. So you are able to give a good portion of your attention to the other traffic, identifying potential dangers.
Introduce the camera, and the average driver shifts a greater share of his attention to the light, which necessarily reduces the attention you have available to pay to other vehicles and pedestrians. Sure, we might all assume that no municipality would assign a ticket if you had already entered the intersection before the light turned yellow. But how willing are you to risk a $100 ticket (the going rate around these parts) to test that assumption?
Take another situation, where you are pulled into the intersection, awaiting a break in traffic or the yellow to turn left. Sure, I imagine it might technically be against the law. But I submit that when done responsibly it is entirely safe and improves the flow of traffic. And, IME it is NEVER ticketed by a human cop. So you are sitting there with your blinker on, everyone sees you, you are not endangering anyone, and when the lights start to turn you start to wonder, “Shit, am I going to get a ticket here?”