It seems that the Houston "red light cameras" will be turned back on despite the will of the people. Go figure. Easy revenue for the city will not be given up easily or gladly by the powers that be. Of course these things do not save lives and I believe that they are a danger to public safety. People know they are there and bust through a yellow at high speed to not get "caught." Real surprised that some pedestrian has not been plowed over due to this crap.
There is also a bit of a constitutional issue I do believe. Running a red light is technically a crime and every American has the right to face the accuser in a court of law. In other words if a cop gives you a ticket for running and you believe yourself to be innocent, then you can go to court and even request a jury trial. The whole works. Running a red light and getting "busted" by the camera is considered by the "city" to be a civil offense. They are wrong and they are scamming the driving public.
I suggest if one gets a red light camera ticket to just ignore the thing. There is no real consequence (yet) for not paying the extortion money.
10 comments:
Most of the sheeple idiots in Corpus Christi love them.
I hate red light runners to, but I believe it was an extremely small minority causing a problem.
I absolutely agree. Everyone has the right to break the law without getting caught. Running red lights is guaranteed in the constitution, you know, so taking pictures of someone doing it is flagrantly unAmerican.
Jayhawk,
The point is not to catch red light runners. I agree they need to be caught, by the police, and made to pay a fine, if guilty. I do not agree that red light cameras should be used to catch them simply becuase, red light violations are a criminal offense and not a civil offense. In a red light violation you have no real opportunity for due process. You simply are photographed and sent a bill.
You do have access to due process. You can challenge the charge in court just as you can challenge a ticket given to you by a policemen. You can "confront your accuser," which is the company that installed the camera. They will send a technician and your lawyer can ask questions about the camera function, timing, intervals, and what tests were performed to assure that the camera was operating properly on the day that it took your picture.
You have about as much chance of winning as you do when a police oficer hands you a ticket for running a red light when he observes you doing so and pulls you over. You can challenge that cop, and you can challenge that camera company.
San Diego has had these cameras for some years now, and it is absolutely provable that they reduce red light running, and they reduce deaths from collisions at intersections. The canard about them causing deaths due to rear end accidents is a falsity. Rear end collisions cause few injuries, and at city street speeds they cause essentially zero deaths.
Running red lights is one of the biggest cuases on death on the streets, as opposed to highways, of this nation, and the practice needs to be stopped. The problem is not the cameras, the problem is the reckless and dangerous idiots who are killing people by their own selfishness, carelessness, idiocy and macho bullshit, and we need to catch them and stop them.
In San Diego, at least, one had best not ignore the ticket. It is a traffic ticket and if you are stopped with it still open you will be arrested and jailed, and your car will be impounded. Ignoring them in Texas may be good advice, probably not, but in San Diego it would be very, very bad advice.
I must say I do not like habitual red light runners. Not that I have not accidently run them myself at one time or another. We all have I suppose. I did get one of these red light tickets when driving a cab and of course paid it. It is reuired by the cab co if one wants to continue to lease their equipment. I am no advocate of reckless driving. I would love to spend just one week as a traffic cop in Houston. I would have a ticket writing field day and probably would take some drivers to jail at the slightest provocation. That is not the point though.
In Texas, at least at this time and unless I am mistaken, there is very little that the city can do if one does not pay. There was some talk about not allowing one to renew their license for non payment but that has not been approved by the state. No convincing statistics have been put forth showing that these things do indeed decrease accidents for this city.
I have personally seen, more than once, people racing through the intersections where cameras are installed.
I think it more of a money grab than any concern about safety.
Getting a "red light camera ticket" and being presented with a bill is not the same thing as having the ability to meet your accuser in traffic court (if one so desires to waste the day that way).
Challenging the "red light camera co." and having a technician come out to explain the process, etc. is not the same thing in my mind as meeting a real life police officer in court. Again, I want reckless drivers off the street but I think I know a scam when I see one.
It matters little what I think though, I am sure the cameras are back to stay.
Your funny Jayhawk. We can confront our accuser. What a laugh! :LOL:
That kind of thinking is why we are in the fix we are now. That is why voting is a waste of time.
Its a revenue grab, nothing more.
I enjoy disagreeing with you, Cabbie because we respect each other and we disagree on the topic. We never make it personal, attack the validity of each other's thinking, mock the other, or reduce it to ad hominem attacks. You are a true gentleman.
I enjoy the "back and forth" also.
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