Live data from Hacker News

Red-light camera grace period goes from 0.1 to 0.3 seconds, Chicago to lose $17M

arstechnica.com

1–10 of 79 posts

Re: Red-light camera grace period goes from 0.1 to 0.3 seconds, Chicago to lose $17M

#3

Good. These should be ruled unconstitutional everywhere. Maybe it's just where I live but it seems like law enforcement is more focused on revenue generation.

People talk about running government like a business, not thinking about the implications of trying to turn cost centers into profit generation in that sphere.

Re: Red-light camera grace period goes from 0.1 to 0.3 seconds, Chicago to lose $17M

#4
While I find the camera's themselves to be... undesirable..

Why is there a need for a grace period? The yellow is all the grace period you need. If you speed up for or ignore the yellow with time to stop, you're already breaking the law...

Not that I'm a fan of the system at all - just, if you're going to do it, do it ... u know?

Re: Red-light camera grace period goes from 0.1 to 0.3 seconds, Chicago to lose $17M

#5

Good. These should be ruled unconstitutional everywhere. Maybe it's just where I live but it seems like law enforcement is more focused on revenue generation.

Devil's advocate though : you can choose to not be affected by them by simply not running red lights. So.. while I agree on the unconstitutional part (im on your side), the other side of this, its an opt-in system, in practice

Re: Red-light camera grace period goes from 0.1 to 0.3 seconds, Chicago to lose $17M

#6

Good. These should be ruled unconstitutional everywhere. Maybe it's just where I live but it seems like law enforcement is more focused on revenue generation.

Devil's advocate though : you can choose to not be affected by them by simply not running red lights. So.. while I agree on the unconstitutional part (im on your side), the other side of this, its an opt-in system, in practice

Except for the times when it's "malfunctioning"

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-red-light-camera-ticke...

If you search around, there's tons of cities that were caught manipulating the timing on the cameras to increase the number of tickets.

Are you going to call the camera into court for questioning? Are they going to let a third party audit the code that runs the timers?

Re: Red-light camera grace period goes from 0.1 to 0.3 seconds, Chicago to lose $17M

#7

Good. These should be ruled unconstitutional everywhere. Maybe it's just where I live but it seems like law enforcement is more focused on revenue generation.

Devil's advocate though : you can choose to not be affected by them by simply not running red lights. So.. while I agree on the unconstitutional part (im on your side), the other side of this, its an opt-in system, in practice

Breaking any absurd law, by that logic, is "opt-in".

Re: Red-light camera grace period goes from 0.1 to 0.3 seconds, Chicago to lose $17M

#8

While I find the camera's themselves to be... undesirable.. Why is there a need for a grace period? The yellow is all the grace period you need. If you speed up for or ignore the yellow with time to stop, you're already breaking the law... Not that I'm a fan of the system at all - just, if you're going to do it, do it ... u know?

In fairness haven't there been problems before with cities shortening the yellow light timings after installing red light cameras?

Re: Red-light camera grace period goes from 0.1 to 0.3 seconds, Chicago to lose $17M

#9

While I find the camera's themselves to be... undesirable.. Why is there a need for a grace period? The yellow is all the grace period you need. If you speed up for or ignore the yellow with time to stop, you're already breaking the law... Not that I'm a fan of the system at all - just, if you're going to do it, do it ... u know?

If yellow lights all had a fixed duration I would agree with you, but unfortunately the length of yellow lights is variable. Additionally yellow lights have no legal rules behind them. They don't mean "slow down", they are simply an indication that the light will be red soon. You are within your rights to accelerate through a yellow light (assuming you're still under the speed limit).

Re: Red-light camera grace period goes from 0.1 to 0.3 seconds, Chicago to lose $17M

#10

Good. These should be ruled unconstitutional everywhere. Maybe it's just where I live but it seems like law enforcement is more focused on revenue generation.

I'm curious to hear why you think it's unconstitutional. It's unobtrusive surveillance in a public setting, so there's no expectation of privacy. It's punishing people for breaking a public-safety law. In most cases they even have signs alerting you to the presence of an enforcement camera.

Now I can definitely see how automated enforcement ripe for abuse when there are revenues to be had, and it's concerning when operations like this are given to private companies with little to no transparency. But given those concerns can be resolved, what's the problem at a constitutional level?

Post reply on HN