Winnipeg (Manitoba Canada) Red Light Camera tips

 

If anyone else on this site lives in Winnipeg you can get a list and map of the "Red Light, or Photo Enforcement Intersections (what they call them here)" on the police website at:

http://www.winnipeg.ca/police/safestreets/locati.stm

Despite this list and warning signs before each permanent installation, I have still mangaged to get at least 1 speeding ticket a year as sometimes I am just not paying attention until I see the "flash" in my rear view mirror.

The fines are really high like from $150 to $250 or more, although they do not assess "points" on your driver's licence since the photo doesn't tell them who was driving, but the "registered owner" of the vehicle gets the "ticket".

Routinely I plead "NOT GUILTY" to get my day in court which currently takes over a year for a "court date", so you can delay the paying. It is not easy to beat the charges but you can get the fine reduced by way of a plea of "guilty with explanation".

We Winnipeger's hate these things and they are just a "cash grab" but the city so if any Winnipegers on this site want some tips just contact me!

By the way you can defeat the cameras by "painting your license plate" with a special CLEARCOAT which causes the numbers to be obscured by the diffusion of the Flash, but it doesn't last long after car washing, so other than going to court the best way I decided was to buy a GPS which will warn me as I approach these intersections. So on Boxing Day I waited in line at STAPLES to buy a Mio C310sx for $229 Canadian$ which was $200 off the regular price. (there were only 5 at this price but I got there an hour and a half before they opened and got one!).

Funny thing about this was that on Boxing Day 2005 I was going for other electronic bargains and got a "red light" ticket at 6am on a deserted street (28 km over limit cost $250). The judge, almost a year later, heard my "guilty with explanation" and reduced the fine by $100.00 since I am a "senior citizen" now commenting that he did this in the "spirit of Christmas" and warned my about my speeding of course. What he didn't know is that I had another one which will come up in 15 months!

Hopefully now with my Mia, that won't happen again, but of course if it's not "On" it won't warn! Now that I'm retired, I plan to "fight this next one with a NOT GUILTY plea" based on FROST IN GROUND EFFECTING THE INDUCTANCE LOOPS in the roadway. In any case the city loses money on each NOT GUILTY PLEA due to having to bring in their "expert witnesses".

Well, got to "play with my new Toy" now, sure wish they would include printed manuals as I hate reading pdf files!

Tigerguy aka "Toyman"

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"He who stalks by night, but now needs a GPS to find his way!"

Hey Tigerguy, if you need

Hey Tigerguy, if you need any references to functionality on the Mio that you can't find here, I'm building an online users guide at http://www.hugginsnet.com/ilovemymio so feel free to drop in. It's still being developed so only has partial content at the moment.

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. . If I only had a brain....................................... http://www.hugginsnet.com/ilovemymio ..................................................... GPS Units in Use: Mio C310x (primary) and Garmin eTrex Legend for GeoCaching.