traffic school...just finished

beardog03

After 11 long hours of online traffic school, I just got done...

this has been one of the longest days I can remember....

man that course was long !

I went through a yellow light in the city (S.F) and it took my picture....
As I approched the intersection line it turned yellow, and when I got to the line on the other side it turned red,,
Had I stomped the brakes (@44mph), I would have slid through the intersection...instead I punched her up and made it to the other side before it was red..


sounds worse when I write it out !!!

$400.09 for the ticket
$32.00 to opt for traffic school (fee)
$9.95 for filing fee
$24.99 for online traffic school

$467.03 so far...
Plus 11 hours of online torture,and a court date Monday at 9am

For something that was unavoidable...not my fault...

man this sucks

beats getting a point on the ol driving record and having the insurance go up and out of control !

I hate the City....

.25 per minute to park....cameras at all the intersection.....who know when or if it will take your pic, but even though they admitted to having the timming set to early, they say that it is unbeatable....the adjuste dthe cameras timming to go off when it`s red now.........many people fought and lost and they said it was fixed, and there is no winning it in court

one guy did win and the said they fixed them since then, but they LIE !!!


end of rant....carry on...:rolleyes:

dorokusai

100% revenue driven crap.....and where does that money go?....into the budget that you already pay for.

beardog03

I agree 100% , bro...

the fleecing of hard working Americans

Believe me, if I didn`t have to be on the Waterfront, I would ever go to the jacked up City

george daniel

Thats alot of money, recently my wife got snapped doing the same thing in Atlanta,,hell,,they send you a pic and an acess code,then you can go online a watch it on video,, cost me 80.00 bucks,, no school or anything.

beardog03

4oo bucks for a traffic ticket !

sheesh !

I`m still pissed !

Polk user

Relax,

YOUR money is being well spent:

http://michellemalkin.com/2008/07/01/thank-you-san-francisco-8-illegal-alien-crack-dealers-on-the-loose/

obieone

LMAO! You got a ticket for running a YELLOW?!!! Holy ****! I've NEVER heard of anyone getting a ticket for THAT! Even in MA. if your tires cross the line AFTER it turns RED, ya probably won't get a ticket.
You po' bastahds in the Bay area are getting SOAKED! How y'all live there without going postal, is BEYOND me!

bobman1235

obieone wrote: »

You po' bastahds in the Bay area are getting SOAKED! How y'all live there without going postal, is BEYOND me!

It's gotta be the weather. It's the only thing that makes sense.

janmike

$400+ for a ticket - WOW that's a tough one to swallow.

shack

Bear has just pointed out another reason I will visit CA...but I will never live there. $400? I hope there was at least some foreplay before they bent you over and a cigarette afterwards. :rolleyes:

Here in Knoxville, the cash generating machines they call traffic light cameras will only set you back $50 and no points on your license. There is no incentive to fight because if you go to court and lose it cost the $50 plus $75 in court costs and a wasted day in court.

An attorney friend of mine HATES those things... plus the type of practice he has causes him butt heads with the city all the time and he likes to mess with them. When my daughter got one he asked if he could fight it and if she still lost he would pay the bill.

He wasn't disputing the violation but was challenging the law. He lost in traffic court (which he knew he would) but the judge liked the change of pace. He filed an appeal based on some of the aspects of the law that violated both state law and the city charter. The city attorney was amazed and offered to just collect the $50 and waive the court costs. He declined and the city attorney ultimately dropped the case. There was an emergency city council meeting to change the language of the law allowing the cameras and a couple of other things that were violations of law. It's amazing how fast they can get something done when a cash cow is threatend. Anything else takes months or years to get fixed.

The company that runs the cameras still turned the $50 fine over to a collection agency. Even when presented with a copy of the court order dismissing the charge they still persisited. It took a threatened lawsuit if they persisted and/or reported anything to the credit bureaus to make them stop.

Bottom line...regardless of all the **** when they talk about safety and decreasing accidents (crossing accidents have declined but rearend hits have increased as people slam on their brakes to avoid crossing the red)...these things are just machines to generate more cash...nothing more.

dave shepard

We are they're employers if you think about it. I need to try something like that on my employer to get more money .

mrbigbluelight

Here in the "Show Me" state, we routinely and legally throw those tickets into the trash.

Legally.

No warrants are issued, no worries.

Legislators are scrambling to find ways to still milk that RedLight Camera Cow by attempting to pass legislation that will assess a fine for "Failure to Appear".


They'll pass that, and the tickets will still go unpaid.
Oh, I'll show up in court, and the tickets will still go unpaid.

Why ? Because it is the duty of the Court to PROVE that YOU are the driver.
THEY have the burder to prove it was you; it's not your burder to prove that it wasn't you, or to provide the name(s) of possible drivers.
"Gee, it kind of looks like you on the Redlight Cam !" doesn't pass Constitutional muster.

