Unreliable Speed Cameras Line Government Pockets
Reason,
by
Julian Verdon
Original Article
Posted By: AltaD,
2/5/2022 11:41:15 AM
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg's new National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS) promotes speed cameras nationwide to make our roads safer. But research shows that speed cameras are subject to error and actually end up serving as a means to generate government revenue.(Snip) However, the cameras can commit errors when it comes to actually ticketing the right offenders. This can be a problem for drivers—but a windfall for enforcers.
In Chicago, where speed cameras are abundant, the camera program improperly gave out over $2.4 million in fines from 2013 to 2015. Using a random sample analysis, the Chicago Tribune estimated the number of bad tickets to be somewhere around 110,000.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
franq 2/5/2022 11:57:34 AM (No. 1062455)
They had these over a decade ago in our area. Only they were red light cameras. Finally got removed. Do liberals ever have an idea that works and helps people?
13 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
mc squared 2/5/2022 11:58:24 AM (No. 1062456)
research shows that speed cameras are subject to error and actually end up serving as a means to generate government revenue.
Say it ain't so. Having your pockets turned inside out by machines is very Orwellian. In cities where these are in operation every ticket should be challenged in court. No sense letting them take your dough without taking up the state's time.
13 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
MickTurn 2/5/2022 12:09:13 PM (No. 1062472)
Speed Cameras respond very well to Cattle Prods.
8 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
snowoutlaw 2/5/2022 12:14:22 PM (No. 1062483)
Is this just to get us all the wear masks in the car? If they can't tell who is driving the tickets don't get sent out.
4 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
BarryNo 2/5/2022 12:18:11 PM (No. 1062488)
In Red States, unreliable cameras just might meet with accidents.
8 people like this.
San Diego tried the traffic light cameras ~20 years ago. Local radio talk-show host Roger Hedgecock led the resistance and it was ultimately shown that the contractor (Lockheed Martin) was deliberately mis-calibrating the cameras. Why? Because the contractor (Lockheed Martin) was receiving 10% of the fines initiated by those same cameras. How far can the corruption go?
12 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Birddog 2/5/2022 12:38:30 PM (No. 1062525)
Surprisingly unmentioned in all of this coverage...His reasoning is to use them not just for funds, but to study the roads than will then be Altered to make it harder for people to drive too fast there.His "Plan" is to tear up and redesign the roads to make it IMPOSSIBLE to drive faster than HE(and other busybodies) have decide YOU need to go.Not fix bad roads, not fix bad bridges, not improve speed, ease, usability/effectiveness of the roads..instead the very opposite. They have been doing that around here, weird s shaped overpasses and interchanges, roundabouts and Hundreds of miles of soundwalls(at $2-3Million per mile)...ALL requiring shut down lanes for months/years at a time, plus 35mph speed limits in construction zones as bridges them selves get ever worse, and road surfaces ever worse...some of which is caused by the TOO heavy trucks remove/delivering the equipt and materials to their ongoing "Non-Road/Road" projects.
8 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
SkeezerMcGee 2/5/2022 12:46:02 PM (No. 1062533)
In one Florida county red light cameras were installed by request of law enforcement. They were removed shortly after the public learned that the anticipated revenues were exceeded by a factor of more than ten. There was public outrage. The cameras were viewed as a money grab, and not as tools of law enforcement. The county commissioners were ashamed they voted for what seemed to be a good idea.
5 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
DrOstrow 2/5/2022 1:17:39 PM (No. 1062578)
Can't remember the location but several years ago, these types of devices were bing
set up to photograph speeding vehicles and then your citation was mailed to you along with the picture.
Fortunately the practice was halted when eonugh drivers were able to locate the
camera / speed trap setups because the devices used radar and tripped radar detectors !
Once located, the damage done to the equipment via ball bats, rocks, etc. FAR exceeded
any revenues generated.
Just sayin'.
5 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Birddog 2/5/2022 1:50:40 PM (No. 1062610)
Another thing that happened locally was...Redlight cameras, they installed them, mailed the tickets, budgeted based upon those receipts, spend the money it was spposed to generate YEARS ahead of it actually coming in...people stopped running reds, ticket proceeds plummeted, but they has already SPENT more than they were now getting sooo They shortened the yellow light interval to trap more people into tickets. The entire extremely expensive and intrusive exercise was meant to reduce the collisions at these intersections...IF they had simply altered the easily programmable stoplights to have a very slightly longer "ALL RED" interval...as little as 2-3 seconds longer...the same(or better) accident reduction could have been achieved...BUT...doing so would not have generated excess revenues for them to spend elsewhere, or new task forces, study groups, implementation officers and myriad other "suddenly Necessary" Govt employees.
