Florida: Red-Light Camera Fines May Go Up to $408 ...

Until citizens stand up & make an issue of it at election time, they'll continue to be screwed.

What I'm amazed at is how dumb the general population really is.

Fred

Thanks for posting and sharing the link.

When are we going to march on the scoundrels?

That really is an insane amount of money for it.

I am for red light cams, but to break bad habits. I could see $408 for parking in a handicapped space when you're not, using the carpool lane when you're a single occupant, DUI, but running a red light imho should be a nuisance such that you will stop. In the $100 ballpark imho.

Again, a good example where the state is after breaking bad habits is MD. Last I saw, 12 mph over the speed limit, and the speed cam ticket will result in a $40 fine. a) 12 mph is a reasonable margin b) $40 is a reasonable fine A person still doesn't usually want to throw $40 away, and in many cases, will stop the bad behavior.

The more money they make, the more they want!
Remember, it's all about $afety.

Gotta have more money to buy votes

$408 is enough to stop my heart, or myself from driving.

Unbelievable. It seems that small cities uses these things to raise funding. I miss living in the Ft. Lauderdale area. At least their, you can hire a ticket attorney for less than the fines.

Not quite true, at least in Baltimore City. It has been pretty well established that speed cameras are all about revenue. The $40 value seems to have been set low enough so that it was virtually never worth your time to go to court, hence a 100% payment rate. In court, some judges where dismissing upwards of two thirds of the tickets. Things got even better when the newspaper discovered a case where a vehicle that was NOT MOVING got a speeding ticket.

Some other jurisdictions have configured their cameras in ways that appear to violate the state law, but make it impossible to challenge in court due to lack of real evidence.

This is their income instead of the FL state income tax, especially from the tourist.

Florida just allowed cities to shorten the length of yellows too. and the cities shortened them as short as they could legally. It is all about the money.

In reality, would a shorter yellow, cause a person to suddenly be a red-light runner? Unless that driver had very poor reflexes, no.

Does it make it ethical? Of course not. But it does in no way turn law abiding signal following motorists into red light runners.

Hmmmmmm, have the redlight cameras reduced redlight runners thus reducing redlight tickets, therefore to increase or maintain the revenue the cost per ticket is being raised? Something to ponder.

The formula for the time that a certain traffic light remains yellow is t=1/8s+1.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=yellow%20traffic%20l...

Yester years formula, all is in the air now.

I think it is highway robbery. It is going to be very hard to reprogram my driving.

Even though I am a proponent of cameras, I realize that they are revenue producers. So - when revenue decreases because violations decrease, then ....

Wow. That's insane.

Clearly abuse and with the shortened yellow-light times, there can be no illusion or argument by the jurisdiction that the legislation is safety-oriented.

In fact, the shortened yellow times prove the opposite, especially since the dramatic increase in rear-end collisions seen where RLCs are installed, especially those with inappropriately short yellow times, is well documented.

I'm not an attorney but I'd think that this would potentially open up the jurisdictions/camera operators to litigation. Class action, anyone? A savvy attorney should be able to make a case for endangering the public or some similar complaint, and EVERYONE, not just FL residents should be able to participate since many people including myself travel there as tourists.

I'd really like to see something like this happen... if the citizens could make an example out of the operators with a huge penalty, that would go a long way to stopping the abuse. Otherwise, I see this totally spinning out of control with other states and municipalities jumping on the bandwagon for the big money grab.

No taxation without representation!

Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/28/3476089/south-florida-...

In NY they do not assign points for RLC tickets so if the fine is kept low people don't bother to fight it. So, in effect the safety arguement fails as most repeat offenders will not change driving habits and the fine becomes just another nuisance 'tax'. Now, if you add points and jack up the fine to several hundred $, then perhaps things might change.

What amazes me about the RLC's is that even after a year of being installed, they are still making money. It goes to show that a huge portion of the driving population just should not be allowed to drive. The fact that they continue to get snagged by these lights proves it. Here in Nassau County, NY they have seen a reduction in income because people have been observing the lights but they are still making quite a bit of money. In order to increase revenue, they are adding fifty more lights to the existing fifty AND they are debating whether or not to put warning signs up advising people there is an RLC in operation. That to me breaks the whole argument that it is about safety. If the idea is to keep them secret in order to encourage people to go through the light in order to capture revenue, then the safety issue is moot. If it truly was about safety, they would stick dummy cameras up at a majority of intersections and sign with with a warning that the intersection is being monitored. That would get a lot more people to stop at the light than do now. But then again, it is all about THE MONEY!

I understand Florida is moving some of the cameras to more profitable locations.

Sorry!
This is not about Florida, but it sows what the cameras did to one town.

http://news.yahoo.com/traffic-cameras-bring-tiny-ohio-villag...

Do your homework and vote them out, if they allow you to vote.

In Baltimore City, the yellow light is non-existant.

They go directly from green to red.

Some people are just totally clueless. You would be amazed how many people I talk to here in my hometown of Lakeland that are unaware of the red light cameras in our city. This after nearly three years or so and numerous stories in our local newspaper The Ledger, of which I'm a staff photojournalist at.

At least once a week I have a conversation, usually with someone younger, about driving habits and such. When asked if they know the camera locations, they don't have a clue.

The fine increase is for safety, right?

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