They bribe you into pleading guilty by offering the "Well, no points will go against your license if you pay the ticket".

Sorry, offer declined, PROVE I'm the driver.

Sure, the original court will find you guilty under the "Well, I have 50 other people sitting behind you in court, and if I let you go under the correct defense that we have to PROVE you're the driver, than they'll all plead the same, and there goes all that money down the tube !" school of law.
You appeal, and you'll win. Period. But that win won't be in front of those 50 other people who are intimidated into paying the ticket. So the majority doesn't know, and the majority will pay.


Did you know that it is possible for the local gendarme to trigger a red light in order to catch your car in the middle of the intersection ?
2 local podunk municipalities have been caught doing that. Their defense ? "Well, we need to be able to trigger a red light for a child if necessary to protect them !".

Yeah. Right. At 2 am in the morning. Lots of school kids out at 2 am in the morning.

The Post-Dispatch ran a couple of in-depth articles on this subject. I did a search on their "Stltoday.com" site, but the articles are in the archive section. You have to pay for that, and I'm not paying for that, either.

66chevyIISS

My boss recently got a ticket in the mail with a picture of her car running a red light. Well, she was on vacation and it was actually her sister driving. She took it to court with proof she was out of town and her sister went as well to admit she was the driver. Long story short the judge threw out the ticket and didn't even make her sister pay the fine.

obieone

That happened to me a couple of years ago at the toll booths in Boston. I got notification that I ran a toll w/ out paying. They were kind enough to include a picture with JUST enough detail showing an ENTIRELY different make/ style of vehicle. The lic. plate was damn close too. I had to look at the digits for 10 min.'s trying to see the discrepency. Mine was 'B', theirs was a '3'.
They were THREATENING all sorts of fines and jail time. Really sticking out their chests.
I made note of the discrepency and mailed it in. 3 months later they notified me of the correction. NO F'ing apology!

beardog03

There I was looking right into the camera....yep !...sure as hell, thats me !!

They admit the timing is off and it takes a pic when it`s yellow, but they still say in the same breath that there is no way to win the case..

9 am monday morning after I loose my case I will probably get to spend the next 24 in jail for contemt, as I know I won`t be able to hold my tongue..

and for $479, I got something to say....I damn well paid for it !

cfrizz

I certainly hope you are smarter than that Robert.

The cities put up these camera's because they know people are stupid, impatient, & in a big hurry to go NOWHERE! Instead of slowing down & stopping (providing they are not speeding in the first place) when the light turns orange the first 3 cars actually speed up to try to beat it & then **** when they get busted!

I see this happen all the time, then I walk past the morons having had to stop at the very next light!

But they have them caught on tape & are able to make money off of it. Oh well, TOO BAD! Slow down and obey the rules of the road & you won't have a problem.

mrbigbluelight

cfrizz wrote: »

The cities put up these camera's because they know people are stupid, impatient, & in a big hurry to go NOWHERE!

No, they put them up in a majority of cases (at least here locally) as a source of revenue.

Our state law, in an attempt to eliminate local podunk-villes from setting up speed traps or Red Light Carnivals as money troughs, states that local municipalities must transfer to the state any traffic ticket money that exceeds 48% of the municipal budget.
And that transferred money goes to the department of education.
Wow ! It's for the kids !!

Well, the local boys have that system down to a science.
As the Post-Dispatch revealed, an uncomfortable number of local burgs have numbers like 44 %, 45 %, 47% .
Most of these joints require you to show up for court, and pay the fines with cash.
Wonder how the figures stay below 48 % ? :rolleyes:

Cfrizz wrote:

But they have them caught on tape & are able to make money off of it. Oh well, TOO BAD! Slow down and obey the rules of the road & you won't have a problem.

Okay. PROVE it.

"Well, it .... yeah, it kind of looks like you .... looks like about the same height ..... in a way ....."


Yes, we must conform.

Norm Apter

Hmmm...I think its possible that both Cathy and Mr. BBL are correct -- it could be designed both to get people to slow down and obey traffic lights when no cops are present and as a source of revenue. I don't think these aims are mutually exclusive.

But I'm most curious about BearDog's thinking now (btw, I think that nearly $500 in fines & fees is absolutely ridiculous for a situation in which no accident occurred-- $50 sounds more normal) So, BD do you think this experience will change your driving behavior at all in the future or do you feel that there is nothing you can do to avoid the situation? Just curious.

exalted512

At the local university here, they did a study where they increased yellow lights for 1 second. As opposed to intersections with these cameras, accidents and red light runners decreased like 40% over 'camera' intersections. So what does the city with the university in its city limits do? Start adding cameras...
-Cody

Edit:
The fines here are $75...I'm pretty sure if you don't pay it, it goes on your credit report and thats about it.

cfrizz

Of course it's a source of revenue. It beats raising everyones taxes. If they can benefit on other people's careless, negligent, dangerous, stupidity...GO FOR IT! And if some of them manage to change thier behavior for the better, then the population will be a tiny bit safer. Unfortunately there are always plenty of others to take thier place.

exalted512

It shouldn't be a source of revenue to the extent that credible data is taken and disreguarded (I wish I could find the study online that I was talking about) so cities can get more revenue.

