Oh, wait; the headline was "Righting red-light wrong."
The Northwest Herald published a letter to the editor from Rep. Jack Franks this morning about red-light cameras. Jack wrote that he is working on legislation for the elimination of citations for legal right-on-red turns.
Certainly, no legislation is needed for that!
If a driver makes a legal right-on-red turn, by its very definition he has not committed a traffic violation.
Now, if a driver makes an illegal right-on-red turn, then s/he deserves the ticket.
So what if 80% of the tickets are for right-on-red violations (if the number is really that high). If the driver violated the law by rolling around the corner at 20MPH (against a red light) or not stopping until past the stop bar or 3/4 of the way through the turn, then pay up. The videos of the violation clearly show that the driver violated the law.
Every day drivers commit significant traffic violations because of carelessness, inattention or intention.
Rather than waste time on this, our legislators should be devoting 100% of their time and resources to the budget crisis in which Illinois is buried. Thousands and thousands of bills bog down both houses of Illinois government, draining time from the most important one.
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3 comments:
Gus - I'm with you on the 20 MPH right turn on red roll.
NOT with you on an ACTUAL stop beyond the stop bar line. Right turn lane stop bars are painted too far back. When painted reasonably congruent with through traffic stop bars, the right turner needs to be able to pull forward before you can see whether or not there's anyone you need yield to before commencing your ALLOWABLE right turn on red..
Hey - I know how to rake in more cash! Let's paint the stop bars 10 feet further back behind the stop bars for through traffic! Then, each false start forward can result in multiple violations per red light!
DBTR, I agree that some stop bars are painted too far back, but perhaps they are there to allow room for pedestrians to cross when there are no painted crosswalk lines. A driver can stop and then roll forward to check for oncoming traffic.
Each of the videos I looked at showed a clear violation. None involved a borderline case. A Fox River Grove PD sergeant told me that three "specialists" look at violations before they ever get to the police department for ticketing.
I had gotten flashed while making a legal right-on-red turn, but no ticket was ever received, as the sergeant had assured me when I immediately called the P.D.
I'm sure we've all read of the "horror" stories of tickets for legal turns on red. Yeah, some are the result of the lines being too far back but remember the climate in which we live. If it's snowing how easy is it to see where the line is? Numerous tickets have been issued for folks who stopped beyond a line they could not see and then proceeded to complete their turn. The object is get folks to stop BEFORE entering the cross traffic and then doing so when it's safe to do so. Too many of these cameras are going in on high traffic count intersections ($$$) lacking the requisite high crash count of the type crash that heavy enforcement is meant to prevent. It ain't about the money, it's all about the money!
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