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[Ed note: We're going to break from our usual style here. Take it away, Mark!]
A few days ago, I wrote about the new red light cameras that'll be coming to a street corner near you. With a false sense of security, I jokingly referred to them as "money makers," thinking that I was somehow beyond their panoptic gaze.
Big mistake.
Two days later, I was slapped with a hundred dollar ticket of my own. Call it karma, or Mayor Daley's special form of divine retribution – whatever it is, these $100 tickets fucking suck, and there are going to be a lot more of them in years to come.
The only cool part of it – as several commenters have already noted – is that you get to see photos and a video of your infraction. That's me up there, in the beat-up Honda, gunning through the salted-up intersection of Ashland and Division on January 21st at about 2 P.M. And after countless replays of the video, I admit that I burned the red light, and it looks like one of those situations in which, when encountered with a changing yellow light, I chose to accelerate through.
For the record, I respect the law and do believe that running red lights is reckless behavior.
Another aspect of the ordeal that slightly assuaged my frustration was my discovery of Photoenforced, a site that maps red light cameras for other drivers. After getting the ticket, I submitted the intersection where I was nailed to the site, and although they still haven't added it to their map, I get some satisfaction from knowing that people are going to the trouble of mapping the camera locations for the rest of us.
The only thing I'm wondering now is whether or not that delivery truck in the above photos got served with a ticket also, because it sure looks like he's running the light too.
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That's gross. I'm sure sooner or later one of those will be in my mailbox too.
What's interesting is how they use them. For instance, there is a camera at Irving Park and Western. However, this camera is only on Western. Run a red light on Irving Park, and you're fine. Run it on Western, and you're busted. Strange.
Huh. That's interesting. The camera angle in that photo is on Ashland, facing north.
So maybe the driver of that truck did get off after all...
What's the Chicago city code? I have my ticket number in my email but not the actual ticket.
I think it's just CHI.
That's it. Thanks. CHI
Running a red is totally out of character for me, so of course the one time that I've run a red light since I've lived here was at a camera-equipped light on Fullerton. Oh well. I did it. So I paid the fine. It sucked, but then again, I shouldn't have run the red light. Lesson learned!
I hate these things. I think too many of these so called infractions are not really a problem. A lot of times it is safer to go through what will be a red light because you would have to stop too fast or it could be slippery out like snow or rain where you don't feel safe stopping so suddenly. The other thing I have a problem with but have no experience with so I'd like to know if someone has had this happen is when you make a legal right turn on red, I've heard people say they got a ticket for this or how bout a left turn after the light is red but you have been waiting in the middle for the rest of traffic to pass. Another example is when there is heavy traffic and you are trying to let other people get through say for a left turn but then it turns yellow and you are scrambling to get through because now you are in no man's land.
I don't feel any safer with these cameras, It makes me more uncomfortable driving as I feel I have to look to my right at every damn intersection to see if there is a sign stating it is photo enforced instead of paying attention to traffic then deciding whether to speed up to get through the light as fast as possible so as not to somehow get screwed by a fast yellow. It's just another tax masquerading as public safety and I am sick and tired of these politicians taxing us and we need someone to stand up and say that enough is enough, when is that going to happen for god's sake, can someone please step up to the plate.
I think any fines from parking or red lights or any other traffic violations should be allocated to public transportation and parking projects exclusively, this would ensure that politicians will stop coming up with creative ways to tax us because they think it is more revenue they can siphon off to their cronies.
why don't you goofballs just stop on red lights? you're either driving too fast or not paying attention. just drive like a normal human being and you won't get a ticket.
Seanfeld- it's only a ticketable offense if you enter the intersection after the light has changed to red, and they have video. Therefore, if you're making a legal right-on-red, contest it and you're off. Sitting in the intersection waiting for the left turn, again, contest it.
If you feel safer blowing a red light than stopping for a yellow, you're driving too fast for conditions, which is a ticketable offense in itself, so stop driving like a jerk. And quit looking for the cameras- they're not there to make you feel safer, they're there to ticket you if you drive through a red light because you're too busy looking for cameras.
If you feel safer blowing a red light than stopping for a yellow, you're driving too fast for conditions, which is a ticketable offense in itself, so stop driving like a jerk.
This may be the case at many lights but there are some with ridiculously quick yellows. I mean so quick that if you're driving 30-35 and hit the sweet spot just before it changes you're going to either have to skid into the cross work or get *almost* through before it changes to yellow. I did this today at a light with no camera thankfully, and believe me I'm hyper aware of the lights and my speed now that I too have gotten one of these $100 buzzkills in the mail.
As more and more cameras go in, I forsee an increase in rear-end accidents. People will overreact and start treating yellow lights as reds, slamming on their brakes the instant a light changes to yellow. Which is contrary to the expected driver behavior.
It's a tough spot for me, blatant red-light running both pisses me off and destroys the flow of traffic (well, which pisses me off). But, you can't make people afraid of being in the intersection on a yellow, either.
It's cool when you're a pedestrian. Some A**hole blasting through the lights and all of a sudden, the cameras snapping away...
"This may be the case at many lights but there are some with ridiculously quick yellows."
Then that's a separate public safety issue, and something that the alderman of that ward should be told about.
I felt wierd defending these cameras, but then I figured out why- they're a lot less suspect to me than IDOT's speed-enforcement cameras. While the red-light camera system issues tickets when an individual breaks the law, IDOT keeps adding stationary cameras ans VANS that can drive on the tollways and issue mailed tickets for speeding. Driving through red lights is usually a solitary thing, but everyone drives over the limit on the tollway, so if everyone's moving with traffic, how do they decide when to ticket? In construction zones, those puppys are over $300, and I don't know if I've EVER dropped all the way to 45.
Have they ever actually implemented the speed cameras? I was driving 60-70 on the Dan Ryan constantly last year and never got a ticket, despite the fact that signs told me I would. I figured screw that, I'd just follow the flow of traffic.
Chris F: Actually never in my entire over a decade of driving received a moving violation, been involved in an accident or even been pulled over by a cop, never, not once. You tell me how many people you know that can say that. I am however fully aware after having worked in Evanston a number of years ago know when a municipality is using law enforcement as a means of revenue generation and not a to protect and serve. Last time I checked they don't write to protect, serve and make money for the city on cop cars. These cameras decrease safety and increase revenue plain and simple they are a hidden tax. Living in a society where every move I make is monitored by the government and subject to taxation is not what I call freedom and if we don't stand up to these abuses of government power you are going to have a chip in your skull monitoring every decision you make and I will be living in the deep forests of Canada hiding from you freak, cyborg, no-freedom having, please sir may I have some more, gutless poor excuses for a human being.
As for contesting I have an acquaintance who tried that went to the judge who said he had no power over it complain to the alderman, who then said I can't do anything about that you have to contest it. You try going around that merry go round a couple times and let me know how that goes for you.
I believe I got hit with one tonight at Belmont and Pulaski. I found it troublesome because of how quick the yellow was and how well hidden the cameras must have been. The previous intersection to the west had a long yellow, and I pulled up short, leaving about a second of the yellow light. Assuming the next one would be timed the same, I went through. If I had slammed on the brakes I would have skidded through the crosswalk for sure.
The way to show displeasure for these moneymakers would be to take every one of them to court, cluttering up the system, and costing the city more money to hear the cases. That might make a difference.
Mark, in response to your comment (#3). even though the camera is facing in one direction in the picture, it will capture cars in both directions. it will just capture your front plate or back one.
That is why they have 2 cameras on intersections rather then 4.
http://aamerjaved.com/2008/08/13/chicago-red-light-camera/