10-09-2014, 10:15 PM
i hear these arguments all the time, but they lack merit. the cameras are NOT in there to generate revenue, and in fact ALWAYS lose money. that's exactly why some cities have pulled them, even though their intersection accident rates fell. they are there only for safety. anybody who says otherwise is listening to the wrong people.
i have never heard of a camera being wrong. they are incredibly accurate. they absolutely do not trigger unless you entered late, and they clearly show you in the intersection after the light changed. pretty hard to argue with that. yes, they have failed to take the shot, but cops often miss things too. just today i watched a taxi run a light on a left turn, right in front of a cop who did nothing. i had to wait for the clown to clear the intersection before i could make my turn on the green light i had been waiting for. if there were a camera, that guy would have gotten a well deserved ticket. i suppose i could have just stepped on it and rammed him.
this has nothing to do with government surveillance or privacy or any of those lame arguments. there is no expectation of privacy in your car, on the street, or out in public. get used to that. you only have the governments limited permission to drive a car. they can set the rules on how you do that. this is the best solution we have. not doing anything is clearly the wrong thing. so, unless somebody can come up with a better idea, this is it, and we should support it, as it is better than doing nothing.
that being said, i'd love to say "screw it" and have no laws whatsoever. i'd love to see us all carry guns and settle it in the street. we could all wrap our cars in big bumpers, and go slug it out in the street. unfortunately that doesn't work if you want any sense of order in a society.
more than half the country lives in crowded urban areas. cameras are what's coming. they'll hit a blip along the way, as social dinosaurs object on some meritless arguments of privacy and such, but rest assured that you are under surveillance every minute of every day already. there's no going back now. i fully expect that in 10 years or less every car will have the kinds of cameras i have on the X5, and they will all be tied to a central computer somewhere that is recording everything. my car already talks to the central computer at bmw regularly. your GPS is already tracking your movements. your cell phone too. you can actually go online and track somebody on your own. they are already doing it with your phones and your computer. the technology is already there, in place, and working. every call, every key stroke, and every web page is monitored and recorded. you can thank the satellites and digital technology for that. the minute we went away from hard lines, it became very easy. it was a little unnerving when i first saw it in action, but given what's going on in the world, i can see why it's done.
at least red light cameras have some real benefits
i have never heard of a camera being wrong. they are incredibly accurate. they absolutely do not trigger unless you entered late, and they clearly show you in the intersection after the light changed. pretty hard to argue with that. yes, they have failed to take the shot, but cops often miss things too. just today i watched a taxi run a light on a left turn, right in front of a cop who did nothing. i had to wait for the clown to clear the intersection before i could make my turn on the green light i had been waiting for. if there were a camera, that guy would have gotten a well deserved ticket. i suppose i could have just stepped on it and rammed him.
this has nothing to do with government surveillance or privacy or any of those lame arguments. there is no expectation of privacy in your car, on the street, or out in public. get used to that. you only have the governments limited permission to drive a car. they can set the rules on how you do that. this is the best solution we have. not doing anything is clearly the wrong thing. so, unless somebody can come up with a better idea, this is it, and we should support it, as it is better than doing nothing.
that being said, i'd love to say "screw it" and have no laws whatsoever. i'd love to see us all carry guns and settle it in the street. we could all wrap our cars in big bumpers, and go slug it out in the street. unfortunately that doesn't work if you want any sense of order in a society.
more than half the country lives in crowded urban areas. cameras are what's coming. they'll hit a blip along the way, as social dinosaurs object on some meritless arguments of privacy and such, but rest assured that you are under surveillance every minute of every day already. there's no going back now. i fully expect that in 10 years or less every car will have the kinds of cameras i have on the X5, and they will all be tied to a central computer somewhere that is recording everything. my car already talks to the central computer at bmw regularly. your GPS is already tracking your movements. your cell phone too. you can actually go online and track somebody on your own. they are already doing it with your phones and your computer. the technology is already there, in place, and working. every call, every key stroke, and every web page is monitored and recorded. you can thank the satellites and digital technology for that. the minute we went away from hard lines, it became very easy. it was a little unnerving when i first saw it in action, but given what's going on in the world, i can see why it's done.
at least red light cameras have some real benefits
94 Midnight Metallic Blue Cab Porsche 968 w/deviating cashmere/black interior and WAY too many mods to list - thanks to eric for creating www.968forums.com
"It isn't nearly as expensive to do it right as it is to do it wrong."
