Red Light Cameras

bry623 · 10-18-2005, 10:27 AM

The city of Columbus (all of them democrats who run 'At large', but that's another disucussion) passed a red light camera ordinance. Our state is about to trump them by making it legal only if an officer is monitoring the intersection. Why are the doing this? $$$$$$ They can issue more tickets with less officer pay. The company providing the camera gets a percent of each viloation's fine. Next thing you know, they'll be using them to watch us wherever we go. I think that people will drive more safely knowing that they are there, I just wish they'd come out and tell us the real $$$$$ reason.

**myquitehead** · 10-18-2005, 12:20 PM

And then there are the people that are going to see the big camera warning sign, have the light turn red 15 feet before they hit the line, and screech to a stop for fear of a $350 fine and have the car behind them ram into them real nice.

For every law that replaces common sense we come closer to Big Brother.

But I have to admit it feels REALLY good to see some jerk shoot through an intersection to be greeted by the little flash of light.

**Fox** · 10-18-2005, 12:25 PM

Don't blame this one on 'the liberals'; I don't know many that are out for cameras at every intersection. Speaking of the government watching us wherever we go, let's talk about the patiot act

**Jason** · 10-18-2005, 03:35 PM

There is an area near me who use face recoginition cameras all over town. So they can see who you are. Its the same company I believe that did the super bowl when it was here.

**40sondacurb** · 10-18-2005, 05:37 PM

Democrats suck at local government.

You need a licence o be a barber in some counties but you still can't find a decent hair cut anywhere.

I don't like Dems is positions lower than state positions. Their ideas are too big for small municipalities and they hurt small business, and in doing that they hurt the consumer.

Tumbleweed36 · 10-18-2005, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 40sondacurb

Democrats suck at local government.

Hi 40,

Man am I ever proud of you. I knew that some day you would begin to see the light! At least, that is a beginning for you.

yustr · 10-19-2005, 04:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bry623

Why are the doing this? $$$$$$ They can issue more tickets with less officer pay.

I was at a City Council meeting in Long Beach, CA years ago where the Chief of Police stood up and requested permission to hire two additional motorcycle officers. He then showed tables and charts discribing the cost benefit ratio of hiring them. Not one word on increasing public safety. "To Protect and Serve" my a$$.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bry623

The company providing the camera gets a percent of each viloation's fine.

Sounds like "Privatization" to me; using For Profit companies to do the government's work. Where have I heard this before. Does Blackwater ring any bells?

yustr · 10-19-2005, 07:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fox

Speaking of the government watching us wherever we go, let's talk about the patiot act

For another example of your government at work, they have colluded with manufacturers of color printers to include tiny coded messages on each sheet that only they can read. See article HERE
The pretense is catching counterfeiters but is it much of a stretch to use it to suppress opposing viewpoints?

**Fox** · 10-19-2005, 09:01 AM

That really sucks.

I hate the argument "Well if you're not doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to fear."

If the government were doing its job correctly, then it wouldn't need excessive powers like this.

Tumbleweed36 · 10-19-2005, 09:18 AM

Hi,

Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. I recently saw a report where there is a license plate cover out (appears clear to the naked eye), but has a coating on it that prevents any video from taking a picture of it. Appears as just a glob on the camera. They were about 40 bucks each if I remember correctly. This program tested this plate and it does prevent them from taking a picture of your plate.

**Fox** · 10-19-2005, 09:29 AM

Oh well. What does the law say? If the law says you have to make the plate numbers visible, and a cop can read them, that should be good enough.

But this is just crap. It allows the government to track anything and everything you print and distribute. And for what reason? There's no inkjet out there, let alone a laserjet, that can reproduce anything remotely close to a bill.

**40sondacurb** · 10-19-2005, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tumbleweed36

Hi 40,

Man am I ever proud of you. I knew that some day you would begin to see the light! At least, that is a beginning for you.

I'm not coming towards any revelation, I've always disliked the over done bureaucracies of local governments, a problem usually caused by the dems.

I don't hold favorites when it comes politics, neither team is really rooting for me so I don't blindly root for either of them.

leaning towards the democrats and not taking into account their bad things such as bureaucracies would be almost as bad as being a repblican and looking into CIA leaks and the reason why the president don't speek english god nuff.

