• (cs) in reply to GalacticCowboy
    GalacticCowboy:
    Gnonthgol:
    If you tells the taxi driver to break the speed limit he is stil the driver and is the one that has to pay the fine.

    But of course he'll leave the meter running during the time he's motionless at the side of the road...

    Just pay the fare and walk away. The Supreme Court has ruled that passengers in the vehicle are not considered detained and are totally free to walk away.

    (Yeah right; just try that and see what happens.)

  • (cs) in reply to JDocs
    JDocs:
    In South Africa we drive on the other side of the road...

    Let me guess... You're somehow related to S.A., aren't you? Am I right?

  • Jeremy (unregistered) in reply to Kanazuchi

    well, with today's gas prices, I'm sure he was just trying to draft and save money

  • Mitch (unregistered) in reply to danixdefcon5
    danixdefcon5:
    vt_mruhlin:
    Have cities stopped doing the old trick where the traffic lights detect the emergency vehicle and change to accommodate it? I remember it used to work via a strobe light on top of the car, until people started making their own strobes on the same frequency. But surely they can come up with a better system nowadays. how about a GPS in each of the ambulances, with turn-by-turn navigation, that knows long in advance where they need to be and sets up their lights accordingly for the whole route?
    Isn't that a popular urban legend?

    http://www.snopes.com/autos/law/strobe.asp

    There is MIRT for Emergency Vehicles, of course, but I think its pretty illegal to use one of those in a non-emergency vehicle:

    http://www.themirt.com/how.html

    It's not an urban myth. 2600 Magazine did a writeup of this technique a LONG time ago.

  • Regression (unregistered) in reply to Sam

    And this is what the phenomenon is called: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regression_toward_the_mean

  • (cs) in reply to danixdefcon5
    danixdefcon5:
    vt_mruhlin:
    Have cities stopped doing the old trick where the traffic lights detect the emergency vehicle and change to accommodate it? I remember it used to work via a strobe light on top of the car, until people started making their own strobes on the same frequency. But surely they can come up with a better system nowadays. how about a GPS in each of the ambulances, with turn-by-turn navigation, that knows long in advance where they need to be and sets up their lights accordingly for the whole route?
    Isn't that a popular urban legend?

    http://www.snopes.com/autos/law/strobe.asp

    You need to read snopes more carefully. Here in Denver, CO, we do have some of those strobe sensors. (They seem to be phasing them out possibly for MIRT or other tech.) I've seen the strobe module on emergency vehicles. The point of the snopes article is that you cannot flash your headlights correctly to trigger it. You have to have a true strobe. Also, I've had to sit forever for a light to change probably due to it being blinded by the setting sun. I expect that light had a MIRT which runs on infrared.

    snopes article:
    A problem with a cause-and-effect belief in this scenario is that many intersections aren't equipped with strobe-detecting sensors, so motorists end up flashing their lights at traffic signals that don't care. And even when drivers happen upon strobe-enabled signals, the sensors are set to detect lights flashing at a rate so rapid (in the neighborhood of 14 flashes per second) that a human working a manual headlight switch couldn't possibly imitate it. Moreover, some traffic pre-emption systems are now activated not just by an on-off alternation of lights, but by a specific pattern of flashing.
  • Viat (unregistered)

    This was amusing before I saw that it was local. Now I'm unsurprised.

  • Worf (unregistered) in reply to Pecos Bill
    Pecos Bill:
    You need to read snopes more carefully. Here in Denver, CO, we do have some of those strobe sensors. (They seem to be phasing them out possibly for MIRT or other tech.) I've seen the strobe module on emergency vehicles. The point of the snopes article is that you cannot flash your headlights correctly to trigger it. You have to have a true strobe. Also, I've had to sit forever for a light to change probably due to it being blinded by the setting sun. I expect that light had a MIRT which runs on infrared.

    Good systems actually use a data link - the strobing actually is coded to trigger the light. I don't have the specifics, but that's the basic way they work now to counteract these fake light changes (and sun issues). Just respond to a code. Do it right and you can even do crude tracking of units.

    Of course, the better systems yet actually turn the lights red 4 ways. It thus defeats the devices, and doesn't impede emergency services (since they have right of way through red). If they get stuck in traffic, they turn off emergency signals (which they should do in case the driver in front panics and refuses to move - does happen. And emergency services would prefer non-moving cards to dodge around than moving ones) which should make the lights work normally. Also means that the intersection clears itself of traffic.

  • ricochet (unregistered) in reply to Kanazuchi

    Not only tailgating, but 'pulling a wheelie' also. Must be a 'funny-car' with a VW body...

  • moz (unregistered) in reply to fredricko
    fredricko:
    In the UK IIRC you get demerits even via photo radar, and some city of London cameras will tag you for going 1mph over the limit. Ouch.
    It's not true, but the police won't bother you if you pretend it is. A foreigner would only be fined in any case.
  • Kaon (unregistered) in reply to 5|i(3_x
    5|i(3_x:
    Nobody wakes up in the morning thinking, "Hey, I could totally take advantage of my neighbors by running some red lights. I might even crash into one of them!" Given the fines involved, the only ones who benefit from punishing people for their unintentional mistakes are the collecters.

    I don't know where you live, but as far as I'm concerned it's in a galaxy far far a way.

