Great news, Arizona Speed cameras turned off

Arizona turns off speed cameras

Arizona has turned off every speed camera on its highways after complaints that they violated privacy and were designed to generate revenue rather than promote road safety.

A spokesman for Jan Brewer, the state's Republican governor, said she "was uncomfortable with the intrusive nature of the system", which was inherited from her Democratic predecessor.

Opening in October 2008, the scheme was first in the United States to use speed cameras across a whole state. Amid objections of Big Brother-ism, numerous cameras were vandalised, while the operator of a van carrying a mobile camera was shot dead in a lay-by in April 2009

The 76 cameras took 2.7 million photographs, but only 16 per cent of drivers who received a speeding ticket paid up.

The scheme generated $76 million (£50 million) for a state which has struggled to balance its budget, while the Department of Public safety reported a 19 per cent drop in fatal collisions on highways. But campaigners argued that safety could be improved by more police patrols.

Speed cameras introduced by the authorities in several Arizonan cities are unaffected by the decision.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7895310/Arizona-turns-off-speed-cameras.html

The definitive hick town speed trap, Boulogne Florida, popluation 50,

The 4 lane highway was a 55 zone, but the people of Boulogne posted a 45 zone, and cashed on. They won the lottery.

The speed trap was so effective, 60 %of the city income was from fines and forfeitures.

Of the 1008 arrests in 1961, 999 were for speeding. Accordingly 88% of the budget went to policing the zone, all 1.3 miles long and 2000 feet wide.

Greed was their downfall of course, so many complaints, etc caused the state road dept and a senator to get involved. They lost about 10 million dollars due to bad will, and people going out of the way to avoid the now nationally known, nasty little town that was a parasite on the highway and drivers just passing through. The few businesses and citizens left had their charter revoked 8 years after getting it, and 2 years after the senator took a side against them.

From a late 1960's Road and Track article by Richard Poe

Utah tests 80mph limit on particular stretches of I-15

It's a success, and that means nothing changed, most everyone was already speeding, and not having accidents, and they are still going about the same speed without accidents.

Ergo, we're going to drive the way we drive regardless of posted speed limits, duh. Put more cops on the road and watch us slow down though.

For the full article: http://www.nextautos.com/utah%E2%80%99s-experimental-speed-limit-increase-deemed-successful

Amusing civil disobedience in Arizona to protest speed trap cameras being used as a revenue generator by taxing speeding

37 speeding tickets are in contention due to being unable to identify the driver, of the Dave's '05 Subaru, because the driver always wears a monkey mask when getting photographed by the speed trap cameras. Dave lets several people use his car, has masks standing by in the car for anyone driving it, and whoever the monkey mask driver is, they just go with the flow of traffic. $6,700 dollars worth of fines are waiting for police to cite the driver, who isn't identifiable due to the mask. I love it.

He is fighting every one by claiming the costumes make it impossible for authorities to prove he was behind the wheel.

"You've got to identify the driver, and if you can't, it's not a valid ticket," said Dave VonTesmar, a 47-year-old.

The tickets must be prosecuted in a limited amount of time by the judicial system, or the become invalid according to: http://motoring.asiaone.com/Motoring/Drivers/Story/A1Story20090914-167856.html

The chairman of the Arizona Citizens Against Photo Radar, said he finds it interesting that the agency had conducted surveillance on Dave VonTesmar. He said: "They're out staking out a guy with a monkey mask? If they had pulled him over, they could have pulled the mask off. It just proves photo radar is not about safety, it's about money."

There are 78 cameras in Arizona targetting speeders, and Dave's car has been photo-ticketed 90 times.

I wonder if the cops will just tail Dave's car until it speeds, require the driver to remove the mask while they identify the driver, and give the driver a ticket the old fashion way, or will the cops empathize since cops are the most frequent speeders on the road? I'd love to work for the camera company that sends the photos to the Arizona Dept of Public Safety, and count how many cop cars are photographed speeding through the same speed trap cameras.

Some info collected from http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/09/08/20090908dpsmonkey0908.html

0 to 60 in 2.2 seconds. In a 1986 Trans Am, top speed, 252 mph... that's 3 less than the record for a production vehicle, McClarens old record

http://www.pollymotorsport.no/index.php?mapping=2 Via Hemmings Muscle Machines, Muscleaneous, pg 12 April 2009 issue