Had time to kill yesterday (watched cameras for 15 min)
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I was early to an office XMAS party, so since the venue was at a red light intersection, I decided to walk to the corner and observe.
The cams were looking at only 2/4 directions of the intersection, westbound, and northbound.
The east/west is a state highway, heavily, heavily traveled and lots of vehicles. The north/south is more of a local road, not that much traffic.
I watched for 15 min. Not once did the flash go off for the people traveling westbound. Of course, they know the camera is there, so they stop. On one occasion I saw a Caddy Escalade gun it on yellow and was probably doing 60 in a 40 and was in the intersection when it turned red. No flash.
The yellow was 4 seconds according to my count.
Oddly, I saw at least 6 vehicles run the red going northbound. The only thing I can surmise is they didn't know it was there, not from the area, whatever, and when the flash went off, the light was already red as they proceeded.
In this particular case, my observations only support that the systems work as designed. You cannot get a ticket if you cross on yellow. How can you? there has to be a pic of your vehicle at the line or before, with a timestamp saying the light has been red for x.x sec. That cannot be possible if you went on yellow.
I can't see how anyone could think that red light cams are a bad thing. Do I want to know where they are? Sure. Am I going to get a ticket if I don't run a red light? Of course not.
sure
So in the mean time, people should just stop at the red lights!
Yes, that makes perfect, logical sense. Because everyone knows human reaction time is so much better than automated camera enforcement. Humans have the uncanny ability to know exactly when that light will change from amber, to red. Not only that, they'll know exactly where their car should be when that change happens.
There is a big difference between intentionally blowing through a red light when it's a stale red, and just so happen to be in the unfortunate circumstance to cross that threshold at a red light camera intersection. You better get it right, or you'll be fined. Sounds great! Just send the money, don't fight it, and don't worry! It won't go against your driving record. And, as an extra bonus, if you're not the owner of the car, you don't get stuck with the fine!