Short Yellow Lights Mean More Tickets, Money For Cities

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jojobean
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23 Jan 2010, 2:15 pm

There is one problem to this idea of the quick yellow ticket, is the capacity for serious wrecks. That is dangerous.
Are they wiling to risk the lives of ppl who live there for alittle extra money....whats new there???



leejosepho
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23 Jan 2010, 4:10 pm

Wombat wrote:
Here is another problem. Intersections without red and green turning arrows.

You are first in line at the lights and you want to turn right in England or left in America.
You can't turn because of the oncoming traffic so you edge out into the intersection ...


... and you have just broken the law. Just like with not blocking a side street while stopped in traffic, you are not to enter an intersection until you have a clear path to go on through, even if turning.

jojobean wrote:
There is one problem to this idea of the quick yellow ticket, is the capacity for serious wrecks. That is dangerous.
Are they wiling to risk the lives of ppl who live there for alittle extra money....whats new there???


Rear-enders seldom result in death, but traffic lights are never an excuse for not having one's vehicle under control (to keep from rear-ending someone). People behind me often get pissed, but I obey traffic laws and drive in such a way as to protect myself from whoever might be behind me. Get too close and I slow down. Blow the horn and come closer and I slow down more ... and so on. One driver in *heavy* traffic barely creeping along once got so pissed that he left the roadway to get around me (because I keep enough room ahead to get out of the way, if necessary) ... and I was quite pleased!


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release_the_bats
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24 Jan 2010, 2:03 pm

DeaconBlues wrote:
Want to protest this movement? One simple idea, which has always worked for me...

Stop running through the yellow lights!!

I've never gotten a ticket for red-light running, even from the shortest yellow, even from the touchiest camera, because I remembered the part of driver education where they said that the light turning yellow meant that it was about to turn red, and you needed to stop. You should take your driving advice from the state manual, not from the movie Starman ("Green means go. Red means stop. Yellow means go very fast").


Oh, but "Yellow means go very fast" is part of Texas driving culture!

I noticed that when I moved there 5 years ago. At least in south Texas, people drive aggressively and accelerate when the light turns yellow.

I also noticed that in Texas, yellow lights lasted a lot longer than in other states. And this seemed to permit or even encourage the "speed through yellow" driving behavior.

Based on my Texas living experience, I surmise that the article is really suggesting that the state shorten yellow light times to something similar to those found in other states.



Odin
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26 Jan 2010, 7:39 pm

Enforcing the traffic laws has turned into an extortion racket. Here in Fargo the traffic cops have to fill QUOTAS, and so are basically encourage to give BS tickets.


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Odin
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26 Jan 2010, 7:44 pm

DeaconBlues wrote:
Further, since the "witness" is a camera, its photograph is considered its "testimony".

Want to protest this movement? One simple idea, which has always worked for me...

Stop running through the yellow lights!!

I've never gotten a ticket for red-light running, even from the shortest yellow, even from the touchiest camera, because I remembered the part of driver education where they said that the light turning yellow meant that it was about to turn red, and you needed to stop. You should take your driving advice from the state manual, not from the movie Starman ("Green means go. Red means stop. Yellow means go very fast").
If I remember driver's training correctly it is OK to go through a yellow light if you can get into the intersection before it turns red or if road conditions (ice, etc) or timing makes it dangerous to stop quickly.


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Tory_canuck
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28 Jan 2010, 2:54 am

tax grab.


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auntblabby
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18 Dec 2014, 2:20 am

wish there was decent public transit outside of the cities.



eric76
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18 Dec 2014, 8:52 pm

jrknothead wrote:
There is a simple way to get out of a camera-issued red light ticket... plead not guilty, and demand to question the witness against you... it is an absolute right of the accused to question the witness, and a camera cannot answer questions... the trial judge may deny you this right, but an appeals court can not... additionally, many states require a police officer to be present to witness the entirety of a violation in the case of a moving violation... usually the person manning the camera is not a police officer, and is never present at the scene, rather he is in a control room somewhere sometimes watching the monitor, but usually not, relying on the photograph snapped by the camera to issue the violation, in which case he has witnessed nothing directly...


Do you have any legal citations to back any of those up? Where, exactly, are automated traffic citations actually being dismissed for such issues? What is your familiarity with red light and photo radar procedures.

