To the people that keep complaining that stop light cameras should be illegal.

muchosuspicioso · 2012-11-19T18:12:43+00:00

When yellow lights are set to shorter times at intersections with cameras, to "enhance revenue" there is a problem with the camera and light, not the drivers. Several lawsuits over this have demonstrated the malfeasance of cities and camera companies in this regard.

Likewise, when the cameras photograph legal right turns on red and the court cost to contest the ticket equals or exceeds the penalty, there is a problem with the setup, not the drivers.

Likewise, when the cameras photograph stopped cars and ticket them, and again the court costs make not contesting the ticket the cheaper option, there is a problem with the setup, not the drivers.

When drivers slam on brakes to stop at yellows for fear of getting a ticket that costs $75 to $250, and get rear ended, more than one person suffers from the red light cameras. This unintended side effect, incidentally, is the primary effect of putting up red light cameras, other than producing revenue for cities while doing nothing to make intersections safer.

The best way found to make intersections safer? Add +1 second to the yellow light, and add +1 second to the time all lights are red before some change to green.

SchoolyardCheeze · 2012-11-19T19:27:26+00:00

Police Officer here. My problem with the red light cams is that they take away officer discretion. Say it's 3 AM, you stop at red, then go since there's nobody around. I'm probably going to pull you over, but you're probably not getting a ticket. I'm checking to make sure you're not drunk or something. Or of it's a busier time, but you have a convincing story or make me laugh or are clearly trying not to poop, again, no ticket. But these red light cameras. They are soulless. I'm pretty sure they're phase one of Skynet's plan.

0accountability · 2012-11-19T20:47:16+00:00

Some towns remove them because they don't get the revenue they expected. "Over the years, Redflex has collected 88 percent of revenues from the $50-a-pop tickets. Cary has kept 2 percent for administrative costs, and the rest has gone to the Wake County Public School Systems.

“It’s a racket. Redflex reaps all the financial benefit, schools get very little,” said Councilman Don Frantz."

Read more here.

fredd_garvin · 2012-11-19T19:30:59+00:00

The argument against them isn't that they should be illegal, it's that they're unconstitutional. The cameras identify the vehicle that offends, the ticket is written to the owner without ever identifying the driver. This places the burden of proof of innocence onto the person receiving the ticket. This is fundamentally unconstitutional. I love living in a state where they where successfully challenged and they have been removed.

ska_Sean · 2012-11-19T18:36:41+00:00

Most people that have half a brain think stop lights cameras should be illegal not because they are breaking the law but because it take the burden of proof off the state/police and puts burden of proof on the defendant, and that my friends is against the US constitution.

Example of what i mean: I lend my car to a friend. Friend using the car runs red light. He doesn't get the points on his card nor does he have to pay the fine. NOW the burden is on me to prove i wasn't driving the car, so therefore i shouldn't be getting points and the fine. <~Against the law.

I_Hate_Nerds · 2012-11-19T21:13:19+00:00

Yes definitely, OP's taste in logic is fantastic and should be applied to everything. If you're not doing anything wrong then you shouldn't have anything to worry about, now gimme your rights!

IMissTheUSAS-12 · 2012-11-19T20:51:21+00:00

I have a camera near me that decides to go off when you stop on the line.

creepyredditloaner · 2012-11-19T18:08:31+00:00

If only life were that simple. Unfortunatly the camera cause wrecks to be more frequent and more dangerous. Also companies that run them and the municipalities that install them often set them in ways they know will cause more violations in order to bring in more cash flow.

They are antithetical to their own purpose.

wanderingjoe · 2012-11-20T00:23:48+00:00

The problem with red light cameras is that they are selectively enforced. In Arizona, you will not get a ticket if you fall in to one of the following, but not limited to, groups: Out of state/country plates, people with their faces partially obscured and motorcyclists with full helmets to name a few. So only state registered vehicles and locals are subject to fines. Selective enforcement of the law is unjust no matter how you paint it.

r_deschain · 2012-11-19T20:53:13+00:00

Red light cams increase rear end crashes.

accountnotfound2 · 2012-11-19T20:46:15+00:00

They should. I got a ticket for running a red light. I was stuck behind a bus in the intersection. Not moving. So fuck you OP.

Vee_Vee · 2012-11-19T22:22:32+00:00

TIL that OP must be fucking perfect!

nommytorton · 2012-11-19T20:21:48+00:00

Are people still doing OP is a faggot jokes? Because this one would be prime for it.

