Yet another example of Big Brother run amuck

[alexznam357]

This will bookend nicely with Lucky Lou's "Plod Baiting" item. These articles concern 5 traffic cameras installed on the busiest steet in little Heath, Ohio, a town of 10,000 located 25 miles east of Columbus. The cameras have created a firestorm of opposition and have generated the town over a million dollars during the summer. Traffic cameras are common now in bigger US cities, but not in smaller towns.
http://www.newarkadvocate.com/article/99999999/NEWS01/90806006&theme=cameras&template=theme

[Bob_Roller]

We've had these red light cameras here in Tempe, Arizona for about 3-4 years now .

They personally don't bother me, as I stick to the posted speed limits 95% of the time, the other 5%, are deserted back roads, where the chances of being pulled over are significantly reduced .

But they haven't slowed the traffic on major arterial streets what so ever .

The usual speed limits on most major streets here is 45 mph, and the usual traffic flow is around 55 mph, if not higher .

People can't seem to grasp the fact that these are not limited access expressways .

We have highway speed collisions on surface streets .

It's downright scary .

[alexznam357]

Bob, I cancertainly understand your concerns about traffic speeds. Heath has 5 cameras placed in a relatively short area along a heavily conjested commercial strip...traffic speeds are really not a pressing issue in that area. Heath was in debt and placed the cameras along the one stretch of raod where they would generate the most revenue... that's what has the citzens up in arms.
I'm also a big believer in going the posted speed limit (or even a little under) when riding in the city...makes for a more pleasant ride and means you don't have to scrub off as much speed when trouble comes up.

[scottyintex]

Marble Falls Texas has had these stop light cameras for years now and so far I have not run afoul of them.....but then I tend to stop when I should. I can’t say that I have seen it make a difference. Even when the light turns green I made sure the other traffic stops and I don’t get my ass run over by someone running the light.
      Marble Falls is something of a speed trap. They set up a portable radar/photo system just inside city limits to catch speeders......... that was operated by commercial company.  They were leasing the equipment and operators. Nothing was ever said but I felt sure it was to catch the out of town drivers passing through on the highway and fill the city coffers.......without pissing off the local voters to much. Think they caught about 550 speeders the first month. Then the Texas State government passed a law making this type of system illegal. So, all the tickets were dropped. I think this was just a case of pure greed .......... a city with budget shortfalls.... a stick it to the tourist tax.
    Guess I must be getting old......I tend to run the speed limit..and avoid those.... oh shit moments.... when the cops car pulls out on the road behind you with the lights flashing.

[Lucky_Lou]

They are being used as revenue gatherers in some areas my fatherinlaw bless him got a ticket and had to do a training day (a humilliation day i think) on a section of road he had been driveing on for 50 years when they lowered the speed limit and put cameras up on the same day...... how many more did they catch out with that low trick.
Lou
ps im please our colonial cousins know what "Plod" means how about a rosser!!

[alexznam357]

Hey Lucky Lou...been to your neck of the woods a couple of times (and love GB), so I know a "plod" is a cop, but unfamiliar with what "rosser" means.
I'm also very familiar with the huge amount of traffic cams in GB...they are EVERYWHERE! For anyone who has never been across the pond, GB is very crowded with cities and towns...lots of people in a much smaller space than the US. Traffic circles all over the place, drivers on the wrong dammed side of the roads (very maddening), and those cameras.

[steve hawkins]

Actually in my town (Swindon, Wiltshire, UK) they have just pulled all the fixed camera out.  

Most of the funds generated by these camera's in the UK goes to the central governement, and not to local councils.  However they are operated and installed by local councils.

So the local council said they were too much bother, they were not paying for themselves, once people learned their locations, so they switched them off and are now in the process of removing them!

Common sense will eventually prevail.  We do still have the mobile 'safety cameras' which are not at all popular.

[Justin B.]

There are quite a few "red light cameras" in the DFW area.  The pols who push for them extol their virtues like saving lives, etc., and claim that revenue generation is not even a consideration.  Yeah, right...  Some intersections have shown an increase in rear end collisions after the installation of cameras but the supporters don't want to talk about that.

These unattended ticket generators are nothing more than a revenue enhancement" tool and any butthead pol who says that $$ was not even a consideration should be ridden out of town on a rail.  I wish we could bring back the good ol' tradition of "tar and feathering"...

[Ed Miller]

All I know about around here are red light cameras, which don't bug me too much.  Speed cameras would, if they were on the rural back roads where I do 90+ per cent of my driving, as I normally go "in excess of posted speed limits" but I don't speed in towns.

I got that term from a BMW car ad many years ago.

[Lucky_Lou]

Hey Lucky Lou...been to your neck of the woods a couple of times (and love GB), so I know a "plod" is a cop, but unfamiliar with what "rosser" means.
I'm also very familiar with the huge amount of traffic cams in GB...they are EVERYWHERE! For anyone who has never been across the pond, GB is very crowded with cities and towns...lots of people in a much smaller space than the US. Traffic circles all over the place, drivers on the wrong dammed side of the roads (very maddening), and those cameras.

Traffic circles  [smiley=laugh.gif] [smiley=laugh.gif] [smiley=laugh.gif]
i take it you mean roundabouts....guess what we now have mini ones, basically a white dot in the middle of the road...waiste of paint IMHO just to put you out of your missery a "rosser" is another term to describe the police!! common term in my neck of the woods whe i was a lad.
Lou
      

[steve hawkins]

They are 'Rozzers' down my neck of the woods - spelt Phonetically...frenetically.....you get the picture?