Has anyone been saved by the "red light camera" POI?

So far the only red light cameras I've encountered have all been in my home town where I was accustomed to them for a while before getting my GPSR. I haven't yet traveled to any place with red light cameras.

The redlight POI's are very useful in unfamiliar areas.

Guilty of not paying close enough attention while driving in light traffic in Tempe recently. Especially now with the high gas prices, I'm trying hard to keep my speed down so it was a particularly bone-headed move. The POI's definitely saved me and woke me back up.

You must travel at a very high rate of speed if a 1/4 mile alert causes you to slam on your brakes to avoid going through on red.

Honestly, I do my best to actually obey the law and attempt to stop unless I see the idiot behind me has ass-pirations of not stopping.

Where I find the poi comes in handy is turning right on a red light where most people take a quick glance, notice no traffic and make a turn without the car actually coming to a full stop. When I hear the bell go off, I ensure that I make a complete stop, wait a few seconds, then proceed to make my right turn. If there's no sound and no red line across the top of the screen, I often make a quick right turn to spare the environment by saving a little gas.

bentbiker
I Agree completely!

Bob

One safety feature i use the red light camera poi for is to know the car in front might slam on brakes at a light that I expect them to go through.

when i know a red light camera is there I give the car in front of me a little more room.

Not quite, but i had to re-think what i was doing because i was not paying attention the way i should and i did not risk running the light.

I'm a fairly safe driver. Have NEVER had a red light ticket in over 40 yrs of driving. But thought this file would give me a heads-up just in case...but I've found lots of inaccuracies around the north Austin area...some warnings where there's no traffic camera...makes me think I'm going to drop it from my loaded POIs

I've downloaded many files from POI-factory, but I skipped this one. I couldn't see a need - however, I'll continue reading to see what I'm missing.

I don't mean to dissuade anyone from visiting Wisconsin, but folks here take a skeptical attitude about the traffic laws. The REAL rules of the road are that you can go through a "fresh red" - otherwise expect severe rear-end collision damage.

Rolling stops are good for the environment. The written law might say that you stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk, but even a child would know better than to walk out in front of a stopped vehicle - the drivers in the next lane will surely be cruising about ten mph above the posted limit.

Also curious: Even the "right-of-way" rules are different in the REAL world. Somehow "avenues" are superior to "streets" (as in "I'm driving on a street, therefore I must wait while that car coming down the avenue a quarter block away passes").

I visited the Commonwealth of Virginia in April and I had a tough time reactivating decades-old Driver's Ed brain cells. Virginians, you can rest assured that you were at risk for only a short time, and you will be alerted prior to my next visit.

GregPaul

Well, after I received my first (and ONLY) red light camera ticket from aobut 4 blocks from my office - I didn't realize it was there until I uploaded the file. Now, it gets my attention with that extra "BING BING" and red stripe at the top of my 660.

That extra attention is a good thing!

Well, if nothing else I now stop for the yellow lights. Maryland is flooded with them, the worst in the country. They also "seem" to have VERY short yellow duration before going to red by design

In the St. Louis metro area, red lights seem to be an invitation to speed up, unfortunately, I typically stop when I see a yellow light and have seen some very large eyeballs in my rear view mirror, even when cameras are involved. Have been driving since 1959 and was taught that you stop for a red light and a stop sign; don;t know what is being taught today......
Anyway, the red light POI will give me some additional visibility in areas I am not familiar with.

Klaus

I think its time again to reiterate the differences between "redlight" cameras and "traffic monitoring" cameras used by emergency vehicles to move safely to hospitals, fires etc. Folks who are reporting cameras need to review the camera pictures here:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/6698

I was recently in a town just south of Tampa and since I was on a time crunch, I didn't get a chance to "mark" the location that had a traffic monitoring camera listed as a red light camera. I know we have weeded out a large number of them but we need to be careful what we report.

that is a good reason to have the POI's loaded up. I always stop for red lights, but I still find these files useful. I allow extra room as the above poster and I will be more attentive to a yellow at these lights and stop when it goes yellow. I also will not turn right on red at one even if it says its ok. I just don't trust them.