Fyretongue · 2012-11-19T22:04:52+00:00

You, sir OP, can fuck right off.

Dubzil · 2012-11-19T21:57:10+00:00

The only thing that matters is those stop light cameras cause more accidents - anything that makes the road less safe should not be legal.

OblivionsMemories · 2012-11-20T00:08:55+00:00

Big brother is watching.

Don't break the law.

eljefffe · 2012-11-19T23:46:07+00:00

The cameras are unfair even if you're not breaking the law. I got a ticket mailed to me when I didn't do anything wrong. The camera was set up poorly and it registered me as having been into the intersection - when I clearly wasn't. I got the ticket thrown out but that's just an example.

htownbau5 · 2012-11-20T00:21:09+00:00

This is the issue my red light camera officer deals with on a daily basis. People get the violations and complain that they stopped at a red light.

Little do they know that there is a video that shows them running the light, but also how long the light was red when they ran it and average speed they were going. Some are legit complaints and get dismissed, others are just plain stupid. I just stay quiet and listen and get a good chucke once in a while.

BruderTuck · 2012-11-20T00:51:20+00:00

Try Europe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout

idunnothis · 2012-11-19T22:16:44+00:00

It's not about that we break the law or anything. I've never gotten a red light camera ticket and i hate them with a passion because the only real reason they are there is to collect money.

attomsk · 2012-11-19T20:56:02+00:00

Speed cameras are the debil though

siksniper1996 · 2012-11-19T21:54:50+00:00

How to fix this

minizanz · 2012-11-19T23:43:21+00:00

THE MONEY GOES TO PRIVATE COMPANIES, AND YOU CLEARLY HAVE NEVER GOTTEN A TICKET ($435) FOR TURNING RIGHT ON RED WHEN THEY DID NOT PUT A SIGN UP SAYING YOU CANNOT, THEN YOU CANNOT FIGHT IT SINCE PEOPLE RARELY WIN, AND YOU CANNOT AFFORD THE INSURANCE RATES IF YOU LOOSE AS YOU CAN NOT TO TRAFFIC SCHOOL IF YOU LOOSE.

they also generally have mistimed lights, and increase accident rates when installed, then decrease accident rates when removed.

revjtanton · 2012-11-19T21:44:32+00:00

My biggest problem with the speed cameras isn't that I speed and don't want tickets (I've never gotten a ticket from a speed camera), its that every law enforced on a people by its government should be able to be challenged by the people directly.

Basically you can't take a camera to court. The system has decreed, rightly or wrongly, that speeding is illegal and you should pay a fine if you don't oblige. The finger pointing, as it is, should be done by other people who contribute to and make up said system. In other words: a cop.

We should always have a right to face our accuser. We've made laws to govern ourselves. Technology is the pursuit of making our lives easier. So we've made a restriction for ourselves and then automated it's enforcement? Ridiculous.

ibor132 · 2012-11-19T22:24:20+00:00

I live in Maine. They are illegal here. No need to complain.

BigFinn · 2012-11-19T22:29:25+00:00

I'd like to use this .gif in my opinion on Reddit bitching about people getting busted for marijuana or saying it should be legal. But that would result in some heavy downvotes.

Secret_Agent_Bear · 2012-11-19T23:12:10+00:00

My problem with them is three separate court room visits to explain that I was making a legal right turn and should not have been ticketed. All at the same intersection.

Aside from all the other reasons posted here, they don't actually work.

itslexxibetch · 2012-11-19T23:19:32+00:00

Fuck those cameras. I'm law abiding and those things will have facial recognition software within 5 years if not already. Then they can track your route to work, where you shop, and soon I think they'll be able to recognize retina movement and really find out how you function

MrThePlug · 2012-11-19T21:13:00+00:00

*traffic lights

-Nikolaus- · 2012-11-19T22:29:12+00:00

I believe the Supreme Court is one of those bunch of kooks saying these are illegal...

that_word_origin_guy · 2012-11-19T22:29:25+00:00

camera (n.)

1708, "vaulted building," from L. camera "vaulted room" (cf. It. camera, Sp. camara, Fr. chambre), from Gk. kamara "vaulted chamber," from PIE root *kam- "to arch." The word also was used early 18c. as a short form of Mod.L. camera obscura "dark chamber" (a black box with a lens that could project images of external objects), contrasted with camera lucida (Latin for "light chamber"), which uses prisms to produce an image on paper beneath the instrument, which can be traced. It became the word for "picture-taking device" when modern photography began, c.1840 (extended to television filming devices 1928). Camera-shy is attested from 1890. O.C.S. komora, Lith. kamara, O.Ir. camra all are borrowings from Latin.

