nytimes.com— The adoption by law enforcement of photo-enforcement technology — surveillance cameras that take a picture of an offending vehicle and its license plate — has unanticipated consequences.
May 4, 2008View in Crawl 4
In San Diego, CA (unless Mayor Murphy and his equally corrupt city hall have been cleaned out since I left), you won't find a single camera at any of the intersections that were deemed by the city government itself to be the most dangerous or most prone to red light runners before the cameras were installed.Instead, you'll find them at the most heavily trafficked intersections that weren't dangerous before the cameras went in. You'll also find the duration of the yellow light at red light camera intersections dangerously shorter than at other intersections.And since the cameras record pictures instead of video, you'll find that San Diego's red light camera intersections have become the most dangerous intersections in the city because of all the rear-ends caused by drivers panic-stopping. Why are they panic-stopping? Simply to avoid being caught and fined hundreds of dollars for being just a single inch over the line when the camera snaps the picture.
Actually, there is a human involved in the process. He's just a desk jockey, but he signs off on the tickets sent out in the mail to you, and under the law, he's your accuser. That's the precedent set by red light ticket challenges that went to trial in California (to the best of my knowledge and recollection), and probably the precedent set in other states as well.
That'd be the Dallas/Ft Worth area. And I don't think they've removed any, they just randomly turn them off so you can't tell which ones will get you and which ones won't.I remember that article. I thought it was funny that it showed up on digg about 2 days after 2 of those red light cameras got installed down the street from where I live.
In San Diego, that precise thing has been happening. And since they're still-photos, it's impossible for the city to prove that the car wasn't actually obeying the law and stopped at a stop light. I lost count of the number of red light tickets overturned by being challenged in court, and they were being overturned almost as quickly as they were issued, but the city still does it (as of when I left) because so few are willing or able to challenge them.
frostekMay 4, 2008
Friends should understand, and not leave you in the lurch...
arielmtMay 5, 2008
In San Diego, CA (unless Mayor Murphy and his equally corrupt city hall have been cleaned out since I left), you won't find a single camera at any of the intersections that were deemed by the city government itself to be the most dangerous or most prone to red light runners before the cameras were installed.Instead, you'll find them at the most heavily trafficked intersections that weren't dangerous before the cameras went in. You'll also find the duration of the yellow light at red light camera intersections dangerously shorter than at other intersections.And since the cameras record pictures instead of video, you'll find that San Diego's red light camera intersections have become the most dangerous intersections in the city because of all the rear-ends caused by drivers panic-stopping. Why are they panic-stopping? Simply to avoid being caught and fined hundreds of dollars for being just a single inch over the line when the camera snaps the picture.
arielmtMay 5, 2008
Actually, there is a human involved in the process. He's just a desk jockey, but he signs off on the tickets sent out in the mail to you, and under the law, he's your accuser. That's the precedent set by red light ticket challenges that went to trial in California (to the best of my knowledge and recollection), and probably the precedent set in other states as well.
fanclerksMay 5, 2008
That'd be the Dallas/Ft Worth area. And I don't think they've removed any, they just randomly turn them off so you can't tell which ones will get you and which ones won't.I remember that article. I thought it was funny that it showed up on digg about 2 days after 2 of those red light cameras got installed down the street from where I live.
sirlolalotMay 5, 2008
This account has been closed by the user
monk22May 5, 2008
not sarcasm in tailand
arielmtMay 6, 2008
In San Diego, that precise thing has been happening. And since they're still-photos, it's impossible for the city to prove that the car wasn't actually obeying the law and stopped at a stop light. I lost count of the number of red light tickets overturned by being challenged in court, and they were being overturned almost as quickly as they were issued, but the city still does it (as of when I left) because so few are willing or able to challenge them.