    About 5 years ago, I've heard - first hand - two guys boast about doing more-or-less what you talk about. It was at the pool of a friend's apartment complex - there was an impromptu party and one guy and his dad, both with an alcohol problem, went ranting about how they'd fall asleep (while being drunk) on a freeway exit ramp, and so on and so on. I'm quite sure it was all true, and that they missed a few mishaps they had since forgotten or were too drunk at the time to remember. The son has been cited for drunk driving, at leat once -- I didn't bother looking up other citations; it was in the public record.

    Yes, there are morons who willfully not only break the law, but endanger others, and who keep on doing just that, for the sheer fun of it.

    In other words: get down to earth, lest I classify you a total reality-ignoramus and thus almost as dangerous as the people whose existence you so vehemently deny. Geez.

  • Shinobu (unregistered) in reply to MBV
    MBV:
    Because I'm Dutch, it's a really funny read for me :)
    Yep, me too, I lol'd hard, although not just because of the language. Still, I found the Afrikaans easier to read than the English, even with the wierd words and stuff, strangely enough.

    Oh, and to all you camera haters out there, I don't know how stuff is abroad, but here in the Netherlands there used to be quite a number of roads with consistently high death tolls that were fixed at least partly by cameras. Worst thing I heard was a three lane provincial road that was being driven on like it was a four lane highway.

    In France, I noticed that they put signs along the road at every spot where someone was killed in an accident. Don't know if it actually helps, but I sort of liked the idea.

  • jochen (unregistered)

    You Should be glad that no one noticed the lack of savety distance to the car in front :D At least, it's a color photograph.

  • JohnnH G (unregistered)

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/4626952.stm

  • Dan (unregistered) in reply to Kanazuchi

    We had a case here in Australia where a lady received a ticket and photo of her little old Datsun doing around 170km/h.

    A TV show picked up on this and had a professional driver take the car to a race course. Of course wearing full racing gear and helmet for good effect.

    Going down the back straight, with foot to the floor, the car would top out at 140km/h and sit there for a good while.

    The lady still had to pay the fine for 170km/h

    -Dan

  • HUH? (unregistered) in reply to Kanazuchi

    Are you blind? His car was being towed by the tow truck!

  • HUH? (unregistered) in reply to Kanazuchi
    Kanazuchi:
    He should consider himself lucky -- the picture clearly shows he was tailgating too.

    Are you Blind? His car was being towed by the tow truck

  • (cs) in reply to HUH?
    HUH?:
    Kanazuchi:
    He should consider himself lucky -- the picture clearly shows he was tailgating too.
    Are you Blind? His car was being towed by the tow truck
    Was there some sort of massive EMP that disabled everyone's sarcasm detectors?
  • law abiding citizen (unregistered) in reply to rainer
    rainer:

    In Germany, you will NOT have to tell..it's their job to find out who's that person on the picture. If they can't find out, you'll be asked to document each drive for the next 0.5 to 2 years (just in case it happens again..so they can ask for the documentation to find the driver). The good thing is, on average this makes it more expensive to fine people, and discourages abusing speed cameras as revenue source.

    Thats not entirely true, only if a family member was driving, since you don't have to be a witness against your own family. If it was someone else you could claim that you don't know, but you still would have to tell who the people that have access to your car are.

    I don't know about the discouragement, I know of cases where they had pictures of a car running a red light but only from the backside of the car, so the driver was obviously not identifiable. They still tried even though they know it's not worth anything in court (quite surprising for Germany, but the car lobby is strong). I guess there are enough people who cave and pay up.

  • RF (unregistered)

    "die district"? Shudder. I wouldn't want to buy a house there.

  • GDI Lord (unregistered)

    Unfortunately here in South Africa speed cameras and traffic "officers" with mobile cameras are motivated almost exclusively to generate revenue, both for the local municipalities and for (some of them) themselves.

  • (cs) in reply to Kanazuchi
    Kanazuchi:
    He should consider himself lucky -- the picture clearly shows he was tailgating too.

    And driving without a seat belt.

    Dail:
    And TRWTF is that a tow truck cannot drive over 60km/h?
    Probably that the tow truck drivers know the roads so well that they should know where all the cameras are. That camera is too high to be a temporary one, which in .za are put on low tripods. And Plett is a small town.
  • Beedub (unregistered) in reply to Gilgamesh
    Gilgamesh:
    Here in Brazil we had a case much worse than this. The car was traveling at 4800km/h... yes, mach 4... Look here: [image]

    What's even more amusing is that it was a VW Golf.

  • Tormod (unregistered) in reply to Kanazuchi

    And that his taglight was out....

  • Speeder (unregistered) in reply to Gilgamesh

    4800 km/h car must use a lot of gas. Wouldn`t mind driving a car that went that fast if I could only afford the gas & could keep it on the road. Minor details.....Hehehehe! :)

  • csm (unregistered) in reply to HUH?
    HUH?:
    Kanazuchi:
    He should consider himself lucky -- the picture clearly shows he was tailgating too.

    Are you Blind? His car was being towed by the tow truck

    Now how could he possibly answer your question if he truly is blind? Or is my ability to detect rhetorical questions just as poor as your ability to detect sarcasm?

  • Mike (unregistered) in reply to Alex

    All those expensive traffic cameras and they can be overpowered by a little 3 dollar can of spray paint

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