Traffic laws should be in place to keep people safe first, not to generate revenue as its primary concern.
-Cody

exalted512

While searching for the article, I did find this:

Adding one second to a yellow light reduces red light runners 36%. But putting cameras up reduces it 96%!
http://www.click2houston.com/investigates/15273145/detail.html

Either way, running a yellow shouldn't get you a ticket. At the same time, the intersections with cameras should have the appropriate time on a yellow light. The texas dept. of trans recommended 5 seconds for 50mph and so on, but also goes on to say thats just a suggestion, and that every intersection needs to be looked at individually to accurately give a specific time for that light.
-Cody

bobman1235

cfrizz wrote: »

Of course it's a source of revenue. It beats raising everyones taxes. If they can benefit on other people's careless, negligent, dangerous, stupidity...GO FOR IT! And if some of them manage to change thier behavior for the better, then the population will be a tiny bit safer. Unfortunately there are always plenty of others to take thier place.

Guilty until proven innocent, that's the Massachusetts way.

No one here is talking about catching people breaking hte law, they're talking about a FLAWED SYSTEM in which innocent people are being cited and have NO RECOURSE to fight the ticket that they were unjustly given. Yes, some people speed through yellows. Some people go through yellows at normal speed because they're intelligent enough to know that it's safer to do that than to slam on your brakes on a yellow. A cop sitting at that intersection would recognize that. A camera that is too sensitive / early would not.

beardog03

Norm Apter wrote: »

Hmmm...I think its possible that both Cathy and Mr. BBL are correct -- it could be designed both to get people to slow down and obey traffic lights when no cops are present and as a source of revenue. I don't think these aims are mutually exclusive.

But I'm most curious about BearDog's thinking now (btw, I think that nearly $500 in fines & fees is absolutely ridiculous for a situation in which no accident occurred-- $50 sounds more normal) So, BD do you think this experience will change your driving behavior at all in the future or do you feel that there is nothing you can do to avoid the situation? Just curious.

Norm,

I have known others to get the same ticket before and I am always aware that they are there.....I drive the speed limit and because I ride a motorcycle ,I am more cautious of my driving because I have to pay better attention on the bike...

I always look at the walk/don`t walk signs to see what kind of time I have before it turns yellow...so I can slow and stop in time...safely
I don`t as Cathy say`s, speed up to push through the light before it turns red....

The camera is NOT designed to make it "safer", it is for revenue...PERIOD
safer would be IMO a longer yellow light

As I said before , they admitted that the timers were off and flashed when yellow NOT RED, when somebody won thier court case, and they said they fixed it.....NOT


Living in California I have learned not to be one of te sheeple that just takes what the California legislature wants you to THINK that something is being done to make you "safer" , or that your one of "those people" when they do something like this.

I am a safe driver, and am never in that much of a hurry....some people may be , but I was not...

Even if I was $479 for the first offence, is , well...OFFENSIVE



it`s that self righteous attitude that allows them to put cameras up in the first place

Don`t get me wrong, there is a lot of butthead drivers out there that do just what Cathy is saying, but I was, and am not one of them..


so to answer your question...NO , i still drive safely and think I got punked by a City that charges .25 per minute to park along the street

mrbigbluelight

And if the motive was to make a dangerous intersection safer, than it would make it much safer if they also posted 500 feet prior to the intersection, "Next Intersection Monitored".

Some local groups tried to get these requirements for camera-monitored intersections passed and were shot down.

I guess the local munipalities want safe interesections, but not TOO safe.


:rolleyes:

sarah_9

Hello,

Online traffic schools are an easy and fast way to learn driving, there are many cheap driving school too, so choose most suitable driving school for your self ad make your driving lessons easy.


Regards,
sarah_9

hearingimpared

reported.

AudioGenics

Big Brother is watching.

BigMac

The easiest way not to get a ticket is to use photo blocker spray. You spray it on your license plate and when a camera takes a picture it is overexposed and you cannot see anything on the plate. No way to even tell you sprayed it on your plate either. There are other products available like a thin plastic sleeve your plate goes into but with those though, you can still see the majority of the plate. Some states do not allow anything on the plate at all like in Va. so the spray is the way to go and it works.

AudioGenics

http://mythbustersresults.com/episode87

Busted myths....

BigMac

Lookee here jvc.

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