Today I learned my hometown conveniently provides video evidence of traffic camera infractions

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
04/16/2019 at 17:23 • Filed to: None

My town of Rockville, MD has loads of traffic cameras. I’ve noticed the camera at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! before. But... a couple weeks ago on a lazy Sunday evening drive to pick up pizza, I rolled through a right turn on red. I know, because today I got a citation in the mail with a link to see the video online. Thanks, Rockville!

Rockville is the county seat of Montgomery County, and both the city of Rockville and the county love red light and speed cameras. Rockville has handy custom Google Maps showing the exact locations of the cameras.

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Montgomery County only publishes a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , but this is a crowdsourced map of the whole DC/Baltimore region. Montgomery County is the area directly north and west of DC.

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Thankfully, Maryland traffic camera tickets are only $75 civil citations that don’t go on your driving record. The only consequence is when you renew your vehicle registration, you have to pay any outstanding camera tickets, if you haven’t paid them.

Unfortunately, I received no extra credit for using my blinker while not stopping at the light. That turned out to be some expensive-ass pizza.

DISCUSSION (44)

DSM_OR_DIE::Drives_A_Miata > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 17:28

Mmmmm, ass-pizza.

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > DSM_OR_DIE::Drives_A_Miata
04/16/2019 at 17:32

Of course, it's the DSM fan focusing on ass-pizza.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 17:33

Looks like you touched the brake pedal once, nice work

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 17:35

F*cking MoCo. I work there but fortunately I’m right by the American Legion Bridge, coming from Virginia, and they haven’t put any traffic cameras between the bridge and my work... yet.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 17:38

VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 17:39

Oh, I see, you’re the second car. For the first 15 seconds I thought to myself “Well, that looks like a stop to me...”

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely
04/16/2019 at 17:41

Same. I was like “That looked like a stop...and I didn’t know he had a TSX!”

MonkeePuzzle > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 17:44

you are which car in this video?

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 17:44

And shit like this is why there are parts of town around here I won’t go to, period. Bullshit ‘ traffic’ cameras with deliberately doctored light timing and bullshit ‘speeding’ cameras that are intentionally calibrated wrong.

Then they issue tickets through a company they ‘partnered’ with that takes 70% of the revenue and passes the rest through to the city. But they’re not actual legal tickets. As in: they aren’t legal instruments, they aren’t legitimate, and they can only be enforced through civil court.

Yep - the “tickets” themselves are a completely illegal scam run by the police departments.

fintail > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks
04/16/2019 at 17:48

And the camera operators who grease some palms and get some revenue streams.

I mean, it is all about safety, think of the children!

TahoeSTi > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 17:51

Red light cams do more harm then good. What happens in MD when you fight it? how can they prove you were driving?

Rolling stops save the planet!

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > fintail
04/16/2019 at 17:51

They don’t even have any operators.

The criminals they partner with around here brag about how it’s all done by computer with OCR and ALPRs (nope, they , don’t even have permissible purpose to pull your address) and there’s zero humans involved or required.

These fuckers don’t get the guillotine - oh no. That is far too fucking gentle for what they deserve.

fintail > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks
04/16/2019 at 17:54

I mean operators like Redflex/ATX who are just as sleazy as the untouchable authority sector officials who they collude with to extract funds.

Montalvo > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 18:01

Man do I know that feeling. Its basically a tax and one of the reasons why I am trying to get off Long Island. These stupid cameras are popping up everywhere now...

https://oppositelock.kinja.com/what-i-think-of-red-light-cameras-1827756378

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > fintail
04/16/2019 at 18:13

It is your legal and moral obligation to destroy anything owned or operated by Redflex, by the way. They’re convicted criminals. Just call it civil forfeiture.

Mercedes Streeter > MonkeePuzzle
04/16/2019 at 18:34

The one that didn’t stop. :p

XJDano > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 18:39

I got a mail ticket like that before, and it has a mph on it. It was 19, for a hard right. I paid.

BeaterGT > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 18:39

Got the same citation back in college and was also sent a link for my viewing pleasure. To my surprise, the camera even picked up the little slide I did around the corner. I showed that video to everyone I could.

dannyzabolotny > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 18:52

Do you have to pay those tickets? In Phoenix, the tickets aren’t legally enforceable unless you’re served in person, so the city that issued the ticket (Phoenix/Mesa/Scottsdale/Tempe/Gilbert) has to send out a process server within 90 days to serve the ticket for it to be legit. So I always throw those tickets in the trash and just ignore anybody at my door for 90 days, pretty easy. Camera tickets are a total sham.

Shamoononon drives like a farmer > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 19:05

I live in San Diego, a red light ticket is about 600$ plus your insurance hike. A 99$ lawyer got me off. SO STOKED!

bubblestheturtle > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 19:22

Big brother! Nanny State! Government overreach!
Am I doing it right?

