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Florida shortened yellow lights to increase red light camera revenue [video]

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Re: Florida shortened yellow lights to increase red light camera revenue [video]

#31

Post by kolbe »

aresant wrote: post #14

This is a terrible abuse that pisses me off. But it still struck me as funny how many of us HN's (self included) jumped to the defense of Weebly for "optimizing revenue" in the "When a Startup Sends a Passive-Aggressive Email Every Day " story that was trending earlier today (1) If Florida's red-light system was my start-up I'd be pretty damned pleased with myself for figuring out how to drive more revenue with "no c…

George W. Bush: Oh yeah? Well let me ask you something, Kumar, do you like giving hand jobs?

Kumar Patel: No sir.

George W. Bush: Do you like gettin' hand jobs?

Kumar Patel: [smirking] Heh, yeah.

George W. Bush: Yeah well, that makes you a fuckin' hypocriticizer too

Re: Florida shortened yellow lights to increase red light camera revenue [video]

#32

Post by doki_pen »

joshuamerrill wrote: post #10

There's an inherent conflict of interest when cities, counties, and states rely on traffic tickets as a source of revenue. The all-too-tempting incentive is to maximize that revenue, either by abusing civil rights or, in this case, by endangering public safety.

It won't necessarily endanger the public if they add more delay between one light turning red and the other turning green.

Re: Florida shortened yellow lights to increase red light camera revenue [video]

#33

Post by duairc »

georgemcbay wrote: post #21

I work close to a fairly rare "no right on red" (in California right on red is legal unless signs prohibit it) intersection. Without fail, near the end of the month there will be a cop car sitting under the bridge overlooking the turn for hours just waiting for someone to make the turn. Shamelessly sitting there, in the dark and under a bridge, blocking half the rightmost lane of a busy street, causing a far greater…

ACAB

Re: Florida shortened yellow lights to increase red light camera revenue [video]

#34

Post by doki_pen »

georgemcbay wrote: post #21

I work close to a fairly rare "no right on red" (in California right on red is legal unless signs prohibit it) intersection. Without fail, near the end of the month there will be a cop car sitting under the bridge overlooking the turn for hours just waiting for someone to make the turn. Shamelessly sitting there, in the dark and under a bridge, blocking half the rightmost lane of a busy street, causing a far greater…

It is a common misconception that officers have quotas to issue a certain amount of tickets per month. The quota is actual for how many traffic stops they make. You'll see behavior like this from cops who haven't met their quota, but it's not about the money.

Re: Florida shortened yellow lights to increase red light camera revenue [video]

#35

Post by benmccann »

doki_pen wrote: post #32
joshuamerrill wrote: post #10

There's an inherent conflict of interest when cities, counties, and states rely on traffic tickets as a source of revenue. The all-too-tempting incentive is to maximize that revenue, either by abusing civil rights or, in this case, by endangering public safety.

It won't necessarily endanger the public if they add more delay between one light turning red and the other turning green.

It can if you're used to the lights being yellow for longer, it suddenly turns red, and you slam on your brakes and get rear-ended.

Re: Florida shortened yellow lights to increase red light camera revenue [video]

#36

Post by thrownaway2424 »

For those of you who didn't bother reading the article, which I assume will be all of you since this topic normally drags up the least-able critical thinkers on this site, I'll summarize it for you: the Florida DOT lowered yellow duration to a level appropriate for the speed limit on the road. The duration might not be long enough for speeding cars to stop. So in addition to being colossal asshats, people who are speeding might also be getting more tickets from red light cameras.

And in conclusion, drivers are the most self-entitled scofflaws in the world.

Re: Florida shortened yellow lights to increase red light camera revenue [video]

#38

Post by georgemcbay »

thrownaway2424 wrote: post #30
georgemcbay wrote: post #21

I work close to a fairly rare "no right on red" (in California right on red is legal unless signs prohibit it) intersection. Without fail, near the end of the month there will be a cop car sitting under the bridge overlooking the turn for hours just waiting for someone to make the turn. Shamelessly sitting there, in the dark and under a bridge, blocking half the rightmost lane of a busy street, causing a far greater…

So you sympathize with people who can't be bothered to observe posted traffic regulations?

No, I don't really sympathize with people who get caught there very much nor did I say I did. But I sympathize far less with the cop who is doing way more to endanger my safety than the other drivers are, all in the name of scoring some easy stops to meet an obvious quota.

For visual reference, this is the intersection:

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=32.917322,-117.2356...

The people getting popped for right hand turns are the ones to the left in this image. The cop sits under that bridge in the shadow area without any lights on, taking up over half of the rightmost (leftmost from this view) lane. The difference in brightness between daylight and under that short overpass bridge is very high.

Re: Florida shortened yellow lights to increase red light camera revenue [video]

#39

Post by mistercow »

doki_pen wrote: post #32
joshuamerrill wrote: post #10

There's an inherent conflict of interest when cities, counties, and states rely on traffic tickets as a source of revenue. The all-too-tempting incentive is to maximize that revenue, either by abusing civil rights or, in this case, by endangering public safety.

It won't necessarily endanger the public if they add more delay between one light turning red and the other turning green.

If you do that, you'll still cause more people to slam on their brakes to avoid running the red. Slamming on the brakes increases the risk of losing control of the vehicle, and of being rear-ended.

Re: Florida shortened yellow lights to increase red light camera revenue [video]

#40

Post by thrownaway2424 »

roboneal wrote: post #27

An appropriate partial quote of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged: “Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken." "But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt."

After you turn 14 you'll realize there is actually never an appropriate moment for an Ayn Rand quote.
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