1 person likes this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
stablemoney 2/5/2022 2:12:07 PM (No. 1062642)
The objective of speed cameras is to line government pockets. It is the biggest selling point of those that sell them.
6 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Rivetjoint 2/5/2022 2:33:03 PM (No. 1062664)
I remember NJ had a five year trial program for the red light cams. The municipalities just loved all the increased revenue and started to budget for the windfall to the extent that they adjusted the yellow interval down to trap more drivers. When that little 'miscalibration' came to light and was clamped down upon by the state, the local governments found a different work around by focusing in on the right turn on red gambit whereby the interval a driver had to remain stopped before completing the right turn was never specified in the law. Thus people started getting tickets for not having remained the locally specified (and not posted) interval before proceeding. Thankfully, and surprisingly for NJ, the Legislature allowed the trial period to expire without making it permanent despite a large amount of wailing and moaning from the big cities which were banking on that loot and in some places had already spent it before receiving it.
2 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
paloalto 2/5/2022 2:50:18 PM (No. 1062679)
Drivers will avoid the cameras on the main roads by rerouting through side streets, thereby destroying the peace in quiet suburban neighborhoods. High density housing laws, the speed cameras -- liberals are hell-bent on ruining the suburbs. So, government gets a two-fer on speed cameras: more revenue and the ruination of decent neighborhoods inhabited by people who worked incredibly hard to earn enough money to escape to. But there is no escape from liberal do-gooders. They will destroy all that is good. Where there is order they sow chaos. Liberals ruin everything.
3 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
DVC 2/5/2022 2:56:08 PM (No. 1062687)
Might be fun for target practice. A 75 cent rifle cartridge can wipe out a many thousand dollar camera. Not that I would ever do that, because that would be illegal and I never break the law. But some folks do break laws.
Just an observation, not a recommendation.
3 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Ashley Brenton 2/5/2022 3:14:47 PM (No. 1062700)
I believe intersection cameras were found to actually create accidents, as people would slam on the brakes if a light turns yellow.
2 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Luke21 2/5/2022 3:36:15 PM (No. 1062721)
'Infrastructure" is one of the dirtiest words in the English language.
1 person likes this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Heil Liberals 2/5/2022 3:54:41 PM (No. 1062735)
Digital currency.
Digital identification.
Digital speed cameras.
Digital IRS access.
Digital automobiles that require digital permission.
Digital thoughts - I know what you are up to Elon.
Any questions?
0 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 2/5/2022 4:18:32 PM (No. 1062751)
The money doesn't go to local governments, it goes to the LEFTIST LEANING Camera Companies who "LEASE" the cameras to the towns and provide them with 10% of the earnings from the damn things. I know because I fought one of these companies in Southlake Texas and won my case. It wasn't for speeding, but for making a right turn at a red light without a stop. Amazingly the only city official in the courtroom was a Sherriff and he was only there in case I went mental on the two guys from the camera company.
0 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 2/5/2022 4:21:57 PM (No. 1062752)
By the way, there is a trick here, just don't open the letter from the company, but if you do, DAMNED SURE don't watch the video on-line!! That's how they know you got the letter, and they capture your IP Address for proof.
They don't use Registered Mail (typically) and they don't know you received the notification letter, so just toss it in the junk mail for recycle. Screw '.em.
1 person likes this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
smokincol 2/5/2022 7:37:53 PM (No. 1062838)
Alfred E. Neuman makes another attempt at being relevant.
0 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
DVC 2/6/2022 1:08:23 AM (No. 1063028)
They do screw these things up, I have proof.
I got a mailed bill from a Texas toll road....a place that I have NEVER been, let alone at the time they said I had been there, when I was at home. I looked at the photo of the license plate....and it seemed to be the plate number of a small motorcycle that I use for summertime around the area joyriding....top speed about 65, good cruising speed 45-50 mph. Not a chance I would EVER drive it to Texas from Kansas. And....then on second look, the plate was an auto plate...very different looking from a motorcycle plate. That led to a close third look at the photo....and I realized that one letter of the tag "number" that appeared to be a letter "I", was actually an "L", but with a dealer plate surround frame 90% covering the horizontal part of the "L". A very close look showed just a sliver of the horizontal leg. Also, the "I" has a small top serif, the "L" does not. Definitely the wrong plate number was sent to KS DOT. I called the Texas outfit, after much waiting got one of their phone ladies,and explained it. Once I pointed it out, she recognized that the letter was an "L" and told me "don't worry, just ignore any more letters you get", I'll get it fixed.
That was over a year ago, and I have gotten three more bills....and tossed all of them.
I doubt she did anything, and I'll just keep tossing any letters they send.
These cameras are not reliable, for sure. Some KS driver ripped them off and they are blaming my little around town motorcycle.
0 people like this.
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