Posted on 01/05/2010 11:57:34 AM PST by george76
More than a year after Arizona became the first state in the country to deploy dozens of speed cameras on highways statewide, threats to the groundbreaking program abound.
Profits are far below expectations, a citizen effort to ban the cameras continues to gain steam, the governor has said she does not like the program, and more and more drivers getting tickets in the mail are ignoring them after hearing from fellow speeders that there are often no consequences to that choice.
"I see all the cameras in Arizona completely coming down (in 2010)," said Shawn Dow, chairman of Arizona Citizens Against Photo Radar, which is trying to get a voter initiative banning the cameras on the November ballot. "The citizens of Arizona took away the cash cow of Arizona by refusing to pay."
More than 300 U.S. communities in 25 states use cameras similar to Arizona’s, including New York, Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. But the backlash seems to be particularly intense in Arizona.
Some people have shown their distaste with the cameras by covering them with boxes, sticky notes and Silly String. In a few locally infamous cases, one man took a pickax to a camera and another purposefully triggered the cameras dozens of times while wearing a monkey mask.
It’s nearly impossible to say how many people have ignored their tickets because courts don’t track the figure. The number has been estimated to be as high as 70 percent.
revenue ...will still fall far below the $120 million a year that former Gov. Janet Napolitano hoped to put in the state’s coffers when she ordered DPS to develop the program in early 2007.
Camera operator Redflex may not even be breaking even.
(Excerpt) Read more at yourwestvalley.com ...
Break out the silly string!!!
This is a no brainer: we all got a few tickets and figured out EXACTLY where all of the cameras are. The fixed cameras replaced the mobile vehicles that were unpredictable. Liberal geniuses’ plans fail. Every time.
People in England have gone after traffic cameras with a vengeance.
See here: http://www.speedcam.co.uk/index2.htm
I got a red light camera ticket in AZ.
I fought it, asked for a court date and wrote a couple of letters.
They dismissed the ticket before I even got to court.
I have no dog in this fight. When I was younger I suppose being the fastest car on the highway was a bit of a thrill. Now that I’m older and have a family I don’t find the need to ever go more than a few miles over the speed limit. What’s everyone’s beef with these cameras?
Or worse... people actually obey the posted speed when they see the cameras. :)
That’s funny how you can just ignore such tickets in Arizona. Most other states tie those tickets to your vehicle registration.
They are purely revenue generators. These people don’t give two sh1ts about safety. They don’t pay any money for personnel, just a little electricity. “Safety” is just the cover story. These things are profit makers for the state. Haven’t you read other stories about these in other parts of the country, or the UK?
It’s all bull. How does a stationary camera make you, now, safer? Tangibly? Look at the results of the system and tell me how it’s worked? It’s about fleecing more money out of people. The cameras will snap someone going a couple miles over or 20 miles over. There is no mercy or human judgment. And if you don’t think they will set them to get people 2 miles over, or snap someone who’s bumper is over a certain line (red light camera) you haven’t read the stories out of DC and other places in the country.
Clearly these devices are for revenue only. If officialdom wanted to curtail speeding, they would make the fines $1000 and loss of license for a year. That they make the fines nuisance-level but tolerable says volumes.
This works.
They sent me a ticket with a photo of a friend driving my car!
the obvious ....Privacy.
Giess you wouldn’t mind big brother flying drones with surveilance cameras over your house either, counting cars in your driveway. Who come and who goes.
too many cars ... no big deal ... but holy shi$$kty ... tht Mr. Green Jeans down the street was smokin a cigarette in his back yard .... call 911 ..... get the constabulary out with truncheons
meanwhile the magic negro steals more of you freedoms this very instant ...please let me eat an excrement sandwhich ... please ....???
All in the name of over all good doncha know ....... seems like I read something like that in gradeschool ..... oh yeah, it was the commie bag fastard manifesto being pushed down my throat from some gubmint screwl teacher.
this boy never bit.
seem like one of those guys thta have a plaster bust of themselves ... the ones Algore pointed to and said “who are these guys” one of them said something like those that sacrifice a little freedom for a little security deserve neither ..... just sayin....
As for me
locked and loaded
If the road in question was on your private property then I’m pretty sure you can drive as fast as you want and no one is going to bother you.
Really, my big issue is that I just wish the drivers on our highways were more safe, courteous, and skillful. Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone would just do this voluntarily. And just because you are a “good” driver does not mean you need to act like a jacka$$ every time you come upon a driver not doing as you see fit.
The beef is when their primary purpose is milking the taxpayers as opposed to enhancing public safety.
Speed traps are against Texas state law. I had no idea that we had "speed" cameras in Houston. This is a bad move, and we should get them removed. One is close enough to a police station you could throw a rock and hit it. Why a camera speed trap ?
Milk the taxpayers.
The same with cameras pointed inside your house to make sure you’re not breaking the law there.
How does speed enforcement work in Texas without speed traps?
Guess I better get some curtains.
This nothing compared to if and when Obamacare goes into effect, millions of people overnight will be flooding to the hospitals for every conceivable imagined injury, and the rest will do it just for kicks.
go bow to messiah obama , while you drink your precious latte worrying about dust generated by some vehicle. I’m sure the magic negroe and commie henchmen will build you a wall, ventilat and purify the air while they are at it ... oh yeah.... forgot to tell you about that gate with the padlock that keeps you from leaving ... but you got what you want. Ooops ... got the tax bill in the mail to pay for imprisonment as well ... I’m sure you will be the first to petition obammer for a nicer chair.
I prefer the cost of freedom. to many pople have had to die for it to support scumbag dirtballs that demand their little world be free from the slightest interruption.
Funny how the adult life works that way
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