Posted on 02/17/2009 6:55:59 AM PST by TornadoAlley3
Montana state lawmaker seeks to outlaw red light cameras.
The Montana state House Transportation Committee yesterday held a hearing on legislation designed to thwart municipal attempts to install red light cameras. The city of Bozeman had hoped to have its automated ticketing machines operational by May, but state Representative Bill Nooney (R-Missoula) wants to cut the program off before it can begin.
"An automated enforcement system designed to detect traffic violations that is attached to a traffic control device may not be used to enforce traffic laws," House Bill 531 states.
The Bozeman City Commission voted 4-1 last October to enter into a multimillion dollar agreement with an Australian firm, Redflex Traffic Systems, to set up cameras at six intersections. Under the deal, Redflex would pay for the right to issue the $135 citations in the city's name. These tickets would go to drivers who make right-hand turns on red, slide through an icy intersection during the winter and who enter an intersection a fraction of a second after the light turns red.
After a number of independent studies began to show that the devices fail to deliver the promised safety benefit, some states moved to ban their use (view studies). Mississippi's state House voted nearly unanimously last week to ban photo ticketing. Alaska, Arkansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin banned automated citations either through judicial or legislative action. In other cases, the public has taken matters into its own hands. Cincinnatiand Steubenville, Ohio recently voted to ban speed and red light cameras. Between 1991 and 1997, voters also turned out in Batavia, Illinois; Peoria, Arizona and Anchorage, Alaska to reject photo radar.
Source: House Bill 531
it might be my car, but it WASN’T ME. I will take them to court as a matter of principle.
I leave the keys available for hundreds, no thousands of my friends to use....so you CANT give me a moving violation.
In Albuquerque, the camera captures not only the plate, but, IIRC, takes a picture of the driver and provides a short video (not sure if all have the video).
The city claims it is targeting a nuisance, not the driver. The car is the supposed nuisance. So the owner of the car is ticketed.
There are many folks fighting the red light cameras in ABQ. They mayor, a huge proponent of them, was recently caught speeding in his city-issued vehicle in a small town far away from ABQ.
This is a potential solution: Plate flippers
No, but the government further violates the Fifth Amendment rights by forcing the owner of the vehicle to say who was driving, thus forcing self incrimination.
so there is no moving violation on your license I take??
I can accept that. it is basically a parking ticket.
I think that is the case, though I'm not 100% certain. I've never received one.
In Maryland that is worked around by tying traffic camera fines to the vehicle and not the driver. A driver gets no points for a red light camera citation. However, if the fine is not paid, the vehicle cannot have its registration renewed. Theoretically, one could "skip" the fine by choosing to not renew the registration on a car.
This perfectly describes the town in which my alma mater is located. The local citizenry didn't seem to object to having the cops nail out-of-towners for every possible parking violation imaginable, all for the sake of revenue generation.
I am sure if traffic cameras had been more prevalent at the time I was in college, these would have been used instead. My point being that it is the government that causes such problems. The technology required to make it work is irrelevant.
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