**UncleMacro** · 10-20-2005, 01:34 AM

Speaking from the experience of living in "red light camera hell" (San Diego), the real reason the cameras exist is to make money. Our cameras were shut down for quite some time when a group of people sued. It turned out that some of the cameras were poorly calibrated and had other problems and tons of tickets were thrown out. But they also showed that the city has shortened the period of some of the yellow lights substantially in order to increase their income. Local TV stations had video of the old yellow light timing on one particularly high volume signal in Mission Beach. The time had been the same for years. When the city put in the red light cameras they shortened the yellow light time so that drivers would drive into the intersection based on the yellow light timing which they were used to and then would get nailed when the light unexpectedly turned red so quickly. Almost all the other cameras they installed were placed in high-speed intersections which already had relatively short yellow lights so they would make more money. All they had to do to reduce the red light violations substantially was increase the yellow light times to a "legitimate" period. The excuse for installing the cameras was safety but if the city made nothing off of the cameras, they wouldn't be there.

**ReeKorl** · 10-20-2005, 06:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fox

There's no inkjet out there, let alone a laserjet, that can reproduce anything remotely close to a bill.

Not the point (especially considering your bills are printed on cloth-paper anyway which is hard enough to get your hands on unless you bleach 1 dollar bills and print 100 dollar bills on them instead..... now there's an idea!). The government wants this so they can track ransom notes and suchlike.

It's similar to when ransom notes were typed on typewriters - they could prove it came from a certain typrewriter because of inaccuracies in the individual letters, such as the e being printed slightly higher than the rest of the line. Imagine the technology coming out to completely standardise typrewriters so that they all printed perfectly identically to each other - you may have the right guy in custody, but you can't prove it came from his typewriter.

Admittedly it is paranoia, but it's paranoia based in historic fact, not completely unfounded paranoia.

bry623 · 10-20-2005, 07:55 AM

This thread haa gotten off topic and is being closed.

10-18-2005, 10:27 AM	#1 (permalink)
bry623 Manager, The Conversation Pit/Analyst, Security Team Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: NW Territory circa 1787 Posts: 10,356 OS: winxp pro sp2	Red Light Cameras The city of Columbus (all of them democrats who run 'At large', but that's another disucussion) passed a red light camera ordinance. Our state is about to trump them by making it legal only if an officer is monitoring the intersection. Why are the doing this? $$$$$$ They can issue more tickets with less officer pay. The company providing the camera gets a percent of each viloation's fine. Next thing you know, they'll be using them to watch us wherever we go. I think that people will drive more safely knowing that they are there, I just wish they'd come out and tell us the real $$$$$ reason. __________________ Scarlet and Gray in L.A. 9/13/08

10-18-2005, 12:25 PM	#3 (permalink)
Fox Moderator, Microsoft Support Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: NJ Posts: 7,520 OS: XP Pro, CentOS My System	Don't blame this one on 'the liberals'; I don't know many that are out for cameras at every intersection. Speaking of the government watching us wherever we go, let's talk about the patiot act __________________ Antec Neo Power 500W- $35, ABIT IP35-E- $65, Intel E2180@2.66Ghz- $83, Corsair XMS2 2x1GB DDR2-800- $25, PNY 8800GT $160-25, 320GB Seagate- $65, Total: $419 * lazy college student alert *- If I've inadvertently ignored a thread, please Let me know about it Have I helped you solve your problem? Donate to Techsupportforums Klart Skepp!

10-18-2005, 03:35 PM	#4 (permalink)
Jason Shot the jukebox Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Tampa, FL Posts: 6,804 OS: Windows XP My System Blog Entries: 2	There is an area near me who use face recoginition cameras all over town. So they can see who you are. Its the same company I believe that did the super bowl when it was here. __________________ Posting Tips \| Advice for New People \| Common Fixes \|

10-18-2005, 05:37 PM	#5 (permalink)
40sondacurb #64 & #36 BACKBONE Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 5,677 OS: xp	Democrats suck at local government. You need a licence o be a barber in some counties but you still can't find a decent hair cut anywhere. I don't like Dems is positions lower than state positions. Their ideas are too big for small municipalities and they hurt small business, and in doing that they hurt the consumer. __________________ Donate to keep the forum running "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully" -George W. Bush

