Texas House votes to ban cameras to catch red-light runners

Sounds good to me. I have a friend that lives in Memphis and they have these installed around the city and he ran a yellow light turning red and got a ticket and photo sent to him in the mail.

 

They have these cameras all over 90 and 6

 

Too bad; I think it's a good idea. Houston has to be the worst city in the country on red-light runners. And, it kills more people than any offense besides drunk driving, iirc.

 

When some SOB kills me running the lights on the tollway I'm going to come back and haunt the state capitol.




Boo!

 

if you get the front of your car into the intersection while it's yellow and then it turns red, does that count as running a red or do you have to be all the way out of the intersection when it's red and then go through. if they would give you a ticket for the yellow when you enter, red when you leave situation i would get killed by this. i don't run red lights, but i damn sure go through late on the yellows.

and i always look as i start into an intersection when my light turns green to avoid red light runners.


anyway, i'm glad they're not doing this. i feel like a cop should have to see me do something wrong to get a ticket, none of this automatic crap.

 

word, man. make those bastards earn it.

 

And when you run a light and hit somebody you should lose your right to drive for a year, cause you've earned it.

The fact is, running lights here in Houston has reached the point of being an epidemic. On high traffic thoroughfares it's a rare light that at least one car doesn't run. And it's not even sneaking through on the yellow/red change, it's two and three cars after the change. It's just become accepted behavior and the only way to get driving decorum back is to make people consider the consequences.

 

completely running is something i almost never see outside of left turns, and getting 2 or 3 extra cars through on a left turn with a long line isn't just right, it's a civic duty and your responsibility to everyone behind you in that line. plus, no one is speeding through a left turn since everyone has just started moving and the traffic the other way will barely start moving either. so running normal reds equals bad, running a left turn red by a half second or so equals good.

 

The law in California is that you must clear the intersection before the light turns red. The yellow means that if you can reasonably stop before entering the intersection, then do so. It isn't worth the cost in lives to shave 3 minutes off of your drive time.

 

All your ridiculous rationalizations are made moot by the indisputable facts of physics.

 

Make that two friends who had a lovely photo sent to them running a red light.

 

Not to mention however much money you end up paying those freeway-side car-window washers if you ended up in the front of the lanes. It happened to me twice in the past 2 weeks because I don't want to run one of those camera-recording yellow lights. Next thing you know, BAM! The guy comes with his window washer tool and you wave him off with no success... then comes the guilt to just pay the guy...

 

Succinct and to the point. Better than I could have possibly said it.

My feeling is that if they used cameras but fined lightly, it would be a great help without being an unreasonable burden on the commuting public. A light fine means that a person who did it once or twice won't feel a pinch over a small mistake. But, that you get busted every time you do it will keep drivers from doing it at every light and greatly discourage transgressions. After all, the greatest deterrent is the likelihood of being caught, not the severity of the punishment.

f4p, if you haven't seen people routinely run lights at busy intersections going straight, you haven't been paying attention.

 

i think having the cameras to catch red light runners is a good idea. i work in downtown and it is ridiculous there. NEVER stop at a yellow (you will be rear-ended) and you can run the red at will (everyone else is).

i've seen accidents and near accidents and if the camera deters ppl from running it, it should be used. a small fine is a good idea so that ppl at least think abt it a little more before doing it.



i don't see what the big fuss is about. so many cities around the world do it and it's not an issue. it's against the law and unsafe to run it so i don't see the harm in enforcing it.

 

although I can't take credit for this idea...


a friend proposed the idea of a brick wall immediately when the light turns red.

hell it'd certainly teach people to not run red lights

otherwise your ass runs into a ****ing brick wall

 

we have had red light cameras in little old backward Australia for years

i think they are great

ocassionally they get it wrong, but from what i hear there is a pretty good system to challenge them if you feel they were wrong

if finance weren't a limit i'd be all for having them at every set of lights

so do you have take responsibility for anything on the roads in America..... you can avoid a breath test if you are drunk, don't want red light cameras, damn almost changes the way i feel about the next story of drunk driver running a red light and killing a family... i almost get the feeling the way the laws would have the family would be in the wrong

 

On one hand the cameras are good because they iimprove safe driving, on the other it's just another new tax.

I'm still angry about how speeding (10 miles and under) has become ridiculously expensive (you can't get out of the '$100 court fee' even w/ defensive driving). All these moves are just ways to increase REVENUES. People going 10 miles an hour over the speed limit aren't causing accidents and killing people. It's drunk and reckless drivers.

 

Think having the camera will stop the drunk driver from running the light? They don't even see the light, why will they worry about the camera?

 

Did you have one sent to you candycane?