I can’t speak for New York, but down here in Georgia, where I live, these speeding cameras are often operated by private companies rather than the police. The fines people pay generate revenue for those companies, and it’s not always clear how much, if any, of that money actually goes to the police or the city.
In many areas, these cameras will issue you a school-zone speeding ticket when it’s not even school-zone hours, or cite you for going just one mile per hour over the posted speed limit. I find it difficult to believe these cameras are consistently accurate enough to justify that level of enforcement.
Honestly, I stopped paying these tickets years ago, and literally nothing has happened.
I was driving from Queens back to Jersey at like 130am and got dinged for 38 in a 25 because it was a school zone. Two-lane road with a wide grass center median, was a 35 on both sides of the 25 school zone.
That being said, is what it is. I almost wish we had them in my town. Every road in my town is 25, but people treat them like they’re 35, 45. People walk in my town, I walk my kids to school, I walk and run all the time, and people fly around. I wouldn’t mind some kind of enforcement, because the cops just can’t keep up with it. That and the red light runners. I am just getting back from a run now where a guy ran a red light through the crosswalk I was using. I should at least be allowed to throw shit at their cars. Maybe I ought to try it out.
And a woman was killed in a crosswalk five days ago. I need some accountability.
You are 100% correct and I completely agree with school zones and stopping for buses and so on and so forth.
The issue however isn’t that people should be going slower in areas where pedestrians are more likely to cross the street is that the enforcement should be on a state level instead of private companies profiting off of this nonsense.
And the cameras need to be extremely tightly regulated; look at what’s happening with Flock.
Private companies should have absolutely no ability to charge fines for people driving on public roadways. Moreover, regarding the type of enforcement of one mile over the speed limit, how can the camera possibly be that accurate? It is just using regular old radar.
I am a firm proponent of following traffic laws, just not like this.
Yeah, I’ve had this idea of designing a system that my local PD can monitor and enforce traffic violations via camera. I want the local government to have authority over it. I, unfortunately, am unable to do that because I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m definitely on board with it not being in the hands of anyone private. Either that, or a private company that builds the system for a municipality and then cedes control of the devices to the municipality, but hats obviously got some potential issues associated with it.
And I’m not some angel on the road, but in residential areas I go below the limit. Maybe having kids did it to me, but the thought of running over someone, especially a child, is enough of a reason for me to drive slowly and carefully.
Now, on the highway, I admittedly go above the limit. But that’s a different story, IMO.
Are your school zones active 24/7? In some states, they’re only active for like 1-2 hours leading up to and just after school starts, then again from just before school lets out and active for another 1-2 hours.
If I got a school zone ticket at 1:30 AM, not only would I take it to court, the judge would 100% throw it out because those rules would never be applicable in the dead of night. Seems strange to me.
For sure, but I live in Jersey, and the cost of getting back to Queens to fight it would have far exceeded the cost of just paying it. It’s a game and they know it. My days of wasting nights in court out of principle are in my past. Maybe they’ll come back again though.
From what I recall, quite a few years ago, there was a protest where many people stopped paying them on the basis that you have a right to face your accuser; I don’t know what happened with that.
I can’t speak for New York, but down here in Georgia, where I live, these speeding cameras are often operated by private companies rather than the police. The fines people pay generate revenue for those companies, and it’s not always clear how much, if any, of that money actually goes to the police or the city.
In many areas, these cameras will issue you a school-zone speeding ticket when it’s not even school-zone hours, or cite you for going just one mile per hour over the posted speed limit. I find it difficult to believe these cameras are consistently accurate enough to justify that level of enforcement.
Honestly, I stopped paying these tickets years ago, and literally nothing has happened.
I was driving from Queens back to Jersey at like 130am and got dinged for 38 in a 25 because it was a school zone. Two-lane road with a wide grass center median, was a 35 on both sides of the 25 school zone.
That being said, is what it is. I almost wish we had them in my town. Every road in my town is 25, but people treat them like they’re 35, 45. People walk in my town, I walk my kids to school, I walk and run all the time, and people fly around. I wouldn’t mind some kind of enforcement, because the cops just can’t keep up with it. That and the red light runners. I am just getting back from a run now where a guy ran a red light through the crosswalk I was using. I should at least be allowed to throw shit at their cars. Maybe I ought to try it out.
And a woman was killed in a crosswalk five days ago. I need some accountability.
You are 100% correct and I completely agree with school zones and stopping for buses and so on and so forth.
The issue however isn’t that people should be going slower in areas where pedestrians are more likely to cross the street is that the enforcement should be on a state level instead of private companies profiting off of this nonsense.
And the cameras need to be extremely tightly regulated; look at what’s happening with Flock.
Private companies should have absolutely no ability to charge fines for people driving on public roadways. Moreover, regarding the type of enforcement of one mile over the speed limit, how can the camera possibly be that accurate? It is just using regular old radar.
I am a firm proponent of following traffic laws, just not like this.
Yeah, I’ve had this idea of designing a system that my local PD can monitor and enforce traffic violations via camera. I want the local government to have authority over it. I, unfortunately, am unable to do that because I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m definitely on board with it not being in the hands of anyone private. Either that, or a private company that builds the system for a municipality and then cedes control of the devices to the municipality, but hats obviously got some potential issues associated with it.
And I’m not some angel on the road, but in residential areas I go below the limit. Maybe having kids did it to me, but the thought of running over someone, especially a child, is enough of a reason for me to drive slowly and carefully.
Now, on the highway, I admittedly go above the limit. But that’s a different story, IMO.
Are your school zones active 24/7? In some states, they’re only active for like 1-2 hours leading up to and just after school starts, then again from just before school lets out and active for another 1-2 hours.
We don’t have any in my town, and I don’t spend a ton of time in queens and Brooklyn, so I dunno. My town is just 25 everywhere all the time.
If I got a school zone ticket at 1:30 AM, not only would I take it to court, the judge would 100% throw it out because those rules would never be applicable in the dead of night. Seems strange to me.
For sure, but I live in Jersey, and the cost of getting back to Queens to fight it would have far exceeded the cost of just paying it. It’s a game and they know it. My days of wasting nights in court out of principle are in my past. Maybe they’ll come back again though.
From what I recall, quite a few years ago, there was a protest where many people stopped paying them on the basis that you have a right to face your accuser; I don’t know what happened with that.
They get around it by making it a civil fine, so the 6th amendment doesn’t count, not criminal.