To combat this (as well at the other random flashes my car receives on a daily basis, for no reason other than human tracking to fill databases,) I have invested in a NoPhoto (~$400, nophoto.com)
This guy is so confident in his product (currently on version 2) that he has offered a ticket free guarantee: he will pay your ticket in the event you receive one whilst using his product. This is a strong statement, considering in many parts of the country the first ticket outweighs the cost of the device entirely.
It is produced in the USA, and now every unit is water submerge tested.
What it does is it flashes your license plate at the precise moment that the red light camera takes the photo, effectively making the plate unreadable. It is able to fire 1 or 2 times (as some RLC’s hit a pre flash before the actual image is taken) before the capacitors need to recharge; ~17 seconds.
As far as I know red light cameras are still deemed “illegal” and an “invasion of privacy” in Pennsylvania. I imagine they will outlaw them just like with radar detectors. (I always wanted to build a radar jammer too.)
Another use could be illegal use of the “EZ-PASS” toll road booths where if you ride through without the EZ-PASS it snaps a photo of your license plate and mails you a bill. (Had this happen last year when I was traveling in Tysons Corner VA and got misguided into the wrong entrance ramp (HOV with EZ-PASS only) with no way to get out. (Toll & fine was totally worth it though considering it was a one-time fine and traffic was gridlocked to a standstill in the regular lanes.)
I have an idea, just don’t run red lights. Save $400 on this thing and never have to worry if they’ll actually pay your ticket.
Honestly though I don’t like the idea of them being able to give you a ticket without having a person there to witness your infraction. I live in a fairly rural area and I manage to avoid a lot of stop and go driving most of the time. It would drive me crazy living in a congested city I think.
There are rules that prevent someone from using these “evasive” appliances. In most of Europa you get a heavy fine if you get caught using (rather: having on board) a radar-detector. In the Dutch Highway Code it is forbidden to have of use any means that can impair the readability (also with technical equipement) of licence-plates. Even the use of hairspay !! On top of that: most traffic-cams in the Netherlands use an IR flash.
Use one of these too many times to avoid a ticket and they’ll come looking for you by looking at the footage from cctv camera’s located nearby to get your licence plate.
The only time I would go through a light would be if there was a life or death emergency, I would be careful though.
They do flash even during the day, believe it or not. There is good reading on the subject at rdforum.org if you’d like to verify what I’m saying; the company makes rounds around America (and is working on Australia, etc) to get this whole red light camera scam worked out.
This device does combat against IR cameras as well.
Yes I’m interested to see what will happen with the tolls; he has not designed the device with tolls in mind, however they do use a flash… and where I live, these things are flashing like a disco, not to mention there is often no other way than to pay $8 round trip for a 1 hour drive.
Thank you for opening the door to the logical fallacy that: if it’s a law, then it must provide safety!
Yellow lights are shortened to make red light cameras profitable, which actually causes more accidents, typically rear-enders as people stop unexpectedly to avoid the fine. In fact, here’s a good start at shortyellowlights.com on the subject (that I hope you read.)
and here you’ll find the manufacturer claiming that none of the aforementioned links i provided are actual, a clear indicator to a critical thinker that a scam is afoot.
but simply:
If an accident hasn’t occurred, I don’t see the need to shell out $262+ “just because.”
Come back to this thread in 2018 and tell me how many times a day (if you are even aware of it) that your car’s photo is taken. Whether you are a risky law breaker or not.
Or maybe travel out of your part of the world and see how many times it occurs.
They do record 6 seconds before and 6 seconds after the photo is taken, but with the frequency with which these things snap photos, they won’t even miss the revenue from 1 ticket. In fact, I’m obviously willing to wager that this system is automated and no human will actually be aware that they were duped; my photo will go in the “snow/dust/sand/mud/unreadable license plate” bin.
In Texas and most other States red light camera tickets are not enforceable, criminally or civilly. Read where the ticket was generated and where they want you to send the money. Most cases a Municipal Court is not listed. You also have the right to confront your accuser, cameras are not accusers and in these cases the only witness. Failure to pay can’t even go against your credit in Texas. In the United States when you get a moving violation ticket you can have the Officer present in Court who issued the citation. Read the red light ticket to see who issued it, it’s usually from a private corporation with no legal authority. Lawyers I know say they tell their clients to ignore it and after a few reminder letters and hollow threats they stop.