I set the proximity alert to 1400 feet. That gives me plenty of warning. When I get the alert, I start slowing down. I haven't had to make any rapid stops because of the advance warning.

Very good driving! We are proud of driver's like you here in Texas. Should you find "inaccuracies" in the data base (false signals), I would strongly urge you to notify Miss POI of the locations. Sometimes locations are included because cities have announced they are going to install cameras at these locations in the future. You can easily manually delete them from your data base if you find them distracting.

I have gotten 2 red light tickets in my life both were very stupid on one I just got nipped making a left and the other it was late at night I was tired and the street was empty and it was wet I was going about 40 and saw the yellow instinctively got on the throttle and knew I ran the the red then I saw the 2 flashes which sucked but what was I supposed to do slam my brakes on on the wet road plus the yellow was only a second long. The database hasn't saved me yet but has helped with sleepless nights worrying if I ran a camera light this database is much better than photo enforced which isn't up to date. I cant wait to use my Tom Tom again when it comes back from repair because you never realize how much easier it is not to worry about lights until you lose the warning.

I have only had the Red Light Camera POI loaded for a couple of weeks but it is doing a great job of reminding me of the cameras in my area; as others pointed out, these lights seem to have a very short yellow and having a heads up is always helpful. I think they will be more helpful when I travel because I am more likely to zip through a yellow in a big city in order not to get rear ended by the "big city drivers" (no offense intended) .

I've had some close calls

Yellow lights are often shortened when red light cameras are installed.

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/04/14/six-ities-busted-for-shor...

I've been saved by this POI several times. Red light cameras and speed cameras are ubiquitous in the National Capital Area!! However, there are still quite a few false reports in this area. I'm hoping to sort some of them out. Until then, I just remove the ones I know aren't there from the file before uploading it.

One thing I've noticed though... it seems that every time I'm approaching an intersection "guarded" by one of these cameras... the light seems timed perfectly to be turning red right when I'm getting there. It's almost like they've got it set up that if you're traveling at the rate of traffic... you're going to be set up to fail. Maybe I'm just paranoid that the government is trying to scalp me for money.

I get fair enough warnings so as not to go thru the lights. It is a very helpful add-on to my unit.

+1

Especially when driving to a new city or place.

Better to be aware of false positives than not be alerted at all .

I found the POIs to be useful in Rockville, MD where there were a lot around the downtown area and in Bethesda, MD.

There is ample warning with regard to the POIs so 'slamming the breaks' was not a problem for me.

I now live in Florida where running red lights are rampant. I wish there were red light cameras here.

I've been driving 38 years and have never worried about stopping for red lights. (My entire driving record consists of one speeding ticket in 1972 for doing 40 in a 30. They raised that speed limit to 40 about a year after I got the ticket).

I installed the red light camera POIs for my city on my GPS because I'm a techno-geek and did it out of interest only. I had a new toy, and I had to play with it

My Magellen Maestro 4210 allows for two warnings as I approach a custom POI. I have it set up to give two medium loud beeps when I'm 200 yards away, then two loud clangs when I'm 75 yards away.

Its save many time when I went out of town last month.
Thanks POI red light camera

The red light cameras are well marked in Calgary. The only thing is your not sure what ones are working. They have more boxs that they do cameras. They move them around to keep you on your toes.

ohwogo nuvi 750

I am definently one of those who slam on the breaks as son as I hear the warning from my GPS

it helps me be extra cautious of short yellows when I understand that it is a camera intersection. Just a little bit of help to keep the big government revenuers away from my wallet.

I've been very lucky. The Garmin saved me.

I've been very lucky. The Garmin saved me.

