D*** Red Light Cameras!

I got popped by a red light... In my own home town.

My FM sent me an email with the pics attached and told me the $50 will come out of my check. So, there is that.

I would like to know what are truck drivers supposed to do when approaching a light at speed and the light turns. If I would have hard braked (critical event) then I would be rolling through the intersection while traffic was crossing (crash and a huge mark on my record). I chose instead to go ahead on through before the opposing traffic started to move.

Damned if you do and damned if you don`t. I will definitely lay out the scenario when I fill out the notice of traffic violation.

GRRRRR!

That's one of the oldest problems in trucking and nobody seems willing to do much about it. I myself got a ticket once for the very same thing and there was nothing I could do. The laws of physics aren't going to let a truck get stopped with the tiny bit of warning they give you.

I've seen intersections that have warning lights way out in advance of the traffic light that will let you know it's going to change before you get there. It would be awesome if they would use those more often, but it's pretty rare.

That's just one of those trucking things. Just like when you pick up a heavy load and you have to drive it to a truck stop to scale it out. If you get popped on the way, what were you supposed to do about it? Nothing. There's really nothing you can do except pay the fine and continue on with your day.

The camera system should have multiple shots of the incident - as well as the condition of the light at each shot.

Even if you hit the "stop bar" with your front wheels, as the light turns yellow - there's no way to get 70+' of rig through the intersection. Likewise - there's no real way to STOP at that point either. You could argue this in front of a judge and probably get a pass on this.

In Florida - red light camera's are not "license points offenses" - they are initially written up as "municipal ordinances" - if you pay the ticket immediately, they don't show up on your DL as a "traffic offense". Which pretty much demonstrates that cities are using this as a REVENUE STREAM and NOTHING ELSE.

One of my clients was a State Representative - and we were having a "spirited discussion" on the topic of red light camera's. Of course his claim was that it would INCREASE SAFETY at dangerous intersections. I called BS on it (quite loudly - think I called him a "money grubbing fornicator"), and suggested that they increase the amount of time between RED on one flow and GREEN on the other - to allow drivers that weren't able to stop fast enough, to at least get through the intersection. In Florida - the opposing lanes go green simultaneously with the red.

At this point, if your company has already paid the ticket - not much you can do about it - but hope whatever state you got this in doesn't count this highway robbery as points offenses on your CDL. Sucks that you got it right in your own home town.

OTOH - "Stale Lights" are one of the things they teach in Smith System.

Rick

My company fights those for our drivers. They should have at least attempted to do the same.

They spend billions on traffic cameras and "after the fact" methods to document an incident yet very little on preemptive measures such as early warning or driver assist systems. I guess they'd rather have that revenue stream than to really address safety.

They spend billions on traffic cameras and "after the fact" methods to document an incident yet very little on preemptive measures such as early warning or driver assist systems. I guess they'd rather have that revenue stream than to really address safety.

Red Light Camera's are 150% about GENERATING REVENUE. Most cities don't even own or operate their own camera's. They "sell it" to the highest bidder - like a cable-tv franchise. The Camera Company installs the camera's (at no charge to the municipality), monitors them, writes the citations and does collections - and the cities get a "piece of the action".

Tis the largest crock of fecal matter ever designed. Takes NOTHING into account of the inability to stop an 80K lbs rig on a dime, or the fact that sometimes you have to blow the yellow - to keep the guy behind you from going under your bumper.

Rick

Central Illinois isnt too bad with red lights, the yellow is relatvely long with a delay between red and green. Even so, i have slid on the ice through two lights this season so far, i am glad they werent ones with cameras.

I say they arent bad relative to my prior home state Ohio. Like you are supposed to go from 55 to 0 in 3 seconds, its ridiculous revenue raising that makes us all less safe. Makes me want to go out with a paintball gun and put those things out of comission

The Smith system tells us to recognize that a light that has been green for a long time is likely to change so we should begin slowing well before we get to the line. Could I have done that? Yeah if I wasn't keeping eyes on the cars all around me on this very busy 6 lane highway. Plus, these are not timer operated. The light will change only when traffic approaches the line. Kind of hard to predict.

I will not fight it because I did indeed roll through a red light. It is no biggie because noone was hurt. I will suck it up and take the hit on this one. Still disgusts me though.