Posted on 06/16/2005 7:57:31 AM PDT by scott7278
If you run a red light in Arnold, you could get a ticket, even if you don't get pulled over by a police officer.
The City Council is expected to vote tonight on a proposal to install cameras at the city's busiest traffic intersections. Car owners will be issued citations in the mail, even if they weren't the ones driving.
To issue a ticket under the plan, the camera would have to capture high-resolution images of the car license plate and the signal clearly shining red. The proposed ordinance says people inside the vehicle - including the driver - will not be photographed. Whoever the vehicle is registered to would be ticketed, unless that person can prove someone else was driving. Scofflaws would be fined $94.50, the same as if they were ticketed the old-fashioned way.
If council members approve the plan - and the city's mayor believes they will - Arnold will be the first community in the St. Louis area to install the so-called red-light cameras.
Elsewhere, the cameras have met with mixed reaction and even accusations that cities have changed the timing of some signals to reap extra revenue.
Arnold Mayor Mark Powell says he expects the cameras to pay for themselves, but he says safety is the city's motivation. He said the city initially would install cameras at two busy intersections - Jeffco Boulevard and Highway 141 and Richardson and Vogel roads - and atop a traffic light near Rockport Heights Elementary School.
Powell said the city isn't trying to invade privacy, and it doesn't plan to crack down on drivers who barely run a red light.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
I'd laugh, but it is more scary than funny.
And malicious pranks.
"....and it doesn't plan to crack down on drivers who barely run a red light."
Can someone define "barely"?
No, they take you there.
We have cameras at some intersections around Atlanta. They advised everyone in the newspaper where they are. Getting through the intersection on the red is epidemic around here .. it's high time someone did something. The caution lights are long enough... then 4-5 more cars will go through on the red.
"Barely" when revenue is involved, or the general usage of the word?
I don't know......
Because I can guarantee you that there is a wide discrepancy between the way government would use the word "barely" compared to normal people.
Where were the police? Couldn't they be more agressive?
I agree.
I grew up in that town, this suprises me as they used to be a pretty laid back place. I have a feeling the problem lies in too many yuppies moving out from St. Louis County!
My son lives there now, I'll have to give him a warning!
Running lights happen at EVERY intersection. Thousands of intersections in the 20 some counties that make up the metro Atlanta area. No way they can put a policeman at every intersection. I don't like cameras ... and I don't run red lights. Too many do, however.
Do we really want to pay someone $30,000-$40,000 a year to sit at a stoplight for 40 hours a week? The resources of our police departments are much better spent doing work in the community or patrolling neighborhoods than babysitting stoplights to make sure someone doesn't run it and plow into a minivan full of kids going to pratice. I'm fortunate that I live in Arizona, they actually have to prove that you were behind the wheel when handing out citations for running reds. I'm also pretty pleased with the redlight cameras on both intersections north and south of my house, the one south is a major community college (30,000+ students) across the street from a regional hospital. Also this intersection is within a mile of 2 Highways, and another mile away from a major retail center (1,000,000sf mall and big box stores). It used to be one of the most deadly intersections in the valley before they installed the cameras.
As long as no one does any funny things such as play with the timers on the lights (they can't really because of MAG aggrements) everything is fine.
Me either. I got a ticket on I-55 going through Arnold last December. They were using an airplane, the sneaks.
The worst speed trap in the St. Louis area is the little town of St. George. I think the town government must live on ticket revenue.
St. George was the worst when I was there, and it doesn't surprise me that it still is. From what I heard, they would stop you for going 1 over, and then you'd have to go to court to get your license back. Does that sound right?
I wouldn't know...I avoided the area like the plague.
Another bad speed trap is the town of Frontenac, the stretch of Lindbergh Rd. between Manchester Rd. and Clayton Rd.
http://www.stgeorgemo.org/
Check out the music they have playing at the various links...the "History" link cracks me up.
Yep. St. George will slay you unless you are draggin'.
It's just that little stretch of Reavis Barracks Rd.--maybe a mile long, tops--but they have a revenue collector camped out there 24/7/365 (/366 in leap years).
I got a ticket in St. George back around 1989. Since then, I am very alert and watchful whenever I pass through that dinky little speed trap of a town.
They always seemed to be better equipped than the Highway Patrol.
Rock Hill is the worst.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.