Blow-it-out-your-ass · 2012-11-20T00:09:44+00:00

It's so unreasonable to wait for red lights at like 3am when you can CLEARLY see no one is coming from any direction....

Theultimateturtle · 2012-11-20T00:18:22+00:00

They snapped my picture for a LEGAL right hand turn. The system works as long as its not being run by assholes

jugheads_burger · 2012-11-20T00:19:29+00:00

I prepare pre-sentence investigations. This is pretty much sums up my entire job.

NextDayAir · 2012-11-20T00:22:35+00:00

had a discussion about these with my cousin (cop in DC) and uncle (chief in MA) and it turns out in MA the stop light cameras are illegal. Those things you see sitting up above the traffic lights are only cameras used for accident investigations or sensors to pick up the strobe and change the lights for emergency vehicles.

goodadvice00 · 2012-11-20T00:25:35+00:00

Running a red light is wrong and dangerous...missing the light by a split second without the possibility of causing any harm is no big deal and shouldn't warrant a red light ticket

blacklime · 2012-11-20T00:39:26+00:00

I never understood parts of this movie...he can't lie...but he also says things that he wouldn't need to...like this

IamFullofStars · 2012-11-20T00:41:47+00:00

The fine here is like a solid $325. Does that not seem excessive?

zealous894 · 2012-11-20T01:07:12+00:00

How did this get as far as it did?

fractal7 · 2012-11-20T01:52:35+00:00

I think these are great. Yes I have run my share of red lights. But these certainly make me slow down. I was rearended once by a 16yr old kid who thought I was going to, "go through the yellow light". The intersection was 6 lanes wide in the opposing direction, the ground was wet and it was a school zone on the other side of the light. When his mother showed up, she only said this was his third one this month. Wow.

foobarr · 2012-11-20T02:08:59+00:00

My wife got a red light ticket and it wasn't even our car. The license plate wasn't clear in the video so they just picked somebody close and mailed it out. We contested it and still had to sit around for a few hours while they "investigated".

Don't even get me started on the shortened yellows in a nearby city that loves red light cameras. Lots of panic stops and a few close calls.

Fuck the cameras and to hell with anyone that supports them.

Danzaemon · 2012-11-20T03:09:37+00:00

Fuck the law.

Verteros · 2012-11-20T03:12:11+00:00

My problem with it is that it's so situational, for example there is a stoplight near where I live that will remain yellow for oh about 1 second, I actively avoid it just in case I get caught mid intersection on a red light.

trooper310 · 2012-11-20T03:18:42+00:00

As much as I like the sentiment, statistically, more accidents occur at intersections with stoplight cameras.

likmysak · 2012-11-20T03:39:00+00:00

Shut the fuck up.

Sabbatai · 2012-11-20T03:44:41+00:00

Well if you've nothing to hide..you wouldn't mind if the police came and raided your home twice weekly.

My problem with them is thus:

Was in DC with a friend. Turned left on green. Got a ticket mailed to my house.

The problem was not so much that the light was green and I could legally turn left. That fact was so obvious that I never even went to court as the camera was just taking pictures of everyone who went through that lane.

The problem was that I was going to pick up a present for my girlfriend that was supposed to be a big surprise.

She knows how I feel about going to DC and knew very well why I was there.

This is a minor issue.. so a surprise got ruined. Who cares? Only I can think of a few other ways that this could affect someone negatively beyond having to pay a ticket and not including being a cheating bastard/bitch.

crazyjimmy · 2012-11-20T03:50:23+00:00

Actually last time I got a 480 dollar ticket from a red light camera I had no intention of running a red light. I judged it wrong. It was a simple mistake. It didn't put anyone at risk because the other light doesn't turn green the same instant mine turns red. There is a delay. So getting a 480 dollar ticket for a simple mistake is absurd. I wasn't speeding and the light turned red right before I entered. I could have done a hard stop or go for it. I choose wrong. Either option was unsafe. But I was at the perfectly wrong spot at the perfectly wrong time when the light changed. I don't want to hear any shit about "intention having nothing to do with breaking the law." I know this. But lets just be reasonable and say that people don't need a 480 dollar ticket for making a mistake. Since there doesn't seem to be a standard for how long the yellow lights last it's just something that is going to happen from time to time

flourish_or_expire · 2012-11-20T03:58:19+00:00

Here in the communist hellhole of Chicago, a study was done to gauge the effectiveness of all our red light cameras. They were installed, of course, "to protect the children". Something like 90% of all the tickets issued were for failing to come to a complete stop at a right on red. Not people blasting through intersections and killing people, but people who didn't come to a complete stop while turning. It is widely considered here to solely be a cash grab, since there wasn't a major problem that needed fixing anyways, and the city is broke. Convenient.

thefoyer · 2012-11-20T04:07:58+00:00

I think it's pointless to waste the money on the technology now, might as well look forward to self driving cars. Then we'll have all these useless red light and speeding cameras laying around.