10-19-2005, 09:01 AM	#9 (permalink)
Fox Moderator, Microsoft Support Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: NJ Posts: 7,520 OS: XP Pro, CentOS My System	That really sucks. I hate the argument "Well if you're not doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to fear." If the government were doing its job correctly, then it wouldn't need excessive powers like this. __________________ Antec Neo Power 500W- $35, ABIT IP35-E- $65, Intel E2180@2.66Ghz- $83, Corsair XMS2 2x1GB DDR2-800- $25, PNY 8800GT $160-25, 320GB Seagate- $65, Total: $419 * lazy college student alert *- If I've inadvertently ignored a thread, please Let me know about it Have I helped you solve your problem? Donate to Techsupportforums Klart Skepp!

10-18-2005, 12:20 PM	#2 (permalink)
myquitehead TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 570 OS: XP Pro Sp1	And then there are the people that are going to see the big camera warning sign, have the light turn red 15 feet before they hit the line, and screech to a stop for fear of a $350 fine and have the car behind them ram into them real nice. For every law that replaces common sense we come closer to Big Brother. But I have to admit it feels REALLY good to see some jerk shoot through an intersection to be greeted by the little flash of light.

10-19-2005, 09:18 AM	#10 (permalink)
Tumbleweed36 Asst Manager Hardware Join Date: May 2005 Location: USA Posts: 12,643 OS: XP Professional	Hi, Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. I recently saw a report where there is a license plate cover out (appears clear to the naked eye), but has a coating on it that prevents any video from taking a picture of it. Appears as just a glob on the camera. They were about 40 bucks each if I remember correctly. This program tested this plate and it does prevent them from taking a picture of your plate. __________________ ----------

10-19-2005, 09:29 AM	#11 (permalink)
Fox Moderator, Microsoft Support Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: NJ Posts: 7,520 OS: XP Pro, CentOS My System	Oh well. What does the law say? If the law says you have to make the plate numbers visible, and a cop can read them, that should be good enough. But this is just crap. It allows the government to track anything and everything you print and distribute. And for what reason? There's no inkjet out there, let alone a laserjet, that can reproduce anything remotely close to a bill. __________________ Antec Neo Power 500W- $35, ABIT IP35-E- $65, Intel E2180@2.66Ghz- $83, Corsair XMS2 2x1GB DDR2-800- $25, PNY 8800GT $160-25, 320GB Seagate- $65, Total: $419 * lazy college student alert *- If I've inadvertently ignored a thread, please Let me know about it Have I helped you solve your problem? Donate to Techsupportforums Klart Skepp!

10-20-2005, 01:34 AM	#13 (permalink)
UncleMacro Moderator Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: San Diego Posts: 2,123 OS: WinXP My System	Speaking from the experience of living in "red light camera hell" (San Diego), the real reason the cameras exist is to make money. Our cameras were shut down for quite some time when a group of people sued. It turned out that some of the cameras were poorly calibrated and had other problems and tons of tickets were thrown out. But they also showed that the city has shortened the period of some of the yellow lights substantially in order to increase their income. Local TV stations had video of the old yellow light timing on one particularly high volume signal in Mission Beach. The time had been the same for years. When the city put in the red light cameras they shortened the yellow light time so that drivers would drive into the intersection based on the yellow light timing which they were used to and then would get nailed when the light unexpectedly turned red so quickly. Almost all the other cameras they installed were placed in high-speed intersections which already had relatively short yellow lights so they would make more money. All they had to do to reduce the red light violations substantially was increase the yellow light times to a "legitimate" period. The excuse for installing the cameras was safety but if the city made nothing off of the cameras, they wouldn't be there. __________________ Last edited by UncleMacro : 10-20-2005 at 01:36 AM.

10-20-2005, 07:55 AM	#15 (permalink)
bry623 Manager, The Conversation Pit/Analyst, Security Team Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: NW Territory circa 1787 Posts: 10,356 OS: winxp pro sp2	This thread haa gotten off topic and is being closed. __________________ Scarlet and Gray in L.A. 9/13/08