Yes! There are a TON of cameras in my area, and stopping short has nothing to do with speed - it deals with traffic. Sure you hear the warning for a 1/4 mile, but it is a question if the flow of slow moving traffic will allow you to get through the intersection before the light changes. So, I've stopped short on several occasions when I normally would have 'scooted' through as the light was changing and before the cross traffic flow began.

The warning has definitely saved me.

I love the warnings. Sometimes you dont pay attention as to where you are and then your garmin gives you that little reminder.

I may be wrong, but in California if a city is using red light cameras or cameras as speed traps, they must post at the entry to major entries into the city signs indicating that such devices are being used in that community. The sign itself may not be next to such a device. I've noticed a number of "speed camera alerts" in the POI file in my area that are correlated with entry signs, not actual devices, but it's the ensuing alert is still a good reminder to be vigilant in that area.

Census1940

dozens of times

You need a warning especially when turning right at red light.

And I was on "Welcome Way" in Davenport when all of a sudden I got a warning. I've driven this street before and never realized there were cameras there. Now I will be careful to stop at all the Yellow lights.

I was saved in Monroe, NC. The light had a no turn on red, with two lanes that could turn right. I didn't notice the sign, however, my GPS had warned me about the light. A van besides me turned right on red and bang the camera went off. I was hesitant to do any thing (turn right) because of the warning. Glad I waited. One confirmed save!

Saved no, WARNED YES!! But then, I don't drive like a jackass most of the time anyway. (LOL)

I'll be going home to check that out soon and ill keep ya posted

Saved no, warned yes. More of a reminder NOT to run yellows in my case.

I find these poi's very handy when out of town,keeps you on your toes for sure!

This post to me has a ring of "Everybody's doing it, so it's OK." If your point is that enforcement is uneven and inconsistent and highly localized across this great land of ours, then I surely agree. There are many towns in the northeast, for example where, if a police officer observes you not make every possible attempt to stop for somebody who has a foot in the crosswalk, you WILL get a ticket. And they're strict about it because they're tired of seeing pedestrians treated as free game for crossing in front of traffic in crosswalks, or getting hurt because drivers are fiddling with electronic gizmos and not paying attention.

If you think it's okay to roll through a "fresh" red or bump into somebody from behind who really stopped at a stop sign because you and other people where you live interpret "STOP" to mean "YIELD" and because "rolling stops are good for the environment", well, don't try this in my town unless you're looking for a ticket. And you're not going to find judges very sympathetic to your interpretations of local standards. If you cause an accident doing this, you may be out some serious dough between lawsuit judgments, legal bills, and your car insurance premiums.

I'm not setting myself up as a model of great driving here. I've been know to go 78mph in a 65mph zone, and justify it to myself "because everybody's doing it". But I also understand that cops and judges don't consider this a valid excuse and that I have no right to whine or earn a Get Out Of Jail Free card because I was only following what I interpreted as the local custom. I also assume that the vehicle in front of me may stop on a yellow light, or stop and sit at stop signs for five seconds more than I would, etc. Patience, dude.

The speed camera file saved me in Phoenix. The alarm sound file linked to it scared the hell out of me when it went off, but it got my attention.

The RL files here have alerted me to 'up and coming' new cams in my area. (Peoples republik of IL)

At the very least its made for a good warning.
No.. I dont blow thru red lights..but I've seen one of our local cams flash when folks do regular 'ol Right On Red. Perfectly legal, yet I've seen the flashes go off.

I have serious issues with these cams. But I wont start and obvious rant about it here.

I wouldn't say they have saved me but they certainly helped!

As others have mentioned, a big issue for me as I'm approaching these special intersections, is ensuring I have a safe working distance around me. I'm very aware of who is behind me and just how far. The last thing I want to do, is brake hard and get smacked in the back-end. So, when I get the GPS "heads-up" alert, I do what is necessary to clear the space behind me.

I have not had that problem since I am alerted before nearing red light camera. That is why I love this list,as it warns you in enought time to react to the light. Though I don't make it a habit of going through red lights, when tired, you might just hesitate and bam a ticket. With this alert, you should not encompass this problem.