Radar Relief Coming To AZ

[ionbeam]

When it comes to photo enforcement speed cameras, Arizona has gone all in. There are 36 fixed cameras in the Phoenix area, and another 40 mobile camera vans sit on the side of highways around the state.

<snip>

The governor says she won't renew the state contract with Redflex when it expires this summer. Meanwhile, several bills to kill the program are moving through the Arizona Legislature. And a citizen's group is collecting signatures for a November ballot measure to outlaw statewide photo speed enforcement.

The Rest Of The Story

 

[happyPuppy]

That is good to read. In Peoria accidents increased over 400% due to them https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/arizona-p...ased-accidents/ . Other states have shortened the yellow time ( and violated the law as a result) and been fined. I don't like to see pubilc and the private sectors in collusion to screw the public for more money.Somehwere along the way the governments have forgot they are working for us not the other way around.

 

[Big Sky]

Right, these are primarily local government revenue generators. We suffer from "rube-ophobia" in Montana, where we fear being thought rubes. Thus, a "progressive" faction, mostly recent immigrants, continually push for us to be like the place they just left, our at least like "everywhere else." Thus the city of Bozeman had signed a contract with these camera folks and the city of Billings was on record anticipating the same move, pending the "success" of the Bozeman experience. Well, as much as we cuss the Legislature, they got it right during the 2009 session when they passed a law making all these camera drones illegal. Nice to see some "sophisticated" place like Arizona following our hick-state lead, eh?

 

[FJRGuy]

That is good news... now only if they would eliminate all speed detection equipment from the Police forces as well!

Seriously though, are fixed location cameras a bad thing? Placed in areas where speed is a true safety issue, the cameras act as a good deterrent without the taxpayers burden to pay for manpower and equipment.

As for the red light cameras, you can pretty much tell any story with statistics. If there was an increase in rear end 'fender benders' because people aren't paying attention to the people stopping at a red light in front of them, does it make sense to argue that the driver in front "only didn't run the red light because of the camera therefore the camera is responsible for causing the accident."? It would be interesting to see the reduction in injury accidents due to the cameras.

I personally would rather there not be any traffic enforcement cameras, or Police for that matter, on roads I ride but do acknowledge that they do make the roads safer.

 

[beemerdons]

Well hell, this takes away all of our fun! Spent 6 years as a US Army Artilleryman; firing 105mm towed Howitzers. SkooterG and I were going to start taking out red light cameras, one at a time. It wasn't easy scoring a 105, but luckily you can get any weapon you want here in Arizona. HE / WP shells were just a little hard to get!

 

[Braenen]

I'll give you a good deal on the 105 if you will mount it in the bed of my pickup.

 

[Ignacio]

My favorite nugget:

"There is no desire on the part of Redflex, and no incentive, no motive, to send notice of violation to people unless there's been a violation. If we did that, we would go out of business immediately," Heiler says.

I've met that guy when Redflex was trying to get local officials hooked on the gateway drug they call "redlight cameras" and he told me the same thing. Said their system was 99.9% accurate. I was dubious of that many 9's.

Since then I've seen 3 or 4 tickets generated by Redflex.....including two tickets received by our very own Skooterg that were definitely NOT him and shouldn't have been issued. My or Skooter's experience probably are not statistically valid, but I find a hard time of reconciling his claimed 99.9% with my real-world 50.0%.

Anytime you've got local jurisdiction primarily (or at least initially) motived by a safety issue (yes, there are too many redlight runners in the world) with a vendor that is profit motivated from the number of tickets paid sets up a inherent conflict of interest no matter how much they like to claim accuracy. Specifically, with bikes I think the false ID rate is higher than cars due to the smaller plates plus the validating technician and cop not knowing the difference between a cruiser and an FJR or an Australian plated Connie vs. and FJR.

And I think to some extent the non personal nature of the automated system does more harm to public perception of government than the fallable, but more personal discretion of police officers. I think us bikers generally get a bit of a break as slightly more professional speeders.

Meanwhile, I've ridden and driven through AZ a few times and even as one of those crooked elected officials I can't help but imagine what a tire fire would do to one of those posts with a camera in it. :blink:

 

[Spook]

My favorite nugget:

"There is no desire on the part of Redflex, and no incentive, no motive, to send notice of violation to people unless there's been a violation. If we did that, we would go out of business immediately," Heiler says.

I've met that guy when Redflex was trying to get local officials hooked on the gateway drug they call "redlight cameras" and he told me the same thing. Said their system was 99.9% accurate. I was dubious of that many 9's.

Since then I've seen 3 or 4 tickets generated by Redflex.....including two tickets received by our very own Skooterg that were definitely NOT him and shouldn't have been issued. My or Skooter's experience probably are not statistically valid, but I find a hard time of reconciling his claimed 99.9% with my real-world 50.0%.

Anytime you've got local jurisdiction primarily (or at least initially) motived by a safety issue (yes, there are too many redlight runners in the world) with a vendor that is profit motivated from the number of tickets paid sets up a inherent conflict of interest no matter how much they like to claim accuracy. Specifically, with bikes I think the false ID rate is higher than cars due to the smaller plates plus the validating technician and cop not knowing the difference between a cruiser and an FJR or an Australian plated Connie vs. and FJR.

And I think to some extent the non personal nature of the automated system does more harm to public perception of government than the fallable, but more personal discretion of police officers. I think us bikers generally get a bit of a break as slightly more professional speeders.

Meanwhile, I've ridden and driven through AZ a few times and even as one of those crooked elected officials I can't help but imagine what a tire fire would do to one of those posts with a camera in it. :blink:

The question will it get a picture of the bullet as it comes toward the lens, Will it get the speed right?

 

[Zorlac]

Red light runners eh?

No lights, just a bright colored 2" thick steel plate that comes vertically out of the pavement instead of the light, then the camera's would be for entertainment purposes, at least for awhile.

 

[Patriot]

Jefferson Parish (County) hastily slams brakes on red light cameras...

The Jefferson Parish Council voted Wednesday to stop using its red-light traffic cameras indefinitely after learning that the company that installed and manages the system plans to direct a portion of the fines collected to a lobbyist who convinced the parish to install the system