Red Light Cameras Miami-Dade&Broward Counties

[Chris142]

We have a few here and they are being challenged too. Something about being able to contact your acuser and when it's a machine you cant do that.

The fines here are $495 per ticket. I have a friend that got 2 in a week. The ticket shows the speed and he made a legal right turn on a red @ 2 and 3 mph so it nabbed him.

 

[Shannow]

I'm generally against cameras of all sorts.

Except if they decided to put on on the highway through town, I'd chip in paying some for it.

Seeing coal trucks roar through the intersection at the speed limit or greater, when you've had a solid green for 5 seconds is a little more than worrying.

 

[Tempest]

Quote:
Something about being able to contact your acuser and when it's a machine you cant do that.

This is my biggest problem with these things. Can a camera sign a complaint against you? No. Can you cross examine one in court as is your legal right? No.

Thankfully they don't have them around here, but there are those that want them.

 

[CROWNVIC4LIFE]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
For those who have never had the pleasure of driving in south FL....

let me tell you its very similar to the Daytona 500 with only 2 laps to go till the end of the race.

CrownVic,
They estimate a large intersection like Kendall Drive & US-1 will easily bring in over a million dollars a year in fines.


Like LT4 Vette says if you have never driven in South Florida you will not understand what goes on here in a million years...You can not get away from the pack when you are in a herd of traffic [on all sides of you] when you are going from one light to the next.

The walk signs usually flash for 15 to 20 seconds before the light gets ready to change...In Miami Beach the seconds are on the sign but for the most part it is very rare every where else...Everybody here rides your bumper [I mean everyone] and talk and text as they drive which makes things worse.

Yes LT4 I do believe the camera at Kendall Drive and US-1 will bring in a million dollars...There is one right by Gulfstream Park in Hallandale that seems to be doing the same thing from what I hear.

 

[CROWNVIC4LIFE]

Originally Posted By: river_rat
Originally Posted By: brianl703
I don't think the cities actually time the lights so you hit almost all of them red. That's just what happens when they don't have a signal timing plan.

I'm not so sure. I've counted many times over the years (in my city) on different routes, and I keep getting an average of about 7 of 8 red. That is when I am on main 4 lane arteries.
That seems to be a statistical impossibility that they are random.


I am not so sure either...Out of 30 red lights I usually get 29 red...That is going the speed limit of 45MPH...That is why I get on the interstate every chance I get even though every highway here is a suicide run.

 

[HTSS_TR]

I'm sorry to go against the majority on here about Red Light Camera. I found that Red Light Cameras in several cities of Orange County in So Cal do reduce drivers running red-light a lot. Many drivers made left turn on red-arrow after it was red for more than 5-10 seconds (several cars turned left with red-arrow) at an intersection in Santa Ana before red-light camera was installed there, no more illegal left turn at that intersection after it was installed.

As XS650 said, yellow light time based on the speed limit, 1 second per 10 MPH speed limit, in California. If your front bumper crossed the crossing line at the instant the light turn from yellow to red, you are NOT violate the law. They have to have a picture shows that the light was red and your car's front bumper was behind the crossing line to be able to fine you.

 

[Trajan]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
Quote:

Such a camera would of been usefull the night a schmuck ran one and totaled my Camaro.


+1. As with a lot of things, it isn't the technology, it is how it is utilized that ires most.


Yep. Wish they had more of them actually. Lost count of the number of times I see people don't even stop at a red light before making a right turn. Or roll through a stop sign.

Years ago my mother got hit by an idiot in a Caddy. Al he could say was "Why did you stop at the stop sign."

 

[brianl703]

Originally Posted By: XS650

Probably, but with the number of dirt-bag jurisdictions that have shortened the length of the yellow light when cameras were installed, I wouldn't completely rule that out.


It takes a lot more work to time the traffic lights so you stop at every single one than it does to lower the yellow light time setting.

One takes 5 minutes, the other takes many hours and must be continually checked as the clocks drift in the signal controllers.

Most signal controllers will not allow a yellow light time lower than 3 seconds without "special firmware".

 

[brianl703]

Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Many drivers made left turn on red-arrow after it was red for more than 5-10 seconds (several cars turned left with red-arrow) at an intersection in Santa Ana before red-light camera was installed there, no more illegal left turn at that intersection after it was installed.


None of the red light cameras around here are set up to take pictures of left-turn red light runners.

 

[brianl703]

I just thought of a way to make sure that a traffic light doesn't work properly, but not in a way that's too obvious. It has to be operating in demand mode, though.

Just connect the detectors for the side street to where the detectors for the main street should be connected, and vice-versa.

That traffic light will now instantly turn red for the main street as soon as any cars on the main street pull up to it..but only if there aren't any cars waiting on the side street.

If there are cars waiting on the side street, it will keep giving the main street the maximum green which has been programmed, and then give the side street maximum green because there are cars waiting on the main street.

