They're finally going away. Those damn useless red light cameras.

I hope the rest of them across the country go away.

[first couple paragraphs]

"Red-light cameras in Northern Virginia will be unplugged tomorrow, as a 10-year pilot program expires.
A state legislative committee in February voted not to continue the automated traffic-enforcement program, which has been operating in six Northern Virginia localities and Virginia Beach.
Several already have turned off their cameras, but some local lawmakers plan to fight for the program, which they say is a cost-effective way to catch red-light runners and make roads safer."

Full article here

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Current:
2014 VW Tiguan SEL 4Motion 43,000 miles.

2016 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport (wife's).

Past:
2006 Jetta TDI 135,970 miles. Sold Nov. '13.
1995 E-320 Special Edition. 220,200 miles. Sold Sept. '07.
1987 190-E 16 valve. 153,000 miles. Sold Feb. '06.
1980 300-D 225,000 miles. Donated to the National Kidney Foundation.
1980 240-D manual, 297,500 miles. Totaled by inattentive driver.

There is hope for the Commonwealth, or some would say, Communistwealth.

Revenues are way up for D.C. though. It's a defactor commuter tax.

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Regards

Warren

Currently 1965 220Sb, 2002 FORD Crown Vic Police Interceptor

Had 1965 220SEb, 1967 230S, 280SE 4.5, 300SE (W126), 420SEL

ENTER > = (HP RPN)

Not part of the in-crowd since 1952.

Please tell me why you wish to revert back to a situation where the average dork in a $hitbox will run the light three seconds after it turns red?

The double red period here has increased to nearly three seconds now, to prevent catastrophic accidents.

Those cameras are exactly what is needed. I support their use.

If you don't run the light, you've got absolutely no beef with the camera.
If you run red lights, then you deserve every penny of that fine.

Just be thankful that you didn't kill someone.

I think all cities/towns should have red light cameras. There is simply no excuse for running red lights. There should be a general crackdown on our highways. I, for one, have gotten many tickets and deserved each and every one of them. However, I have not been awarded a ticket since 1981.

We have accidents all the time where I live because some imbecile runs a red light.

I also think that medical insurance should not cover a person who is injured while driving a car not wearing a seatbelt. Local statistics show that
pickup truck drivers utilize seatbelts less often than other vehicle drivers. That is what the local police say.

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Lawrence Coppari

2002 SLK32 AMG
2005 Acura TL
1987 328GTS
1986 944T

Thats because Virginians are too F* stupid to operate them correctly. Sorry it just pisses me off. I see redlight runners every day, and now your state is tacitly condoning bad and dangerous bahavior. If you stop for red lights, why would you hate the camera?

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1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed
2005 Toyota Sienna
2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible
1999 Toyota Tacoma

EXACTLY! If we had red light cameras here in CA especially here in Southern California we'd fix all of our budgetary problems AND make the roads much safer at the same time. People seem to be getting worse by the day. It's disastrous when people still make left hand turns at 50mph or from a dead stop (even more retarded) 2 seconds after a solid red light is visible only to gridlock the oncoming traffic. What's the freaking point?!

Oh and I might add it's not necessarily a crapbox car doing it. It's everyone whether it be an Isuzu I-Mark or a Escalade heaving to starboard in the process.

Why can't people JUST drive?

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1974 240D 3.0L 4(M) - 250K -OM617.910 + 300D FW + Rajay turbo power!
1977 6.9 3(A) - 84k

The average person is too stupid to drive.

Just look at the freeways. Ever notice that some days the traffic can move along in rush hour at 50 mph without ever stopping? It hardly ever happens, but, when the moon is just precisely aligned with the sun, nobody decides that they must cut in front and nobody hits the brakes.

The road can handle about 6X the number of cars, if all the cars are moving at 50 mph. It is NOT a problem of too many vehicles.

The problem, in a nutshell, is the fact that the average person is too fu_______ stupid to drive a car.

I think it's an interesting social study in human behavior that despite the obvioius safety and cost effectiveness of the cameras, there is debate that the systems are improper invasions of privacy and "big brother" incarnate. We have a government that can find out how many times you borrowed "1984" and "Animal Farm" from the public library, but intersection cameras are bigger problems. . . ?

Of course it's "big brother" incarnate. But, the behavior of these fools demands such behavior on the part of the government. It's getting to the point where a "decent and normal" driver can't easily get from point A to point B.

I don't get the "invasion of privacy" issue? What privacy is granted to you for use of a public road?

Phoenix leads the country in red light running fatalities. Hooray for more dead bodies!

Wouldn't be so terrible if the runner is killed. But, it's usually the runner with the engine up front protecting his sorry ass.

I certainly am no advocate of the "invasion of privacy" argument, since technically the cameras see what is publicly visible on any street. Some have refined the "privacy" argument to the "unblinking eye" of the video surveillance systems, but that's pretty weak.

I don't have the reference handy, but it was an article written by Pat Bedard in Car and Driver a while back. He spent a lot of time talking about the revenue-inhancement angle. The company doing the installation was charging a percentage of the resulting tickets, IIRC. When the number of tickets didn't meet the minimum in the contract, the city shortened the time on the yellow light. In the same article, it was stated that, while intersection collisions were down, rear-end collisions were up. People obviously afraid of an automatic ticket panic-stopping and getting tagged. If safety were the only desired result, a more-effective (and much less costly) alternative would be to lengthen the yellow light.

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1989 300 SEL that mostly works, but needs TLC

Now that is total and complete BS. And, it would explain why the system would ultimately fail. But, the philosophy of the camera doing the law enforcement is sound. Too bad that it was applied and abused by the typical government employee(s).

Any solution to a problem can be abused and thereby creating further problems.

The root of the matter is to develop a solution to make people better drivers.

By reminding people NOT to run the signals, it would save lives, make that commute time less stressful, increase productivity as a whole since someone didn't stop traffic by killing a biker or pedestrian walking home from school merely because they didn't want to wait for more than 1 cycle of the traffic light. Or how about driving in the shoulder just because there's room to drive?

Traffic signal cameras make sense in one aspect since they have low overhead. Keeping the system fair is another issue as there is conflict of interest by the lowest bidder who installs them. They didn't put them in because they are being good samaritans.

Any better suggestions out there?

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1974 240D 3.0L 4(M) - 250K -OM617.910 + 300D FW + Rajay turbo power!
1977 6.9 3(A) - 84k