Badly timed traffic signals cost Union City big bucks

[-Cp]

UNION CITY — Every ticket generated by red-light enforcement cameras in the city before last Saturday will be dismissed due to a snafu — letting thousands of red-light runners off the hook and costing the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in anticipated revenue.
Police officials and city engineers discovered last week that the yellow-light duration at every one of its camera-enforced intersections was too short — in some cases by more than a second. The city began using cameras in the summer at five intersections along Alvarado-Niles Road and Union City Boulevard.

Since then, about 3,000 people have been photographed driving through red lights. With the city getting $136 for each conviction, dismissing every ticket means the city now will not receive more than $400,000 that would have gone into its general fund. Adding to the impact are the costs incurred in processing all of those tickets that now will be dismissed.

The state Department of Transportation sets the minimum amount of time that a traffic signal must remain yellow before turning red, based on the road's speed limit. For a road with a speed limit of 45 mph, such as Union City Boulevard at Lowry Road, the light needs to stay yellow for at least 4.3 seconds.

Read the rest:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_3058409

 

[insein]

Well thank you Union city for admitting that Cities place within their budgets traffic tickets as expected revenue. Tickets are a waste. They dont deter crime. They simply make law-abiding citizens, who are already paying ricidulous amounts of money in property taxes to the city, criminals. Do you think a criminal is going to stop at a red light and think twice? You send the ticket to the house that the license plate is at and might find that its not even their house, or license plate, or car.

Tickets abuse the law abiding citizens of this country by making them pay over and beyond what they are already paying to the town. Yet criminals get away with these trivialities and more because cops are too busy writing tickets when they should be catching drug-dealers and thieves.

 

[Shattered]

Well thank you Union city for admitting that Cities place within their budgets traffic tickets as expected revenue. Tickets are a waste. They dont deter crime. They simply make law-abiding citizens, who are already paying ricidulous amounts of money in property taxes to the city, criminals. Do you think a criminal is going to stop at a red light and think twice? You send the ticket to the house that the license plate is at and might find that its not even their house, or license plate, or car.

Tickets abuse the law abiding citizens of this country by making them pay over and beyond what they are already paying to the town. Yet criminals get away with these trivialities and more because cops are too busy writing tickets when they should be catching drug-dealers and thieves.

If you just got a traffic ticket, you're breaking the law.. Therefore, you're no longer a law-abiding citizen.

 

[dmp]

Red Light cameras should be illegal...Red light cameras do NOT increase public safety; moreover, they tend to cause INCREASES in traffic accidents.

 

[insein]

If you just got a traffic ticket, you're breaking the law.. Therefore, you're no longer a law-abiding citizen.

So im a criminal because i was driving my car too fast or i went through a red light while it was changing? Wake up. If you think tickets are meant to protect the public from anything then your the ones they love. The gullable fools who dont realize that these laws are unlawful against honest citizens.

 

[Shattered]

So im a criminal because i was driving my car too fast or i went through a red light while it was changing? Wake up. If you think tickets are meant to protect the public from anything then your the ones they love. The gullable fools who dont realize that these laws are unlawful against honest citizens.

Nah... I've gotten 2 speeding tickets (in the same weekend, mind you).. I just suck it up and take responsibility for it, rather than screaming "Unfair!"

You either broke a law, or you didn't. Simple as that, really, no matter how much you try to make excuses for it.

 

[dmp]

You either broke a law, or you didn't. Simple as that, really, no matter how much you try to make excuses for it.

tis a naive view of traffic 'laws', toots. Honestly.

It's naive because I know of too many people who got tickets and were NOT guilty of a single infraction.



<- raises hand as 'one of those people'.

 

[-Cp]

Red Light cameras should be illegal...Red light cameras do NOT increase public safety; moreover, they tend to cause INCREASES in traffic accidents.

Got any data to back your claim?

 

[insein]

http://www.motorists.com/issues/enforce/burkeyobeng2004.html

Prompted by criticism of the simplistic methods and small data sets used in many studies of red light cameras, we relate the occurrence of these crashes to the characteristics of signalized intersections, presence or absence of RLC, traffic, weather and other variables. Using a large data set, including 26 months before the introduction of RLCs, we analyze reported accidents occurring near 303 intersections over a 57-month period, for a total of 17,271 observations. Employing maximum likelihood estimation of Poisson regression models, we find that:

The results do not support the view that red light cameras reduce crashes. Instead, we find that RLCs are associated with higher levels of many types and severity categories of crashes.

http://www.motorists.com/issues/enforce/australia.html

The results of this study suggest that the installation of the RLC at these sites did not provide any reduction in accidents, rather there has been increases in rear end and adjacent approaches accidents on a before and after basis and also by comparison with the changes in accidents at intersection signals.