Now you'd have to be a complete moron to configure a traffic light this way, and it would cause total gridlock. But it would still change colors in the correct sequence so the city could play dumb and say they can't find any problems with it..which, given the caliber of some of the people who work on these things, could be entirely accurate.

 

[PandaBear]

Mom ran a red light in my car once (when we were swapping cars so I can do some maintenance on hers), the ticket went to my wife and we send in a photo of her driver's license which doesn't match the person on the driver's seat. The ticket is dropped rather than reassigned to my mom.

Miami Dade's traffic justice is really corrupted. I once got a ticket for 30 miles above speed limit (I know, rushing to the air port), and got a ticket. The cop said I have to go to court when I live in California. I end up finding a traffic court lawyer and the ticket then mysteriously get dropped. Seems like they just give a bunch of tickets and when they find out it is a hazzle to trial you, they give up.

IMO I'd rather pay the government rather than the lawyers, but when they force you to go to court all the way from another state, paying the lawyer rather than doing the right thing sounds awfully appealing.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: brianl703
If there are cars waiting on the side street, it will keep giving the main street the maximum green which has been programmed, and then give the side street maximum green because there are cars waiting on the main street.

Now you'd have to be a complete moron to configure a traffic light this way, and it would cause total gridlock. But it would still change colors in the correct sequence so the city could play dumb and say they can't find any problems with it..which, given the caliber of some of the people who work on these things, could be entirely accurate.


This type of configuration works in high traffic area when any slowing in the on going traffic is going to be more wasteful than a little longer on the light cycle. I've seen as long as 2 minutes on a cycle of side street but even with 2 minutes, you still can't get all the cars out of the way.

Seems like they haven't spend the time to calibrate the right duration for the road.

The worst I've seen in the San Jose area here:

You have a light rail that will turn its signal green when it is near, and when it turns its signal green, it will interrupt all the cycle of main left turn / main forward / side left turn / side forward, and start again at the main left turn instead of continue where it previously left off. I frequently stop at the side forward and get interrupted out of cycle when it was about to be my turn. My record is 5 minutes at that red light, and I end up making a right turn and left turn combo now instead.

 

[brianl703]

The type of configuration I was talking about is a mis-configuration where the detectors are mis-wired..and I've seen some traffic lights where I think that's what happened.

 

[panthermike]

There coming down here, I believe this month.

 

[ClarkB]

After reading this thread I found out that all the dumb people work for the government. I guess those guys on the Manhattan Project were just some dimwits...

What amazes me is that no one has actually addressed why they have red light cameras. Could it be a cash cow for local jurisdictions? Yes. Could it be that tons of people are running red lights? Yes. Is it probably a combination of the two? Very likely.

If people would step on the brake instead of the gas (within reason of course)when they saw a yellow light wouldn't that cure this problem?

Clark

 

[JHZR2]

So what is the best solution to defeat the red light cams?

 

[Tempest]

Quote:
Six U.S. cities have been found guilty of shortening the amber cycles below what is allowed by law on intersections equipped with cameras meant to catch red-light runners. The local governments in question have ignored the safety615 benefit of increasing the yellow light time and decided to install red-light cameras, shorten the yellow light duration, and collect the profits instead.

http://www.leftlanenews.com/six-us-cities-tamper-with-traffic-cameras-for-profit.html
Quote:
Numerous studies have found that when these cameras are put in place, rear-end collisions increase dramatically. Drivers who once might have stretched the light a bit now slam on their brakes for fear of getting a ticket, with predictable results. A study of red-light cameras in Washington, D.C., by The Washington Post found that despite producing more than 500,000 tickets (and generating over $32 million in revenues), red-light cameras didn't reduce injuries or collisions. In fact, the number of accidents increased at the camera-equipped intersections.

Likewise, red-light cameras in Portland, Ore., produced a 140 percent increase in rear-end collisions at monitored intersections, and a study by the Virginia Transportation82 Research Council found that although red-light cameras decreased collisions resulting from people running traffic lights, they significantly increased accidents overall.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/industry/2420766


It's all about the money. It always is.

 

[XS650]

I find myself agreeing with Tempest...I need to go get a drink.

 

[Tempest]

It's bound to happen once in a blue moon...

 

[Tempest]

Quote:
Spurred in part by the recession and its effects on city coffers, Canton is handing out more speeding and other traffic tickets. Make that a lot more tickets: Canton's finest issued 4,505 citations for moving violations in the first quarter of 2010 -- a 221% increase over the 1,405 tickets issued in last year's first quarter.

"You could say that it was born out of the deteriorating economy," Police Chief Dean McKimm says of the ramped-up enforcement. Handing out more traffic tickets was a way to both boost traffic safety and bring in dollars.

"We were facing layoffs, and we were trying to think outside the box," he says. "I'll be very blunt about that: It does save jobs. It was kind of a no-brainer."

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Insurance/InsureYourCar/speeding-youll-pay-higher-taxes.aspx
Using a position of authority to protect your job sure sounds like corruption to me.