From your "logic", if you were breaking into someone's home while they weren't there and their security system included a camera that took your picture, you could not be prosecuted because there were no witnesses. That is, of course, complete nonsense.

The camera is not your accuser -- it is the officer who authorized the ticket be issued. He can and will testify in court based on the photographic evidence.

For what it's worth, I used to work in that industry.



eric76
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18 Dec 2014, 9:08 pm

Odin wrote:
DeaconBlues wrote:
Further, since the "witness" is a camera, its photograph is considered its "testimony".

Want to protest this movement? One simple idea, which has always worked for me...

Stop running through the yellow lights!!

I've never gotten a ticket for red-light running, even from the shortest yellow, even from the touchiest camera, because I remembered the part of driver education where they said that the light turning yellow meant that it was about to turn red, and you needed to stop. You should take your driving advice from the state manual, not from the movie Starman ("Green means go. Red means stop. Yellow means go very fast").
If I remember driver's training correctly it is OK to go through a yellow light if you can get into the intersection before it turns red or if road conditions (ice, etc) or timing makes it dangerous to stop quickly.


Different states have somewhat different rules. In Texas, it is illegal to enter the intersection without stopping if the light is red. It doesn't matter why unless you are directed to enter the intersection during a red light by a police officer directing traffic. Road conditions don't matter -- you are responsible for driving safely and if the conditions are bad and you enter the intersection without stopping during a red light as a result, then you aren't driving safely and can be ticketed.

On the other hand, if the yellow signal is far too short, then you might have a chance. I read once that in Texas, there is a minimum time that a yellow signal must be displayed before the signal turns red, but I have never found it in the motor vehicle code -- and I have looked specifically for that.

If you entered the intersection while the light was yellow, then you do have the right of way over the cross traffic to exit the intersection before they come through. But note that means that you were already in the intersection when it turned red. If you were even just one inch from it when it turned red, then you entered the intersection illegally.

Additionally, most people do not know where the intersection starts. It does not start on an imaginary line connecting the curbs on both sides of the intersection. Usually there is a line painted across the road a few feet before you enter cross traffic. That line is where the intersection begins. That said, a police officer who stops you for running the red light may not be all that careful about noting precisely where you were when the light changed.



eric76
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18 Dec 2014, 9:11 pm

release_the_bats wrote:
I noticed that when I moved there 5 years ago. At least in south Texas, people drive aggressively and accelerate when the light turns yellow.

I also noticed that in Texas, yellow lights lasted a lot longer than in other states. And this seemed to permit or even encourage the "speed through yellow" driving behavior.


When I lived in Houston, there were occasions where someone nearly rear-ended me when I braked to stop at an intersection before the light turned red. After I'd stop, it wasn't unusual for one or two cars in another lane to blast through the intersection.



eric76
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18 Dec 2014, 9:19 pm

ADoyle wrote:
One other thing I've noticed is that if people are aware of a red light camera, many do stop when the light is yellow, and often, the result is that traffic backs up for about a block or more when there's a lot of traffic. I avoid being rear-ended by slowing down slightly at each intersection in case it turns yellow or red before I get there. If it annoys someone, they can just go around me and get that ticket from the red light camera in the mail.

Some cities where I am are now considering adding something to those red light cameras that records the speed of the vehicle, as often, those who run red lights are going at speeds which usually get them tickets anyway. Only instead of being pulled over, the person will get the ticket in the mail.
If I'm in a town where there is red light cameras, my usual practice is to drive ten miles per hour below the speed limit to give me more time to watch out for them.



auntblabby
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18 Dec 2014, 9:20 pm

^^^^
I bet that makes you popular with the locals. [irony]



eric76
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18 Dec 2014, 9:24 pm

auntblabby wrote:
^^^^
I bet that makes you popular with the locals. [irony]


I doubt that they think much about it.



auntblabby
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18 Dec 2014, 9:25 pm

are you serious? that is a recipe for road rage where I am.



eric76
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18 Dec 2014, 9:38 pm

auntblabby wrote:
are you serious? that is a recipe for road rage where I am.


Let 'em rage.



auntblabby
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18 Dec 2014, 9:48 pm

you're braver than I am. where I live are kooks packing iron who have been known to shoot at people whose driving they did not like.