 

[insein]

Nah... I've gotten 2 speeding tickets (in the same weekend, mind you).. I just suck it up and take responsibility for it, rather than screaming "Unfair!"

You either broke a law, or you didn't. Simple as that, really, no matter how much you try to make excuses for it.

I too have gotten my share of tickets. Not one time was i endangering another person or endangering myself (which should be besides the point).

The point of these tickets is obvious as Union City has clearly stated for all to see. It is a big money maker for cities and municipalties. This in turn allows them to higher more cops not for stopping criminal behaviour but for writing more tickets to bring in more money. Its like a business and we just bend over and take it everytime.

 

[Shattered]

I too have gotten my share of tickets. Not one time was i endangering another person or endangering myself (which should be besides the point).

The point of these tickets is obvious as Union City has clearly stated for all to see. It is a big money maker for cities and municipalties. This in turn allows them to higher more cops not for stopping criminal behaviour but for writing more tickets to bring in more money. Its like a business and we just bend over and take it everytime.

I wasn't endangering anyone, either.. Straight road.. Just going a ...little faster than the posted limit.. But, we wouldn't need to "bend over and take it" if we'd just obey the posted limits.

 

[insein]

I wasn't endangering anyone, either.. Straight road.. Just going a ...little faster than the posted limit.. But, we wouldn't need to "bend over and take it" if we'd just obey the posted limits.

But ask youself, why are the limits posted if they are not threatening anyone's safety? Arent laws meant to protect the general welfare of the public? They arent supposed to be created to generate money for the government. That is what traffic laws do.

 

[Shattered]

But ask youself, why are the limits posted if they are not threatening anyone's safety? Arent laws meant to protect the general welfare of the public? They arent supposed to be created to generate money for the government. That is what traffic laws do.

Just because *we* know how to drive, and aren't endangering anyones safety because we happen to keep our eyes on the road, and pay attention to what *others* are doing, doesn't mean the majority of the population knows/does the same. The laws are there for the idiots of the world, and we're just required to suck it up, and obey them, or suffer the consequences (in my case, $275 worth of monetary loss)..

 

[insein]

Just because *we* know how to drive, and aren't endangering anyones safety because we happen to keep our eyes on the road, and pay attention to what *others* are doing, doesn't mean the majority of the population knows/does the same. The laws are there for the idiots of the world, and we're just required to suck it up, and obey them, or suffer the consequences (in my case, $275 worth of monetary loss)..

I dont know about you, but $275 in one month might put me in debt as far as my bills and rent go. Why are we, good citizens, that watch others and know how to drive the only ones being ticketed? Because we are the ones that stop.

Everytime ive been pulled over, i slowed down and let the cop pull me over, handed him my license, didnt say a word to the guy because that never helps. The times that behaved like a criminal though, i got away.

There were only 2 times that i got away. Once when i was in High School and driving to school, i cut across a closed K-Mart parking lot to get to an adjacent road. The cop saw me and started to follow me. Never did he turn his lights on but it was obvious he was after me. I quick cut into a development, pretty much ran 2 stop signs with the cop still slowly following me. As i got to the main intersection, i darted into traffic with a narrow entrance but enough for me to get in and the cop to be stuck waiting. I got away. In that process of me getting away, i ran 3 stop signs and darted into traffic. What was my punishment? Nothing. What was my motive for running? Not paying $150 fine for a stupid law.

The second time was more recent. In PA some lights are 2 lane roads with no turning lights despite having a turning lane. The result is you wait for the whole light to let 1 or 2 cars go through a red light on a left turn. I was the third car in line and when the 2 cars in front of me went, i stopped dead when i noticed the light was red. Thinking i did good by stopping, i notice that there is a cop behind me. Im thinking its ok he wont do anything because i stopped at the light. Sure enough, this asshole pulls out his checkboard and begins to write down my plate # while im waiting at the red light. Im looking at him in my rear view thinking, wtf could i have done? I didnt give him a chance to answer. As soon as the light turned green, i shot ahead of oncoming traffic before it could get moving and left the cop waiting behind a line of about 20 cars going through at 15 mph. I pulled into a grocery store parking lot, which was my destination anyway, and proceded about my day. My punishment? Nothing. My motive? Didnt want to pay a fine for whatever stupid law he had thought up.

So for that fear of a stupid law, in turn I broke 3 other stupid laws but got caught of none. Yet everytime i did my law-abiding duty to stop, i was punished financially. How then is a criminal who doesnt care about laws to begin with going to be caught by a "traffic" violation?

 

[dmp]

http://www.motorists.com/issues/enforce/burkeyobeng2004.html



http://www.motorists.com/issues/enforce/australia.html

Thanks! -Cp should know better than to get me started about the myriad of bullshit traffic policies.