Have Any Of You Used This?

Once in a while someone successfully beats cameras because they charge the car/vehicle owner for an offence, not the driver, and under the law in Canada and the US traffic violations are a \'driver\' offence that must be ticketed at the same time as the breach.  If that happens at a lower court, sometimes the cities just give up and get rid of the cameras.

The question I\'ve been dying to ask....
Why not just stop at the red light?

[GmanJoe]

The question I\'ve been dying to ask....
Why not just stop at the red light?

Sometimes you get stuck in a traffic jam. You cross the intersection and then suddenly two cars up, a woman is taking her sweet time making a right turn into McDonalds.....holding you up in the middle of the intersection - light turns yellow and then red.

*click*

(e) gets a ticket!  

[Titan]

Sometimes you get stuck in a traffic jam. You cross the intersection and then suddenly two cars up, a woman is taking her sweet time making a right turn into McDonalds.....holding you up in the middle of the intersection - light turns yellow and then red.

*click*

(e) gets a ticket!  

I thought you had to be moving for it to trip the sensors.

[GmanJoe]

I thought you had to be moving for it to trip the sensors.

And as soon as you do, it takes a picture.

The sensor for movement is usually pointed at the white line at the entrance of the intersection, so that the first picture is a wide angle shot of you entering the intersection while the light is red (ie, it won\'t take a photo if the light was yellow when you entered the intersection), and the second photo is generally a slightly closer picture but with frame of reference from the first photo, so that they can determine both your licence plate and speed from the second (ie, .2 seconds apart, they can show how fast you were moving by distance travelled).  Every light camera here is set up that way.

What was the reason behind that?

I think it has to do with the fact that the state or county legislature didn\'t renew or extend the "red light pilot program" in my county.  The posts are still there, but all the boxes the cameras were in have been removed.

I ran a red light on my lunch break... just for fun. :thumb:

[GmanJoe]

I ran a red light on my lunch break... just for fun. :thumb:

Bonus points for hitting a stroller.

[Titan]

I think it has to do with the fact that the state or county legislature didn\'t renew or extend the "red light pilot program" in my county.  The posts are still there, but all the boxes the cameras were in have been removed.

I ran a red light on my lunch break... just for fun. :thumb:

All the cameras by me aren\'t boxes. They actually look like small security cameras on top of the traffic light poles (which hold the lights). They are angled at the intersection. Your county may be getting rid of them but my county in Jersey keeps adding them. Even intersections that never had them  and are old lights have them now.

Sometimes you get stuck in a traffic jam. You cross the intersection and then suddenly two cars up, a woman is taking her sweet time making a right turn into McDonalds.....holding you up in the middle of the intersection - light turns yellow and then red.

*click*

(e) gets a ticket!  

This happen every day to you or something?

People who use these are going to be speeding past red lights, not accidentally stuck in the middle of the intersection forced to drive past the red light.

Besides - I don\'t think they would give you a ticket for that.

[videoholic]

It is illegal to proceed into an intersection unless you are able to clear the intersection.  So yes, you can get a ticket if you are there during a red light.

Too bad its hardly ever enforced.  There was an intersection nearby my hometown that would get blocked by idiots who would get stuck in the middle of the intersection.  Never saw a soul get ticketed.  Would have been a quick couple thousand dollars for the city if they had a cop sit out there for a few hours enforcing it.