Don't talk to the police

[Millie]

Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) in the Malibu area has got the be the single most cop-heavy stretch of road in the continental US. I swear, there must be a cop or two every quarter mile. Next time I drive into the city I'm going to try to count them all. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to count 30+ cops in the 20-mile stretch. They probably clean up, too, because dumbass tourists don't know they're there and think it's fun to speed up the coast.

[spronk]

on the plus side as you get older you slow down. in my early 20s i was a speed freak, I'd do 90-110 mph easy whenever I possibly could while metal or techno blasted. virtually same car, a few years later, and I find myself rarely going over 70 listening to PBS. i'm old

and ya got a number of tickets in malibu years ago, it sucks since you have to head over there if you want to fight it. the middle coast area sucks too cop-wise, like Oxnard, Lompoc, Santa Barbara, etc all have tons of cop traps.

[Millie]

Yeah, it's best to just slow down and deal with it in Malibu. There are cops eveywhere, they will show up to court if you challenge them, and as Jeffrey Lebowski warns us, they are "fucking fascists."

[Kaosu]

Originally Posted by Zitar

What? There was a period in which the loop 101 cameras where on a trial phase, but that has long since passed. The average ticket is like $160 and you have to be going 6mph over to get busted. There has also been several stories in the paper and on the news of DPS arresting people who got caught going 90+ on them. Some people racking up 10+ tickets as well.

You have to be a retard to get busted by photo-radar in the Phoenix area. The ones on the 101 have big flashing yellow lights about 1/4 of a mile before you get to them and the ones on surface streets have a construction style sign 1/4 mile ahead of them saying photo-radar ahead.

I haven't heard anything about the surface street vans losing money. DPS recently said 170 cameras statewide are in the works as a way to generate money.

I'm talking about the vans on the i10 or 101, for the enforceable tickets concerning the photovans. I said nothing about the vans losing money.

Also, they are taking down 'certain' red light cameras as they are working 'too well' in certain cities.

The mythbusters bit was nice, but there was one product they didn't test -

Photoshield. It was tested by multiple police departments (including the denver police) and also a couple news stations. It works pretty well, from what I've heard. Though, may not be exactly legal in your state.

[Deris]

Originally Posted by Kaosu

Also, they are taking down 'certain' red light cameras as they are working 'too well' in certain cities.

I saw this on the news briefly and I wasn't paying attention and didn't get it - how is a red light camera working *too* well? Isn't the idea to bust everyone who runs a red?

I got a ticket once (automatically generated) from a red light Camera, and my car was pretty much past the white line and you could BARELY see my plates (ran a late yellow) - I contested as not guilty, and never heard anything else!

EDIT: Double scary, I remember reading in Popular Mechanics a while back about tracking your car's speed via bluetooth/RFID sensors in your tires or some shit.

[Kaosu]

Originally Posted by Deris

I saw this on the news briefly and I wasn't paying attention and didn't get it - how is a red light camera working *too* well? Isn't the idea to bust everyone who runs a red?

I got a ticket once (automatically generated) from a red light Camera, and my car was pretty much past the white line and you could BARELY see my plates (ran a late yellow) - I contested as not guilty, and never heard anything else!

EDIT: Double scary, I remember reading in Popular Mechanics a while back about tracking your car's speed via bluetooth/RFID sensors in your tires or some shit.

Its because the purpose of red light cameras are to caught people that are excessively speeding and/or running red lights. They put those cameras are intersections they have been known to have tons of red light running and/or speeding. With that in mind, the operating costs of the camera are offset by the cost of the revenue generated by tickets.

The cameras are working so well, that they aren't making enough money to support the cameras based off tickets on a monthly basis, thus losing money.
Its not they are forced to take any of these cameras off line, its just that they don't want to spend money on something that isn't going to make them money (is pretty much what they are saying)

[Deris]

Ohhh the Cameras are too much of a deterrent? Gotcha.

[Quineloe]

If you want people to drive within speed limits and not run red lights, you simply put a cop car into traffic and let it drive around. bam suddenly nobody is speeding anymore. That's not what they're after though.

[Deris]

I love it when the cops just park a car on the side of the road kinda hidden, and just leave it. Everyone immediately slows down, even though you can plainly see that there isn't a cop in the car.

[Rhaze]

Originally Posted by Millie

Yeah, it's best to just slow down and deal with it in Malibu. There are cops eveywhere, they will show up to court if you challenge them, and as Jeffrey Lebowski warns us, they are "fucking fascists."

Yeah they're fascists because you can't follow posted speed limits, which were test by engineers.

If someone breaks the rules here what do you do millie? Oh yeah, you enforce them.

[jayrebb]

Originally Posted by Deris

Ohhh the Cameras are too much of a deterrent? Gotcha.

Perhaps a 5% chance to over-expose the photo could be added to make it a true gambling mans game.

And yeah Im sure engineers with nothing but professional intentions set all the speed limits according to their precise unbiased calculations...

maybe where you are from....

[OhSeven]

Originally Posted by Dr. Funkenstein

Most of the complaints in this thread are due to incidents that resulted in *gasp* inconvenience. 5 minutes of your life wasted. OMFG what are you going to do! Anyone spend a night in jail, get the crap beat out of them, watch a friend get shot, have their property destroyed, etc. because a cop decided to "be a dick"? Oh...and those of you who have been inconvenienced on one or more occasions: How many willful crimes have you gotten away with?

I've not read the rest of the thread yet but I felt I should respond to this.

When I was about 16, cops raided my parents house because of, what we found out later, a mistake in address. The whole house was completely trashed, drawers litterally thrown into the floor and several things broken due to cops simply being dicks. Myself, my mom, my dad, and my 14 year old brother sat in handcuffs for 6 hours outside on the ground, in July. The worst part about it was the attic floor, the carpet was pulled up and torn to ribbons and rather than using a crowbar and pulling up the boards to look under them, they used a sledgehammer and broke almost the entire floor. When they didn't find anything they just left, even after the mistake was found we didn't even receive an apology let alone reimbersment for the things that were broken.

So, I have a low opinion of cops in general and I firmly believe 'serve and protect' went out the window decades ago.

[Millie]

Originally Posted by Rhaze

Yeah they're fascists because you can't follow posted speed limits, which were test by engineers.

If someone breaks the rules here what do you do millie? Oh yeah, you enforce them.

Cops in Malibu aren't "fascists" for enforcing the rules. They're "fascists" because of their conduct in so doing -- conduct that is excessive, harsh, crude, territorial, borderline violent at times, and thuggish. And for what it's worth, the fascists thing was a Big Lebowski quote; I wasn't really intending for you (or anyone) to take it that seriously in the first place.

I have no problem following speed limits, btw. Hell, I'm pretty sure my Prius couldn't crack 60mph even if I wanted it to.

[Bristlebane]

Mr. Treehorn treats objects like women.

[Quineloe]

Originally Posted by Rhaze

Yeah they're fascists because you can't follow posted speed limits, which were test by engineers.

What? Speed limits are about as outdated as the judge who ruled for viacom this week.

Going 120mph in a modern coupe or sports car is a lot safer today than going 55mph was in the 70s.