Bird saves a guy from a speeding ticket!

[THREEJAYS]

Same in Whitesburg.

Yes my youngest son found out about that one

 

[gh1950]

I heard it is not an actual traffic violation..no points on your license…no judge going to send anyone after you…anybody else?

That is basically correct. No way to prove you were driving, and they can't make you say if you were. You will get all sorts of threatening letters, but at the end of the day, it's a bill from a private company that contracts with the county/BOE to run the cameras and collect the money.

 

[gh1950]

He says his uncle operates the plant, picks up the dead birds and the rest is automated. Feed is supplied by the company he contracts with so there's no telling what's in it.

If memory serves, the company drops off the chicks after sexing and the "grower" feeds and chickensits them until pickup for processing.

We have to same stupid controversy in our area..

Nah, man, Miatadude is right. Speed cameras, no matter where they're installed, are all about the revenue. Getting a ticket in the mail a month later doesn't slow anyone down for at least a month - but gives plenty of time for all the OTHER tickets you get before you get the first one in the mail.

Think about it: If they REALLY wanted people to slow down for the children they'd just put a cop car there in plain sight.

There's a town in Alabama on the way to Panama City Beach that does just this - they've got a police car sitting there with it's radar blasting so much juice your detector will go off two miles outside of town. It's "manned" by a mannequin. Made me drive the speed limit, though!

They're popping up everywhere, while slowing down people in school zones is never a bad idea I think the revenue collection is just as much a factor as child safety.
Griffin had the red light cameras for awhile before being forced to remove them so school zone cameras are just another way to bump up that cash inflow.
If you don't like school zone cameras than obviously you're an evil person who hates children.

I have lived across the street from a Clarke County school for 30+ years, in which time there have been exactly 0 accidents.

They chose this school as one of 2 out of 13 to put up cameras.

Of course, "it's for the children" and "safety.

We are in a rural district, and the real reason is that the speed limit on the road is 45 MPH, most people drive 50 ish, so when the school zone lights start flashing, they may be slow to get down to 25 MPH. The other in town schools go from a 35-25 speed limit to the school zone 25 - so not as many targets of opportunities.

One of the ironies, is that the school mommies entirely block one lane of the two lane road, and the only way to get on down the road is pass the long line of cars by going across a double yellow line into the oncoming lane - but apparently that's o.k. because prosecuting school mommies for blocking traffic is not a cool thing to do.

 

[CAMSDADDY]

I heard it is not an actual traffic violation..no points on your license…no judge going to send anyone after you…anybody else?

My wife got one in the mail this week. 4 mins before it goes from 25 back to 45. The camera runs an hour before to an hour after school lets out. $100 a human would have made a judgment and realized there was zero traffic and never turned on the lights.
The worst part is the radar/camera company is making a mint and trickling a little back. I Albany they have raised over $4000000.00 since they put them up. That’s taking 4 million out of the local wallets and sending it to a company in another state.

 

[gh1950]

The worst part is the radar/camera company is making a mint and trickling a little back. I Albany they have raised over $4000000.00 since they put them up. That’s taking 4 million out of the local wallets and sending it to a company in another state.

We have a "redlight camera"

It was originally installed at another intersection, for you know "safety" reasons. Well, it worked, sort of - accidents increased because as people became more familiar with it, they were slamming on the brakes, causing a significant increase in rear end collisions. This meant that while more people were wrecking their cars, and paying for the damages and increased insurance premiums, the county was making less money. You can see where this is going - more safe, less money = we need to move the camera.


So they moved the camera to an intersection about 2 miles away on the same road. Again, to make it "more safe". It's a "T" intersection in a heavy business district. So the county started making tons of money of this one camera - not from people failing to stop in any of the through lanes, but from people failing to come to a complete stop when making a right turn on red.

in a "T", if you approach on the left hand arm, and make a right turn on red, there is no conflicting traffic, because the folks on the other arm also have a red light. So most sane people don't come to complete and full stop when making a right turn. You know, it's the green thing to do. The county was nailing those folks with a $175.00ticket for not coming to a complete stop.

About 20% of the income from that intersection comes from people actually running the red light, and the other 80% from people rolling the right turn.

It's right at the House of Waffles I frequent, and I have personally witnessed several accidents where the person about to make a right turn locks down the brakes, and gets rear ended.

But remember, it's for the children, not some company in Detroit.