STOP SIGN CAMERAS !!!

I always come to a complete stop at stop signs (not for 10 seconds, but not required either) so it won't make any difference to me.

I think it would be nice if people actually stopped, and took their turn when appropriate. Most of the driver's I see do not do this.

Maryland is beginning to rival Taxachussetts!

It spends SO MUCH on handouts, even sends illegal persons children to college free, that the government NEVER has enough money.

Governor O'Malley is now supporting the growth of gambling establishments (some already installed) to make some more money. Guess what it'll do to the less mentally acute of Marylanders!

Fred

Massachusetts doesn't have red light or speed cameras, let alone Stop Sign cameras.

That's great shrifty. You are certainly more confident in the camera systems than I am if you believe they only will nab people who don't stop at a stop sign. Given all the nonsense and false tickets sent via red light cameras, I do not share this nescience about cameras.

The salesmen at Redflex and ATS are still out there.

Nescience:
Noun
1. Ignorance (especially of orthodox beliefs)

I was just about to Google this.

We live in MD, suburbs of Washington, DC. Within miles we are either in MD, DC or VA.

My son got a ticket in DC for failing to stop completely in a red light, before turning right (the turn was permitted).

A friend's daughter got a ticket in Baltimore, MD for a similar infraction.

As far as I know, it's already happening around here.

BTW: just got an e-mail from a friend this morning informing they installed two new cameras on Midcounty Highway (Gaithersburg, MD), close to the middle school.

Cheers,

I'm not clear if that is what the newscast said, or perhaps your interpretation regarding 10 seconds.

Searching Maryland’s Vehicle and Traffic laws, I can't find anything that states a stop must be for ten seconds. My own interpretation, regardless of what state I’m driving is to come to a complete stop, then proceeds when safe to do so.

Maybe you just mentioned waiting 10 seconds would be a safe number to avoid getting a stop sign camera ticket.

I'm personally not opposed to stop sign cameras but I'm sure gray areas will arise as they have with red light cameras.

I have seen a number of speed/redlight cameras throughout my travels around the US/Canada, and I have not had any issues with any of them malfunctioning and giving me a ticket for something I didn't do.

With this in mind, I am confident in the camera's ability.

I count 3 seconds. 10 seconds seems to be a long time to me.

We already include a few of these in the red light camera file. Off the top of my head, I know Alabama and California have a few. Since they're not very common, we haven't created a special category for them yet.

This article talks about some of the stop sign cameras in California:

http://www.laweekly.com/2012-03-15/news/stop-sign-camera-tra...

Here's an image from google street view that shows one of the cameras:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=34.13519+-118.55018&hl=en&ll=...

Jonathan

One of the RLC in Centerpoint, Al is a stoplight camera.

You guys are way ahead of most of us that did not even know they existed.

Keep up the good work.

Strange location for a stop sign where no intersection or crosswalk is present. Thanks for posting JM.

Jay-Walking cameras?
Remember now, "It's only about $afety."

How about people walking down the street while texting??? Hell, there's more revenue to be had!!!

Fred

No way to turn in to the development. No turn to go over the hiil and it looks like it comes to a dead end for a construction entrance. So this one must be about $afety?

It's for the safety of coyotes, mountain lions, rattle snakes, bears, raccoons etc.

Don't like it! What if you come to complete stop then roll up to get beter view and proceed? Would camera give you credit for first stop or expect you to complete stop again.

A complete stop is when your wheels stop turning completely. Then you are good to go again. None of that counting seconds!

And all motion stops. So, locking up the brakes while sliding forward doesn't count.

From my Rules of the Road

That was explained to me on my 16th birthday. The examiner said I had to stop even with the sign, then proceed to where I could see, then come to full stop again.
That was a tricky intersection and he purposely selects that route when testing young boys, he admitted.

I think the examiner taught a very valuable lesson in a manner that would be remembered without much penalty.

This is how we're expected to drive in Illinois. I have a couple of problems with this maneuver. Actually, it might be more than a couple by the time I'm done.

1. I'm always worried about the person behind me thinking that I'm out of the way after my first stop. I don't want to get rear-ended because they're already looking left, and about to hit the accelerator.

2. Sometimes my passengers think I'm going to make my turn, when in fact, I'm moving up to get a better view. I'm not trying to scare people.

3. Why are the stop lines positioned in such a way that there is no clear view at a lot of the intersections? Wouldn't it be better to position the lines so that the stop would be coordinated with the view ending the 2-step-stop?

4. The way most people stop, their back tires are positioned on the stop line. It's hard to tell if they're going to stop at all, but I know it's because if they stopped where they're supposed to, they wouldn't be able to see traffic.

5. How much fossil fuel is wasted by stopping twice?

6. Let's say I stop once. A car is approaching on my left and they don't have a stop sign. There's a tree blocking our view of each other. The other driver sees me creeping up. How is that driver supposed to know I've already stopped once, and that I'm just moving up so I can see? How is anyone supposed to know I've stopped once, and now that I'm across the white line, it's because I'm getting a better view?

7. Add snow and ice into the mix, and we're talking super fun for everyone!

Getting back on topic, the article that JM posted, is scary, to say the least. I like how it says, on page 1, paragraph 4, sentence 1,

"Red-light cameras have been turned off in many California cities because data showed the costly tickets didn't make streets safer."

Put your mind in the gutter and read again...

That's what I thought the first time I read it. Had to read it again to realize what he really said.

You agree with what? That is was something the examiner shouldn't have done or that a valuable lesson was taught about the correct way to handle a stop sign?

