Red light cameras on the corner of Broadway Road and Mesa Drive in Mesa, Wednesday, March 21, 2012. [Tim Hacker/Tribune]
Red light cameras on the corner of Broadway Road and Mesa Drive in Mesa, Wednesday, March 21, 2012. [Tim Hacker/Tribune]
Red light cameras on the corner of Broadway Road and Mesa Drive in Mesa, Wednesday, March 21, 2012. [Tim Hacker/Tribune]
Red light cameras on the corner of Broadway Road and Mesa Drive in Mesa, Wednesday, March 21, 2012. [Tim Hacker/Tribune]
Red light cameras on the corner of Broadway Road and Mesa Drive in Mesa, Wednesday, March 21, 2012. [Tim Hacker/Tribune]
Red light cameras on the corner of Broadway Road and Mesa Drive in Mesa, Wednesday, March 21, 2012. [Tim Hacker/Tribune]
Red light cameras on the corner of Broadway Road and Mesa Drive in Mesa, Wednesday, March 21, 2012. [Tim Hacker/Tribune]
A proposed photo radar law would change how Arizona defines an intersection. Now, it is defined as an area within what would be imaginary lines extended from each curb. Drivers can be cited if the rear bumper of their vehicle crosses into the intersection after a signal turns red. HB 2557 would define the intersection as the painted stop line, or the first crosswalk line, that a vehicle crosses when entering an intersection.
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ralpho posted at 9:18 am on Wed, Mar 28, 2012.
It use to be if it was green or yellow when the front went in you could continue through.
now these lights that use to have long greens and yellows have very short ones.
Example is a left turn with two lanes that hold about twenty cars but green is only long enough for the first two cars of each lane. Anyone would think and everyone does think it will be longer, it is theft by deception.
Like at Warner and Dobson.
Zeigh posted at 11:26 am on Wed, Mar 28, 2012.
This bill is only a bandaid to a bigger problem, which are the cameras themselves. However, it will help level the playing field between honest drivers and cash-hungry municipalities. According to separate reports done by the states of California, Texas, and Virginia, nearly 80 percent of those state's red light camera tickets were issued for violations that took place less than half a second into the red. These violations went to average drivers and not the "deadly red light runners" that we are threatened with whenever the issue comes up.
Take Mesa for example. In 2001 the city claimed a 22% drop in red light camera violations after installing ticket cameras. The intersections contained very inadequate 3 second (federal minimum) yellow lights. Yellow light timing was accidentally increased by a worker using proper calculations to 4 seconds and overnight, violations dropped 73% (Arizona Republic, February 6, 2001). The camera vendor lost about $300,000 that month and forced a renegotiation with Mesa to recover their financial loss. The ticket camera program was suspended over money squabbles or lack thereof in the meantime. Hey, isn't it all about safety? Similar incidents have replayed themselves again and again across the USA.
The multi-million dollar photo traffic camera industry is extremely good at the spin they propel themselves with. They are also shameless in how they have deceived us with a sense of false safety. The cities of Los Angeles, Houston, and more have found out the hard way and it has cost taxpayers to chase the cameras away. Until Arizona citizens get a chance to vote on the issue (a recently failed bill by one single vote), HB 2557 is sorely needed in the debate about red light camera safety vs. money. Please contact your politicians and urge them to vote for this bill!
downtownresident posted at 2:11 pm on Thu, Mar 29, 2012.
You whiners make me sick! Don't run the red light and you won't get a ticket, period.
Any concessions of moving the sensors are rubbish and stupid.
Leave things the way they are, and drive sanely and you'll never get a ticket. Cheat and you pay the price.
Grow up, you babies and drive like an adult.
Here's an idea. Just turn off ALL those bothersome stop lights, and let courtesy dictate who goes through the intersections first. We all knnow how that would work, don't we.