Speed Cameras in St. Louis

A lot of interesting info

If I remember, the speed cameras in STLC don't ticket until you are about 10 over? It's been awhile since I've been up in North County where most of them are, but I remember it being a big deal when the put that one up on the overpass of I-170 heading up to the airport, but I usually took the 55 (which is a very reasonable speed for that area IMO) around 60 and never got a ticket. Took it a few times a week took!

One solution I can think of:
Have the folks who put the police chief in his post consider his big mouth a liability that they can't afford!

Of course people could avoid St Louis at all costs & send an email to encourage that outcome.

Fred

I don't know which area of STLC you are referring to but this is a great idea! If you don't like the cameras in your area, next election, vote for people who vow to get rid of them! If it's the mayor or the city council who makes the decisions! Local government is the easiest to influence since there are fewer people so your vote is proportionally worth more. In our community, most people like our speed cameras, so we vote people in who will keep them, but I can see it going the other way too.

I just finished driving through St Louis - wonder if I will get a present from them in the mail, sigh. Hopefully these cameras were in the Factory file? I don't remember getting a pop up message, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen since many times one is very busy in traffic especially when not familiar with a city.

Well put, WuLabsWuTecH, well put!!

Vote like the outcome WILL either hurt, or help you, folks, --vote wisely AND with conviction!!!

I could not agree more!

And don't forget OFTEN.

Not sure if STLC is different than St. Peters, however I got a ticket for both speeding (under 10) and also for supposedly not coming to a complete stop at a red light making a right turn.

This probably needs to be addressed at a state or even national level. I can vote in the city I live in, but I drive in a much wider area where I have no vote at all. I think many of the red light camera schemes take advantage of this by placing them in locations frequented by out of towners so most of the tickets go to people who can't vote there.

True, but when you are in other cities, you have to follow their laws which (in an ideal situation) were based on the value system of the people in that town. There are still "dry" towns in the US because those people believe in not partaking in alcohol. It is not my right as a guest in their town to tell them they are wrong.

We use speed cameras in our suburbs in the school zones. We used to just have cops run speed every now and again (usually after a bus or crossing guard reported a close call) but we found that it took up way to much manpower to run and we couldn't cover both schools that were on major cross streets at the same time (much less any other crime going on in the city).

Enter speed cameras. Activated daily during restricted times and set to trigger at 5 over (so 25 mph). Everyone in our town loves them because they keep the kids safe, and yes, it generates extra income for the town because a lot of non-residents like to use the street to get around traffic and will blow thorough it as if they are on the parallel street that has a speed limit for 45 (even during non school hours the speed limit is 25). We haven't activated the camera during non school hours yet, but that is what is up for debate later this year I believe.

But yes, if someone comes through our town, and doesn't share our beliefs of taking it easy on the street that 2000+ kids walk through between 2pm and 7pm, then we'll ticket them. And if you want me, when I'm in your city, to take it easy on the street in front of the senior center, and I fail to do so, I should get a ticket because I am not respecting the wishes of those who live there.

How many times do people have to be told that each city has its own rules and if you break them you pay.
It took me as a teenager driving to Minneapolis in the 60's three learning lessons before I learned where the police set up their speed traps in Northfield MN.
I once was stopped by an officer because I honked my horn and waved to him. He wanted to know why I honked (I did it for two blocks) and waved to him.
The police have every right to catch you speeding with every method that does not break the law so stop breaking the law or pay up.
That speed limit sign means you or if in Iowa the governor is exempt.

I would have to disagree with you. If a town decides its legal to rob visitors to a town, I think you are going to find that a higher level of government can put a stop to that. This is essentially what these cameras are doing, though disguised as enforcing traffic laws. Also, I bet alot of people in your town don't like them. Given that when put on the ballot, these cameras have been voted out almost every time in cities around the U.S., the odds are that the same would happen in your town as well, if the voters were given the chance.

Well obviously you can't rob visitors to a town because that goes against the basic right to property. There are things you have rights to that cannot be taken away because they are set, as you say, at a higher level of government. DC found out quickly about a decade ago that they couldn't stop people from owning handguns (just as an example). If our town decided that you could rob visitors, I'm sure the supreme court would rule that, in fact, we cannot.

But there is no basic right to drive however fast you want. As a matter of fact, there is no right to drive at all, driving is a privilege, not a right, and as such can be regulated by lower municipalities.

I'm curious as to why you think put to a straight majority vote, people in my town would vote them out. It was the citizens who stormed the city hall one night during a council meeting to try and get more enforcement in the school zone. And while the cameras were the suggestion of the public safety committee, it had a lot of support of people who showed up to that meeting and very few, if any opposed to the speed cameras.

The main street in the suburb takes you through an older part of town, and while it has been widened to 4 lanes and a turn lane through a good stretch of it now, it still is a speed limit of 25 just due to the fact that there are lots of people, traffic, and a school through the area. The main street parallels a major state highway that gets backed up during rush hour and so a lot of people use our main street as a cut-through (and it probably saves them a good 20 minutes if the used the entire length). The problem is that they like to cruise through at 45 mph which is not at all how are traffic lights are timed for and gives them no chance to stop for people in marked, mid-block crosswalks.

We had considered other solutions (before implementing the cameras during the school day) to just try and cut down on the number of people cutting through our town, but there was no good solution. Timing the lights so that you hit every other one red (which a town near us has done) wasn't feasible for such a long road as it would also hinder our own residents from getting places. Speed bumps were considered, but the fire chief vetoed that as it would triple our response times. There were some other suggestions brought up, but the cameras were the most viable. Though if you have another idea, I'd be more than willing to entertain it and if I think it's a good idea, I'll bring it up at the next council meeting myself!

And in regards to speed traps that someone mentioned above, the only time I've seen our cops use speed traps en masse was actually very effective. The state route that I mentioned above was undergoing construction and was down to one lane in each direction. The police chief issued orders to the patrols to run speed as much as possible between calls and to pull people over at 1 mph over (the decision to ticket was left up to each officer, but most also ticketed at 1 mph over). Within 2 weeks, the word got out that our main street was not the route to be taking to get around the construction!!!

Praise the Lord and pass the POI!