You could just go full Sovereign Citizen and refuse to buy a tag for your car because the flag in the tax collector's office has the wrong kind of fringe on it.
Once you have city officials “counting on those dollars”, you’ll see the legislation quickly change to support you going to jail if you don’t pay up; in Fort Lauderdale a judge threw out $6.3million worth of the tickets because, like you say, a cop wasn’t present to write the ticket. So now they have desk duty cops watching RLC footage all day, and writing out tickets (to comply with the law.)
That I have dealt with. Her car was inventoried and towed. She was arrested for failure to sign the promise to appear in court and for the Marihuana (Official Texas Penal code spelling) found during inventory. Not my arrest, but I did have to deal with her in court many times. Bullheaded to the end she many times stated that she did not recognize this court as having any authority over her. She was sentenced to 7 days for everything 1 day credit for initial arrest and 2 for 1 standard jail policy out in three.
There are special coatings that make license plates unreadable as well, these were illegal in The Netherlands many years ago when I read about it.
I did not even bother to check those kind of things here in France. Radardetection is illegal I know even GPS based devices have to use a different setting in France compared to Holland.
Easiest just brake for orange or have the overview you know that braking is needed.
If one drives through red lights as a habit I hope they get fined. If one drives through a red light in an emergency that fine is probably less of a problem then the emergency.
And did “they shorten the time of lights being orange” because they wanted to make more from fines or to make it more clear orange does not mean slam the gas so one can maybe still make it but start braking the light will turn red fast? Did “they” want to make money or be sure people stop in time instead of gaining speed at intersections where the other traffic is about to see green lights?
My feeling is that if you don't like the laws of the country, or the politicians, then either do something positive to help change it, or find another country where you like the laws and move out, or just obey the rules. Doing things like what you are showing, is just as bad as what you say the other side is doing.
Now I know this isn’t what you intended, but I feel this guy at nophoto.com is doing just that; doing something positive to help change the situation.
I suspect you know that we are fiscally powerless to stop the situation, so the least we can do is be afforded a solution to the problem.
An appropriate proof by analogy:
I am helpless to stop the sun from setting and darkness from occuring, but I am not helpless to buy the solutions Richard at mtnelectronics.com has provided for me to be able to mitigate/navigate the darkness.
Similarly, I am in no position to stop simply billions of dollars from being generated by the use of redlight cameras (like the one right outside my apartment that I pass through at least twice daily, which i will inevitably get nailed on) but I am not helpless to defend myself against the theft.
A positive solution.
I cannot afford to buy the politicians you speak of.
My issue is not with laws. It’s the methods used. Even if Officers are reviewing the tapes or watching live feed. Who identified the driver? Or does the car get arrested for speeding? What states did was jump blindly into a cash cow without the Laws to legally enforce them. Without State law, municipalities can’t have these. Many don’t want the laws as they see them into turning us from citizen into subjects like Europe where the State dictates too much. Subject of Scotland now have six months to register their pellet guns or face up to 2 years in jail.
Believe this: they passed the buck… The driver identifies the driver. In florida, if the owner of the car (who receives the ticket) claims he was not the driver of the car, then he must provide a sworn affidavit providing the name of the person that was driving the car, and then the process begins on that person:
here’s my favorite part (emphasis mine):
While I recognize they had the cart in front of the house, and it’s cost them a few million, they eventually got it the right-way-round and the cash cow is providing milk (legitimately) now.
Hmm I made some valid points as well but hey let me ask a real good question this time.
OP you say the seller will pay a ticket. But what I (and probably all insurance companies out there) would like to know, it the seller going to pay legal/hospital/long term damages too? (If for example some1 using the device slams into a family at an intersection pulling up at their green light, causing substantial material damages to property and more important injure the youngest son while he was brought to school to do his SAT test and all his teachers expected him to score top of the school.)