Red-Light Cameras Operate Despite Vote

[dogday]

HOUSTON -- Houston's red-light cameras were still operating on Wednesday, one day after voters gave the issue a red light in Proposition Three.

Fifty-three percent voted to turn off red-light cameras on Tuesday. The cameras document motorists who run red lights at 70 Houston intersections.

"This is over. The citizens have voted. They said take the cameras down," attorney Paul Kubosh said.

Kubosh led the fight against the cameras and he wants them turned off now.



http://www.click2houston.com/politics/25624366/detail.html


It's gonna get hot in the city of Houston if these babies don't come down....

[Rex]

1. Didn't you get the memo? The days of political disobedience by

bureaucrats is BACK in style!!! Was Tom Delay at the helm? Probably fell asleep at the big red button machine!

[Skink]

2. Is there a way to tell if they are red light cameras.

cause I'm sure atleast once I was forced by a tailgater to go through one and I never got a ticket. Other times it has been close. They pretty much have them everywhere in SA and I wonder if they are just there to monitor traffic.

[dogday]

4. Signs that say red light camera right on them. They warn you..

:hi:

[LisaL]

6. What signs?

I had to pay a fine because I turned right on red and it was caught by a red light camera. I had no idea the camera was there and I turn right on that intersection all the time. I haven't seen any signs saying the camera is there.

[dogday]

7. There are and the article states it as well. I can't say with a certainty

that all of them have a sign, but the signs are meant to slow down traffic.. I would be happy to see them go.

[LisaL]

8. Well if there is a sign on the one that

I had to pay a fine for making a right turn on red, then I have absolutely no clue where that sign is and I drive there nearly every day. If I was not made to pay a fine I would not be aware the camera was there either. Once I was made to pay a fine I looked around for the camera and it's on the other side of the street so not visible to someone going through that intersection or trying to make a turn.

[dogday]

10. I don't think all of them have signs, although they stated that the

intent of the cameras were to slow down traffic, but you know how that goes...

[LisaL]

11. The cameras bring in money, and I am not sure as

to how much safer they make the intersections. I certainly don't think I was endangering anyone turning right on red.

[dogday]

12. 10 million dollars to the Police Fund.. Lot of red lights....

:hi:

[LisaL]

13. These cameras are in many cities.

[Journeyman]

5. That's a major complaint about these cameras. . .

When a picture is taken of you "breaking the law" without your knowledge, you lose the opportunity to prepare a defense. When an officer pulls you over and gives you a ticket, you can ask him to notate on the ticket who was in your car with you (say, if a child is in the back seat), and your assertion that conditions on the road made you run the light (say, there was an 18 wheeler bearing down on you and you feared for your child's safety). All this can be brought up in your defense before a judge. But when the picture is taken without your knowledge, you have no opportunity to prepare a defense. By the time you receive the ticket, two weeks later, you've forgotten the incident and certainly have no opportunity to gather evidence to bolster your argument.

[gkhouston]

3. I'm not believing they're at only 70 intersections. They're omnipresent. n/t

[dogday]

14. I have to agree with you there, I think there are more than that.

70 is nothing for this big city...

[Leopolds Ghost]

9. In Virginia they want to ELIMINATE America's oldest carpool lanes 395 and replace them with spycams

To take infrared photos of who is in your car and automatically debit your bank account (by taking long-distance chip readings of your dashboard / license plate) if you are not a carpooler, thereby opening up the lanes to single occupant drivers willing to play Big Brother. Carpoolers won't be allowed on the lanes without a Big Brother pass, and the lanes will be reduced -- and the whole system (the freeway) will be privatized and administered by a private corporation.

These would be America's oldest & most successful carpool lanes, with their own informal commuter network and everything.