Can't Have It Both Ways

There are basically two government approaches to the use of Photo-enforcement:  They treat the traffic lawbreaker just as if he were pulled over by a flesh-and-blood cop, or they treat him like he was two minutes late feeding the parking meter.

Lack of Children Stymies Speed Cameras

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel pushed through a safety zone speed camera law but aides forgot to clue him into the fact that school zone reduced speeds are only in force if the little kids are present.  So not only does the photo radar camera gear have to snap a picture of the car registration plate and display the car's speed but also look around for any tykes in the area on foot. 

Come and Get Me, Copper!

Did you know your mailcarrier is above the law?  "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night (nor the Dark Knight),  nor sleet, nor Robo-Cop with a flash camera, nor traffic laws, stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."

Seems the USPS can dish it out,  but they can't take it; as it relates to red light and speed camera tickets.  Yep, they'll gladly drop the tickets in your mailbox, but when one comes to theirs it is RETURN TO SENDER. 

"Driving At The Speed Of Light"

I stumbled over this delightful song by Unlucky Fried Kitten.  I especially like the inciteful lyrics:

"Speed Camera, Another three points in the can
Speed Camera, Meanwhile someone mugs my Gran"

The police seem to have the wherewithal to pinch drivers, but not to cage muggers and protect the pensioners

This group must be from England--either that or the whole trip is viewed through a mirror.  I've never heard of them, but I like their attitude and the "driving" beat. 

Running Lights

Red light cameras are supposed to enhance traffic safety.  Red light runners cause a lot of accidents and injuries, and if we can decrease this scofflawry, we'll save lives and property.

The theory that handing out redlight camera tickets will decrease red light running and actual accidents and injuries, bears closer inspection.  The evidence suggests that the stop line cameras do no such thing, They may cut down on light runners, but the accidents actually increase.

Let's reason together as to why this might be so.  There are two kinds of drivers who run lights:  the kind who does it purposely, and the kind who does it accidentally. 

Maybe He Voted In The Presidential Election, Also

The long arm of the law is long indeed if it can reach from beyond the grave and pinch red light runners in Baltimore, Maryland. 

You see, every automated traffic ticket must be reviewed and signed by a sworn officer, but the signature is usually a paste-on graphic file and is affixed to the ticket with the click of a mouse button.  But still, a live finger is needed to click that button, even one time.  But what we have here is a finger that clicked that button two thousand times, even while it was miles away and moldering six feet under ground.

Remedial Plates for Red Light Cameras That Can't Read

Florida's comely vehicle registration plate with the two-oranges design may be replaced in two years time.  State officials want more of that red light and toll booth camera revenue and so the pretty is being sacrificed to the practical. 

It seems the raised letters and numbers on the current plate are too confusing for WAll-E to recognize.  Flat black letters and less ornamentation are being comtemplated.

Police Ground Power Pole

Finally, a good use for Photo Radar.

For two years a forty year-old Polish man was siphoning electrical power from a speed camera near his house in Mragowo, a town north of Warsaw.  Piotr W. tapped into the ticket camera using an extension cord buried two feet underground in December of 2007.  Seems he was powering his neighbor, also. 

Cops tumbled to the theft when unusually high electricity bills were noticed.  An officer sent to investigate discovered the buried cable and followed it right to Piotr's home.

--Two years of high electricity bills!  My wife would have been all over that the first month-- 

Piotr and girlfriend have to pay a fine and re-imburse the city for $1,200 worth of juice.  They'll avoid jail time.  It is not mentioned what became of the neighbors.

Read the article at The Newspaper:  Polish Underground

Slamming Photo Radar Vans

One complaint from Photo Radar critics, like myself, is that unlike flesh-and-blood patrol officers, no speed van or red light camera ever stopped a drunk driver....until now.  

It was New Years Day in Tucson, Arizona and Matthew Jones veered his vehicle off North Campbell Avenue and into a parked radar van.  The ATS employee in the van was not injured and neither were Jones and his passenger. 

Jones is suspected of driving while intoxicated and doing criminal damage.

The radar van had an organ donor card, and all the valuable equipment was quickly pulled and transplanted to another body.  I've covered the essentials, but here is the link to the story, anyway.

You can read the article in the Arizona Daily Star, here: Snapper gets Plastered

Naked Cyclist Snapped in Poland

A Polish man raced his bicycle past a speed camera wearing nothing but sneakers on his feet and underwear...on his head, as a protest.  They clocked him going 33 MPH in a 25 MPH zone.  There are no registration plates on bikes, so the photo cops had their work cut out for them. 

Mariusz Sztuba claims he wasn't completely naked; that he was wearing a thong, but they still piled on a lewd conduct charge on top of the speeding.   The total was 1000 zloty or $315.   Sztuba says the presence of the ticketing camera speed trap is giving his village a bad reputation.

--And people riding around starkers doesn't? 

He did his minimalist pedaling in October in Bialy Bor and Judge Przykucki found him guilty.

I would have increased the fine, were I the judge, for his wearing a thong, and I think it only fair that a cyclist disclose, before selling his bike, if it has ever had a naked rider, and I'm thinking it is cold in northern Poland in October.

Read the whole article here:  Polish Popsicle

Speed Camera on Post Destroyed, Surrey, England

Here's a determined fellow in Merrow, Surrey, England, who must have a grudge against the state looken-peepers.  On December First of this year (2012), Thursday,  near two in the morning he rams a speed camera on Epsom Road.  That may have been just an accident, but his actions thereafter has me thinking otherwise.