They say a joke loses it's humor if it needs to be explained....

Take it out of the context of an automobile driving instructor... Think WAY outside the box.

I don't wait 10 seconds, howevever do make complete stops.

Complete stop?
For me depends on:
Area
Street corner
Traffic
Time of day
How many drinks I had
Mood
Running early or late
And many more I can't think about at this time.

In 50 years of driving I only had been ticketed once in Philly for running stop sign when I was young and impatient.

Talk about luck, any lottery numbers or stock tips you can offer?

Speeding tickets? That's whole 'nother ball of wax. Driving since 1983.

I have to try to fit it in my next conversation.

Hope no one thinks you are being pedantic.

Philly was and is a cops town, you can't drive a mile without bumping into one so the chances of being spotted running a stop is great, considering I drove there for 22 years one ticket is not bad.

Tampa on the other hand you can go days without seeing a police cruiser, maybe that is why I never got a ticket in 28 years.

What"s next. Jay walking cameras?

... nescience ... pedantic

What's this site coming to? Now you have to use google to be able to keep up with the posts!

Thanks for the info. We are going there in September for a vacation.

I think everyone, and I mean everyone, should stop for 20 seconds, look both ways twice, and proceed slowly. The traffic mess would be hilarious. It would be a great protest to red light cameras.

MD is so advanced, good for them.

People treat everything like a joke, such as what's next jaywalking? 20 sec stops? Why, we're becoming such an society whose rights are violated that I bet by 2015 there won't be any more cheating on income taxes either.

People really do cheat, as if it "ain't no thing." Those who don't probably welcome mechanisms to catch cheats. I actually was late to work watching Madoff turning himself in. I didn't lose any sleep that night knowing he had new digs.

Humph! You haven't heard anything yet! The city of Port Richey, Florida, has been looking into the feasibility of placing cameras in the Gulf of Mexico to catch boats speeding in no wake areas. The last I read was that a speed camera company has said that it was feasible and that they could do it. I don't know how much further it has gone from that.

Also, be advised that there are already rolling red light cameras. I think that the city of Lakeland, Florida, already has some of these. The camera is combined with a motion detector and is synced to the red light. If the light is red and you are turning right on red and it does not sense a full stop of your vehicle, it will generate a picture and a ticket. I think the cost is $158.00.

Also some cities have speed cameras combined with the red light cameras. They will generate a ticket if you speed up to beat the red light camera and exceed the posted speed limit in the process.

Myself, I don't see anyone can legally ticket anyone with these cameras. It seems to me that they are in violation of due process in the constitution by not physically seeing the actual offense in progress. In California, they used to place cameras covered up in pickup beds in parking places, and they would ticket vehicles 24/7. Those were eventually proven to be in violation of due process and removed. I believe the city was Campbell, California.

Eventually, I think we will see these cameras outlawed in the U.S. It just takes someone with deep pockets to be willing to go the distance. Some cities in Florida are even providing reduced fines if you pay in advance, but if you contest and lose, they charge the full amount. They hope that you will pay up front rather than want to challenge them in court, because they realize that they are on unsure footing.

With digital information including signatures being accepted legally, someone will come up with a doozy of a rationale to justify the legality of traffic cams.

I am glad they have not started those in my neck of the woods yet.

Ok, I exagerated about stopping for 10 seconds. But, one needs to remain stopped long enough for the computer (or officer watching the video) to be certain that you came to a "complete stop". Ok, yeah, 3 seconds is probably enough.

And once again, the news said a jurisdiction was trying to get permission for a stop-sign camera. It may or may not get permission from the state.

At least nobody has thought of cameras to catch people picking their noses, or having long hair, bad makeup, etc etc Oh, maybe cameras to give tickets for eating or drinking while driving?

I live in Winnipeg MB CA and I'm sure we have more stop signs per mile than anywhere else!
However, we were in England in 2003 and 2006 and I never even saw a stop sign! I asked our host how it worked and he said fine. Drivers understood right-of-way and smaller roads give way to bigger roads. Many four way intersections are neatly solved by traffic circles.
Back here in Canada I have heard recently that many of the suburbs of Saskatoon SK CA are replacing stop signs with yield signs - makes sense to me.

That's great, but have you considered the case (also in MARYLAND) last year of a camera that was giving speed tickets to drivers going at a legal speed? A business operator finally did the math between timestamps on the photos and convinced the judge that the claimed speeding was wrong and won. Then the court went back to finding responsible to everyone else that was falsely ticketed for the same thing even though it had just been proved in the same courtroom that the camera was a scam. The camera company later removed the number of decimal places for the timestamps, making it impossible to prove the machine's tickets are false.

Just this week a DC cop was found responsible for falsely approving camera tickets. In California and several other states, camera companies shortened the yellow phase from the traffic engineering safety guidance just so that they could get more tickets. The camera companies get a hefty portion (e.g. 50%) of ticket revenue so they have a strong incentive to play these games. It'a scam.

Just because you haven't had a bad experience (yet) does not make the system good. I haven't gotten into an accident with a drunk driver at night yet, but that doesn't mean it can't happen.

CA seems to have cameras everywhere, Red light cameras, Traffic Hwy cameras etc. Not sure if they have Stop Sign cameras yet I haven't run into one. I'm sure they are working on them if not yet implemented, Big brother you know. What I have found is if you follow common sense driving rules these cameras should not affect you in any way. Follow the rules and you won't get a ticket. Just saying.

See the 13th post on this thread.