Photo enforcement cameras are problematic for several reasons.
A) It has been shown that yellow lights with such cameras are very often set to a yellow duration briefer than generally accepted engineering practices to increase revenue *1
B) They discourage a rare misbehavior, actually running red lights, whilst causing another to become common. That is slamming on the brakes even when it isn’t safe to stop. Exacerbated by A. Better slam on the brakes when it flicks yellow even if you are way too close to reasonably stop whilst going only the speed limit.
People who are caught up by it are almost always those who found themselves a bit too far into the intersection to safely stop. EG those who cross the threshold right as it is changing. There is for reasons of safety a few seconds between one light turning red and another green. At 30 mph (44 feet per second) someone will fully clear a 40 foot intersection in less than a second. That is to say the only people you catch aren’t those who would have collided.
They are those
you fucked with the shorter duration yellow oops
people who hesitated because of 1 and slowed but ultimately decided to proceed thinking they can make it
People with poorer brakes and or dealing with rainy conditions reducing stopping time.
C) Most of the money goes to the contractor who owns the cameras. Essentially you are letting a private company prey on your citizens as long as government gets to keep the scraps.
I’ll add one more. They subvert our right to a trial and seeing our accuser. The fines are all supposed to be viewed by some sort of officer that is supposed to show up if you challenge the ticket. The only one I’ve received didn’t have any info on how to challenge it. It was like a bill that obfuscated my right to a trial. Guilt is assumed and forgiveness is ignored. 28 in a school zone in an unfamiliar city, instant fine with no “oops I fucked up” recourse.
Crazy how car drivers all think they deserve one free pass for dangerous driving.
Pay more attention.
That aside, it’s bullshit that they allegedly made it difficult for you to understand how to take the matter to court. In all fairness I’m not sure I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt here, considering you missed the school zone as well.
This is always a hard conversation to have. There are drivers on the road who want everyone to be safe, and do their best to function in our bad infrastructure. I try to be one of them, partially because I commuted on a bike and public transit for a long time. I did miss the sign in this instance, it was one of those “when present” signs that doesn’t have lights.
Personally I want more fines for actually dangerous driving. Its hard to quantify how much dumb shit I’ve seen while driving as much as I do. Watching TV while driving should be straight to the drunk tank and yet i see it every day.
In some cases you don’t actually have an automatic court date as one would have with a normal officer issued ticket… This is the same with parking enforcement you can receive a ticket that if you don’t pay you lose your license but they can simply ignore you and if you want to fight it you have to front a few grand to a lawyer to fight it and initiate a lawsuit or represent yourself and commit to losing multiple days pay and risk your job which will not understand.
Shortening yellow lights to cause people to unintentionally run them, people slamming on the brakes and causing accidents, and a monetary transfer between citizens and a private company are not problem?
Photo enforcement cameras are problematic for several reasons.
A) It has been shown that yellow lights with such cameras are very often set to a yellow duration briefer than generally accepted engineering practices to increase revenue *1
B) They discourage a rare misbehavior, actually running red lights, whilst causing another to become common. That is slamming on the brakes even when it isn’t safe to stop. Exacerbated by A. Better slam on the brakes when it flicks yellow even if you are way too close to reasonably stop whilst going only the speed limit.
People who are caught up by it are almost always those who found themselves a bit too far into the intersection to safely stop. EG those who cross the threshold right as it is changing. There is for reasons of safety a few seconds between one light turning red and another green. At 30 mph (44 feet per second) someone will fully clear a 40 foot intersection in less than a second. That is to say the only people you catch aren’t those who would have collided.
They are those
C) Most of the money goes to the contractor who owns the cameras. Essentially you are letting a private company prey on your citizens as long as government gets to keep the scraps.
*1 https://ww2.motorists.org/blog/6-cities-that-were-caught-shortening-yellow-light-times-for-profit/
I’ll add one more. They subvert our right to a trial and seeing our accuser. The fines are all supposed to be viewed by some sort of officer that is supposed to show up if you challenge the ticket. The only one I’ve received didn’t have any info on how to challenge it. It was like a bill that obfuscated my right to a trial. Guilt is assumed and forgiveness is ignored. 28 in a school zone in an unfamiliar city, instant fine with no “oops I fucked up” recourse.
Crazy how car drivers all think they deserve one free pass for dangerous driving.
Pay more attention.
That aside, it’s bullshit that they allegedly made it difficult for you to understand how to take the matter to court. In all fairness I’m not sure I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt here, considering you missed the school zone as well.
This is always a hard conversation to have. There are drivers on the road who want everyone to be safe, and do their best to function in our bad infrastructure. I try to be one of them, partially because I commuted on a bike and public transit for a long time. I did miss the sign in this instance, it was one of those “when present” signs that doesn’t have lights.
Personally I want more fines for actually dangerous driving. Its hard to quantify how much dumb shit I’ve seen while driving as much as I do. Watching TV while driving should be straight to the drunk tank and yet i see it every day.
In some cases you don’t actually have an automatic court date as one would have with a normal officer issued ticket… This is the same with parking enforcement you can receive a ticket that if you don’t pay you lose your license but they can simply ignore you and if you want to fight it you have to front a few grand to a lawyer to fight it and initiate a lawsuit or represent yourself and commit to losing multiple days pay and risk your job which will not understand.
None of these are actual problems with red light cameras, and actually people run red lights all the damn time.
Shortening yellow lights to cause people to unintentionally run them, people slamming on the brakes and causing accidents, and a monetary transfer between citizens and a private company are not problem?
…with red light cameras.
Correct. It is a different problem.
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