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osoab
9th October 2012, 05:54 PM
Suck it up fellow proles.

If it is happening "Down Under" what is going on in the states?



Australia: State Caught Exploiting Short Yellow Signal Times (http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/39/3918.asp)

Victoria, Australia caught issuing red light camera tickets at intersections where yellow had been too short for seven years.

http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/pix/roadsafety.jpgA court challenge forced officials in Victoria, Australia to admit last week that red light cameras at eight intersections have been extremely productive because the yellow warning times were illegally short. The yellows fell short anywhere between 0.5 and 1.5 seconds with the incorrect timing in place, in one instance, for seven-and-a-half years.

At the intersection of Stud Road and High Street in Wantirna, for example, the yellow time was set at 3.0 seconds on December 28, 2006. Under VicRoads guidelines, it should have been 4.5 seconds, but the timing was not corrected until August 23. VicRoads only bothered to check the timing after a local man, Gordon Bishop, fought a ticket at Terminal Drive and Centre Road, near Melbourne Airport. The 3.0 second timing at that intersection fell short by 0.5 seconds of the requirement in a 50 km/h (31 MPH) zone. That half-second was enough to make this camera the state's second-biggest moneymaker. The court agreed with Bishop that the timing was illegal, though the state has appealed to avoid the prospect of paying $2.5 million in refunds.

After 3AW Radio made a big deal out of the shortened timing, VicRoads conducted an audit of timing at Victoria's 200 red light camera enforced intersections. VicRoads Chief Executive Gary Liddle refused to tell 3AW Radio on Friday how many motorists were affected or whether refunds would be issued for the citations that run $305 each. Because Australian photo tickets carry license points, it is possible that some drivers had their license suspended as a result of the improper timing.

"Those will be issues for the road safety camera commissioner to consider," Liddle said.

Motorists who received a ticket at one of the affected locations were told to wait for the ruling of the speed camera commissioner. As of last month, the timing at the intersections in question had been brought up to the VicRoads standard.

While a difference of 0.5 to 1.5 seconds in the length of the yellow light might seem insignificant, the extra margin of safety is critical. The vast majority of straight-through red light "violations" happen when a driver misjudges the end of the yellow light by less than 0.25 seconds -- literally the blink of an eye (view Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) chart (http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/pix/violationchart.gif)). In most cases, a yellow shortened by one second can increase the number of tickets issued by 110 percent, according to a TTI report (view report (http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/02/243.asp)).

A copy of the list of affected intersections is available in a 40k PDF file at the source link below.

Source: http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/pix/pdf-mini.gif Media Release (http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/docs/2012/au-shortyellow.pdf) (Minister for Police and Emergency Services, 10/5/2012)

Regional News:
Other news about Australia (http://www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/related.asp?V=16)

Glass
9th October 2012, 06:09 PM
yep thats right. The Government makes mistakes. It's up to US to make them pay for them. They do it to us.

horseshoe3
9th October 2012, 07:50 PM
Mistake, my ass. Try entrapment.

milehi
9th October 2012, 08:20 PM
This was happening in Southern California around four years ago. One camera was removed when a flood tide of cars started using neighborhood streets where a councilman lived to avoid the camera.

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/26/2606.asp

Dogman
9th October 2012, 08:29 PM
There was a blurb on ether CNN or ABC yesterday about red light cameras in new york city that had almost nonexistent yellow lights. They were way short in time, one example they showed changed from green to red in about 2 seconds. Also said there was over 40 or 50 (all) of these cameras setup this way in the city.

The city loved them, they were making the city >?< I think something like 40-50 250 million dollars a year. Can not remember the exact number , but it was huge and in the multi millions.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=46e_1349741551&comments=1

Edit: Found the video, in link above ,

slowbell
9th October 2012, 08:34 PM
Yellow lights are for safety, to prevent accidents. I'm not surprised though, that our cities will sacrifice the public's safety to generate revenues. Basically, they value our dollars more than our personal health.

Publico
10th October 2012, 03:20 AM
Best way to handle these cameras is take a photo of the mayor's personal car and print out two, one for the front plate and one for the back plate. Put said print outs on over the regular plates. Blow thru the red light camera intersections and maybe a couple of speed cameras as well and see how long before the mayor squeals.

I've thought a good website would be one where people could swap photos of license plates of cars belonging to government slugs in favor of these money makers.

Hatha Sunahara
10th October 2012, 10:22 AM
I've gotten two 'photo enforcement' tickets in the last 10 years. I didn't have to pay for either. The car I drive is registered to my son. The ticket came in the mail addressed to my son. It had a picture of me driving the car. My son made a copy of his driver's license picture, attached it to the ticket, and made a note that he was not driving the car, and sent it back. Never heard about either of them again. again.


Hatha

Horn
10th October 2012, 10:26 AM
I've gotten two 'photo enforcement' tickets in the last 10 years. I didn't have to pay for either. The car I drive is registered to my son. The ticket came in the mail addressed to my son. It had a picture of me driving the car. My son made a copy of his driver's license picture, attached it to the ticket, and made a note that he was not driving the car, and sent it back. Never heard about either of them again. again.


Hatha

They can't pull you over for driving around in a ski mask, can they?

Wonder if his insurance rates went up?

Ares
10th October 2012, 10:35 AM
I received one in Chicago.

Wrote ""Refused For Cause", 4 months later I have yet to hear anything from them. Refused it and sent it back the same day I got it.