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 19:32

My god am I first to notice a working blinker on a BMW?

Textured Soy Protein > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
04/16/2019 at 19:44

That’s right, I heel-toe while rolling through right turns on red!

Textured Soy Protein > dannyzabolotny
04/16/2019 at 19:46

Since it’s not a traffic ticket I’d rather just pay the 75 bucks than deal with any hassle that night result from not paying it. Especially if they could end up sending it to collection and putting a mark on my credit.

Textured Soy Protein > Montalvo
04/16/2019 at 19:49

They’re just pervasive enough here that I’ve gotten in the habit of usually never going through a yellow light unless it turns yellow and there’s no chance whatever of me stopping in time. Unless I’m really behind schedule for something important and then my tolerance for risk taking goes up, since my car is quick enough that a quick downshift will probably help me beat the light. And...then I'll let a speed camera ticket instead of red light.

dannyzabolotny > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 19:50

That depends on how the tickets are treated in your state. In Arizona, the tickets are dropped after 90 days if you don’t get served, so there’s no effects to my credit or driver’s license. Not that it matters, since my credit is pretty crap anyways.

Textured Soy Protein > TahoeSTi
04/16/2019 at 19:50

They just send the ticket to whoever is the registered owner of the car. It's cheap enough and not on my driving record that it's not worth fighting. Which is probably exactly why they do it this way.

Textured Soy Protein > MonkeePuzzle
04/16/2019 at 19:51

The blue BMW that shockingly has a functioning turn signal.

Textured Soy Protein > Snuze: Needs another Swede
04/16/2019 at 19:54

Not sure where exactly you work but there’s loads of cameras on River Rd.

https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/speedcameralocations/

Textured Soy Protein > dannyzabolotny
04/16/2019 at 19:58

Well since you brought it up I looked into it and apparently in Maryland you can’t renew your vehicle registration if you have unpaid camera tickets. So even if I didn't pay it now, I'd have to pay it eventually.

Chariotoflove > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 19:58

I got a $ 75 fine and a link to my pictures. But we no longer have that camera. Peop le got so outraged that they all got removed.

Textured Soy Protein > Chariotoflove
04/16/2019 at 20:00

They’re all over the damn place here. This is the county list of cameras. I don’t even know if it includes the city cameras, which is what this ticket is from.

https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/speedcameralocations/

JeepJeremy > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 20:10

you got cited for that?!?!? that’s weak!

Chariotoflove > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 20:16

I never understood the argument that it is somehow unfair to be caught by a camera breaking the law. Maybe everybody here thinks law enforcement follows Dukes of Hazzard rules.

Textured Soy Protein > Chariotoflove
04/16/2019 at 21:06

People don’t like traffic cameras because traffic laws are usually loosely enforced and setting up a camera ratchets the enforcement way up.

With how many cameras are around here, the points system is not set up to handle the amount of citations someone could conceivably get driving around here, so Maryland in its fairness makes these civil citations that don’t affect your driving record and thus insurance. It’s pure revenue generation. Which people *also* don’t like.

Since I moved back a year ago I’ve been very mindful of not blowing through yellow lights because I might not make it through before they turn red. B ut for some reason, I never rewired my brain to think, yo, idiot, stop at red lights when you want to turn right! I'm not making that mistake again.

Textured Soy Protein > JeepJeremy
04/16/2019 at 21:10

I mean, unlike the silver TSX in front of me, I pretty clearly didn’t even pause at the line before turning. I just slowed down and rolled on through. I don’t remember doing it, but knowing myself, I was probably like, “a hh , what a nice lovely traffic-free Sunday evening, oh a right turn at a red light, it’s not busy, I’m going to heel toe this.” And...it cost me 75 bucks.

wafflesnfalafel > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 21:24

T hat is BS... clearly safe, control of the vehicle. What is the date today.. oh, it’s 1984?

Chariotoflove > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 21:47

That’s how I got caught. I thought I’d beaten the yellow. The pics showed me that I was mistaken.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 21:52

David Taylor Model Basin. I get there via Clara Barton, so no stoplights for me!

fintail > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks
04/16/2019 at 22:02

I am sometimes shocked that there hasn’t been massive vandalism against these systems. Then again knowing the blindly deferential TEM syndrome and badge kissing propensities of the American public, maybe not.

JeepJeremy > Textured Soy Protein
04/16/2019 at 22:37

you gave it the ol “California hesitation”

Grindintosecond > Chariotoflove
04/17/2019 at 01:50

I wish i had more jumps over things on my drives like they did

TahoeSTi > Textured Soy Protein
04/17/2019 at 09:59

It’s also probably barely a legal ticket.

Textured Soy Protein > TahoeSTi
04/17/2019 at 10:47

The only consequence of note is that when you renew your vehicle registration, if you have any unpaid traffic camera tickets, you have to pay them before you can renew the registration.