Great site for people sick of traffic cameras and shady traffic cops.

[Jesda]

http://www.thenewspaper.com/

Frequently updated with information on traffic laws and the shady red light/traffic camera industry. Lots of info also on emissions testing, HOV lanes, law enforcement abuse, privacy, and due process. I could spend hours reading.

[AZhitman]

Great info ruined by an incredibly horrible design.

Someone let them know that skinny text columns are for newspapers.

[93coupe]

...It is called the newspaper.com. I think they might be going with that theme.

[Zydeco]

oh well I wasn't planing on doing anything the rest of the day anyways.

[frftw]

interesting...

[RCA]

I could spend hours reading.

Interesting, I spent 5 minutes.

[Jesda]

Interesting, I spent 5 minutes.

INTERESTING I BANGED YOUR MOM

[RCA]

Hmm, well play Jesda...

Well played.

[PoorManQ45]

So, I never understood how some people would think that putting a camera up would help to avoid accidents.

The cameras are just like the police that come to the scene, they can only record what happened.

[Jesda]

So, I never understood how some people would think that putting a camera up would help to avoid accidents.

The cameras are just like the police that come to the scene, they can only record what happened.

I never understood it either. People run lights not because they want to plow through and risk death, people usually run them because they aren't paying attention. If they aren't paying attention to a bright red light, they likely won't notice a sign that says "PHOTO ENFORCED".

[AZhitman]

(From a former accident investigator's standpoint...)

I support red light cameras (if only to determine who was indeed at fault in the event of an accident, and to ensure fair accountability)...

I do NOT support speed cameras of any type, for a multitude of reasons.

[Jesda]

Red light cameras encourage greedy municipalities to reduce yellow light times to increase fines and collections. The end result? More accidents from shorter yellow light durations. People enter intersections while traffic is still clearing.

There would be fewer accidents to investigate if the f*cking cameras didn't exist to begin with.

[AZhitman]

ADOT contracts with an independent auditor on that. AZ isn't interested in being sued by someone's next of kin - It's happened in other states.

With that said, I'd be fine with seeing them go away.

[zerepdivad]

Pretty messed up stuff on the site. Like the meter maid getting arrested for giving a cop a ticket for illegally parking his minivan.

[Jesda]

Pretty messed up stuff on the site. Like the meter maid getting arrested for giving a cop a ticket for illegally parking his minivan.

That one really got to me. It only takes a couple meatheads with badges to make all the other good cops look like jerks.

[C-Kwik]

(From a former accident investigator's standpoint...)

I support red light cameras (if only to determine who was indeed at fault in the event of an accident, and to ensure fair accountability)...

I do NOT support speed cameras of any type, for a multitude of reasons.

I agree. But the problem is the cameras only get put up at the busiest intersections...that is, the ones most likely to generate lots of revenue. I did some informal research about red light camera locations in a local municipality and there were none at intersections that showed up as some of the country's most dangerous intersections. But they were looking into a stretch of road that was known to be very busy.

My biggest problem with red light cameras are that they aren't effective at stopping accidents. Most accidents involving blown red lights occur because the driver who blew the red light didn't realize it was red. In fact, many people who ran a red light actually believe they had a green light. Many of my investigations involved such scenarios and both parties would appear credible since they both believe they actually had green lights. Certainly, there were those who lied, but IMO, those were fairly rare. And you could usually tell who was likely lying as their stories would have a ton of holes in it and they would tend to get nervous as they realize it. The other aspect of red light violations that seems to becoming popular is catching people who do rolling stops when making a right turn on red. I do agree with this to some extent, but feel its not a big impact as most people do so in a safe manner. I don't think there would be enough impact to justify it on this alone. Not to mention it would do nothing for those who actually stopped and simply failed to yield the right of way since the camera would not trigger in such an instance. For the most part though, the existence of them is not a bog bother though as I don't frequent intersections with them and don't make a habit of blowing red lights.

[Alfador]

Honestly I think the biggest problem with any ticketing, especially red light cameras, is that they treat it like a revenue stream instead of an actual deterrence measure anyway. Hell, there are even fairly reliable reports of municipalities actually altering the timing on their yellow lights to issue more red light tickets. Any automated system that doles out a ticket = bad IMO. Cameras for record keeping and accident investigation? Sure. Cameras for scientific analysis of traffic flow? Sure.

That said, the site would be so much more awesome if it didn't make my eyes bleed halfway through an article. I had to turn down the font size massive to get a readable number of words on a line.

[breadbox]

Greg is right, its annoying as hell to read. Interesting stories though.

[Dattebayo]

INTERESTING I BANGED YOUR MOM

Also five minutes worth.

[breadbox]

In Virginia since 2006, a total of twenty-three ticketing blitzes have taken place, generating 120,977 traffic tickets.

That's about 5,260 every time lets say ticket is averaging at $98.

That's $515,480 each time,23 times is $11,856,040 total.

wow.

[Jesda]

Also five minutes worth.

BEST 30 SECONDS OF MY LIFE

[Veriest1]

I'm constantly amazed the redneck kids around here don't push them over with their big 4-wheel drives like they do stop signs and such.

[breadbox]

They have parking "Vans" issuing tickets? I need a second opinion.

Jesda, What do you know of these?

[AZhitman]

Honestly I think the biggest problem with any ticketing, especially red light cameras, is that they treat it like a revenue stream instead of an actual deterrence measure anyway.

CORRECT.

There are FAR better, proven ways to reduce speed and red light accidents, that aren't cost-prohibitive, that would be MORE effective.

Painted chevrons, rotary interchanges, lagging-left lights, dedicated left turn lanes, etc.

The fact that they're not is use is, to me, prima facie evidence that the implementing municipality DOES NOT CARE about increasing safety and reducing collisions.