WildEvie · 2012-11-20T04:11:48+00:00

They're really flashy and can set off seizures of people with photosensitive epilepsy.

panaflax · 2012-11-20T04:24:12+00:00

no way man. Anonymous. occupy. 2012. obama. abortions for all. free Kony, and so forth

the_catacombs · 2012-11-20T04:39:30+00:00

Actually, the private companies that produce these cameras dictate certain specifics in their contracts, including a shorter yellow light time. This causes more accidents.

mattismyname · 2012-11-20T04:51:08+00:00

I've never wanted to give somebody 1000 downvotes before now. You win.

LOLasaurusFTW · 2012-11-20T05:07:07+00:00

The city I used to live in had the redflex cameras at certain intersections. This created some problems.

1) Because my state doesn't require front plates the photo has to be taken from the rear. This means that at night in order to photo the guy running the red light while headed south meant they had to blind the crap out of the north bound drivers with the ridiculously bright flash. There have been numerous occasions where I've almost wrecked mid turn because I get blinded by a light that can best be described as "I just saw Jesus".

2) It only took a couple weeks for people to figure out where the lights were. So you basically had these huge synchronized speeding events.

ohdasagoodmovie · 2012-11-20T05:26:49+00:00

you think it's the people's fault? here, have a downvote.

captainmoomoo · 2012-11-20T05:27:28+00:00

the irony is killing me because this is from the movie Liar, Liar in which he was an avid speeder and rule breaker

7omarortega2 · 2012-11-20T06:25:46+00:00

I live in Nebraska and they're illegal here. And I feel like they are unnecessary.

iLikeMen69 · 2012-11-20T06:51:26+00:00

I don't like the idea that the government has an indeterminate amount of cameras floating around the streets noting our actions. The next logical step is to instal speeding cameras. Those exist now. What's next? Satellites monitoring our every move? I don't want to be regulated by computers that are constantly monitoring me without my knowledge.

jreelie · 2012-11-20T07:55:39+00:00

I logged in just to upvote this

MDWilliams03 · 2012-11-19T21:02:38+00:00

sauce

chimchim64 · 2012-11-19T23:19:14+00:00

I would agree with you... However, the system is flawed.

I recieved a violation in the mail. Only it wasn't even my vehicle in the photo. It was a completely different make/model vehicle that had the same first five letters of my plate. The sixth was obscured. Obviously there is nobody reviewing the violations before they go out otherwise they would have caught this glaring oversite.

Not a problem I'll just take care of this... but wait. On the form to return there is only:

Plead guilty and pay fine
Plead guilty and arrange terms on the fine
Plead guilty with an explanation (requires court appearance)

In order to plead innocent, I had to call the court-house over a dozen times, turns out they have no facillitation for this circumstance, contact the third party service provider for the traffic light system numberos times. And finally take a day off of work to appear in court and plead my case. Judge threw it out with one look at the photographs of the violation.

This took over three months to straighten out.

If there were an actual officer that had stopped the person who ran the red light, this would have ended right there.

It is obvious this system is intended as a revenue generator and not a safety measure.

TenroUchiha · 2012-11-20T00:31:02+00:00

Uh, my father got tagged by one of those by the guy in front of him tripping the camera. They both got fined even though my father waited and did nothing. Yeah, they are such great ideas.

ShuttleXpC · 2012-11-20T00:34:17+00:00

Go search for the 196million dollar traffic camera scam in Paradise Valley, Az. This is why a majority of people around here hate them, and when they do get the tickets refuse to pay them. We're also famous for the guy who wore his gorilla/monkey mask and would intentionally run/speed past red lights while the law couldn't prove it was a specific person driving the car because a group of friends shared the car off and on.

theTANbananas · 2012-11-19T21:54:43+00:00

Its just a violation of rights. The law is that inside our vehicle is considered private property. I do not consent to being spied on within my vehicle, therefore you cannot film me without suspicion of committing a crime.

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