This makes me think about that thread several days ago about unmanned drone surveillance of farmers. I think it was to look for violations of EPA regulations. I remember lots of defenses of that program... traffic cams don't seem much different to me. I wonder if the farkers defending the unmanned drone surveillance will be here defending traffic cams.

They have to do something to offset the fact that the shopping bag tax didn't accomplish it's revenue goal.
They instituted a 3 cent tax on disposable shopping bags and figured they were going to be in the green.
Turns out it actually achieved the stated purpose rather than the hidden agenda. People started bringing in reusable bags or otherwise avoided the disposable ones.

King Something: Sargun: Don't run the farking red lights.

Easier said than done at intersections where they shorten the yellow. You could be driving at the speed limit and not even the slightest bit higher, enter the intersection when the light has just turned yellow (but it's too late to stop since the light changed when you were 5 feet away from the crosswalk) and it turns red, getting you a ticket.

Or if they define "running a red light" as "not stopping before crossing the white line," in which case you'd get ticketed for coming to a complete stop a quarter inch too far forward.


/of course they're for money
THIS

do you have any citations for these kinds of situations actually happening? I was pretty sure those systems had a certain tolerance built into them... like the speed cameras only ticketing people going more than 10mph over the posted limit. I have to admit that I don't have any citations myself, but I would be surprised people are being ticketed for going 3 MPH over the limit or stopping a few inches into the cross-walk.

Mmhmm, and what did American Traffic Solutions make?

Splinshints: You know how people say the lottery is a tax on stupid people? It's not.

yeah it is

rtflakfizer: The attitude that red light and speed cameras are cash cows infuriates me. Sure, they generate a ton of money of governments. But you know who doesn't have to pay into that?

PEOPLE WHO DON'T BREAK THE FARKING LAW.

Except that municipalities have been caught intentionally shortening the yellow signal timing.

You don't go straight to an enforcement action when engineering solutions are available. Increase the yellow signal timing to a proper length. Georgia allowed cameras to be used, but yellow signal timing would have to be increased to one full second more than the minimum. Places with existing cameras saw ticketing drop by 80% when the signals were timed to the proper standards, and the cameras became unprofitable.

Red light cameras work if your in an isolated area and saturate the area with cameras but in a few months there isn't enough revenue to cover running the things.

There are some broken speed cameras on bridge in Australia called Wellington Road. The bridge vibrates at the same harmonic frequency as a radar signal saying your 8 over the limit. Yet so far they haven't been able to prove the cameras are broken yet they don't issue many tickets for 7 or 9 over, and lots for 8 over. The photo processing company has a gag order on employees keeping them from talking about cars having their tire changed going 8 over the limit. And if they government pulls out the camera, the company gets paid for something like 30 years at the current rate of tickets which is something like 3 quarters of a billion dollars.

Victoria Australia has one of the most effective speed camera programs in the world with many roads reporting over 99% compliance with the speed limit. Yet the deaths per mile driven and deaths per hour on the road are increasing -- unlike the rest of the world where that has been going down. The increased congestion from everyone going way under the speed limit is killing about 100 people a year now.