leinart nailed by

[Shamrock]

In DC, the photo enforcement tickets (speeding and red light) come with instructions "If you pay by mail, you don't get any points on your license. If you challenge this in court, the fine doubles and you do get points"...when actually, if you challenge it in court, they throw it out without a hearing. Reason being: the cameras are contracted by the DC police, they're actually owned and operated by a private company that takes about half the revenue they generate. The city wants the cash, but absolutely does not want it on record that half you fine goes to a private corporation.

 

Of course, as corruption goes in DC, that's pretty minor (I could tell stories about the city government, the Nationals, and the new ball park... ). But still...

I believe there was a court decision on this somewhere in the country within the past two weeks that's resulting in lots of municipalities (Arlington VA among them, I think, which is how I heard of it) reconsidering just this question. Wish I remembered the details - I don't even remember what state it was in.

 

 

Don't drive in Oz then. Here in Victoria we are surrounded by cameras. The state government gets hundreds of millions from them. It's addicted to them. The tolerance or error is 3km/h. That is driving at 100km/h you can get booked doing say 104km/h. Yep. The trouble is that there are as many accidents now as before. Since seat belts and drink driving campaigns the state death toll which was 1000 in the 70's is now around 480-500 (horrific as it is), but hasn't gone down for about a decade. Go figure. People drive with their eyes glued to the speedo to avoid a fine. Perhaps, the recent tunnel accident was in part due to this fastidious need to not creep 3 clicks over in order to avoid the tunnel camera instead of looking through the windscreen to see a stationary truck?

So as my dad would argue, they shouldn't drive at the speed limit. So he drives 80 on the freakin' freeway that's 100...aghhhh.

Red light cameras have been shown to increase the rear end accidents for the reasons suggested. Oh, and all the cameras are run by private companies that get paid...yep...bonuses. So guess where they set up- bottom of hills, parked as unmarked cars on roadside, behind trees etc. If the job is to slow someone down, put a 2-cent (Aussie cop, as in what's the color of a 2-cent piece? Copper) vehicle there. Works everytime. Nothing works like being pulled over. Oh and I work at a road trauma rehab-hospital so i see the survivors of MVA very frequently.