This weekend I was in Sacramento driving down one of their super nutso freeways. Speed limit was the standard 65, I was doing a pretty reasonable 70 (or so....)

Anyone who's ever driven on a urban Cali freeway will know that unless it's at a dead stop due to rush hour, going the speed limit is not an option. If you plan to actually do 65, you'd better be in the slow lane, and then you better plan to have cars with aangry drivers stack up behind you. When a freeway in Sacto is actually moving, as it was Sunday afternoon, 80+ is more the norm for the vast majority of cars on the road...

Anyway, I'm clipping along doing my 70 (or so) and I see a plain looking dark blue sedan on the shoulder with its hazard lights flashing. I think nothing of it, someone stopped to talk on their cell phone or has car trouble. I was 2 lanes over from the shoulder, so it didn't trigger any braking on my part.

As I get closer, out of the corner of my eye I see someone dressed in tan standing on the passenger side of the car, away from traffic. I look again, and, hey, is that a CHP uniform? It is!

And what the hell is that he's pointing at me?!?!

It didn't look like the "radar guns" the motorcycle cops point at you from behind a bush. Those are sleeker and smaller. This thing was a large, silver-gray contraption with a clear plastic business-end, and it looked like there was some sort of a camera lens under it!

After I drove by, I watched him for a bit in my rear view mirror. He just went right back to pointing it at car after car after car and didn't look like he was actually planning to go after anyone. It kinda looked like he was... Taking pictures!

I remember from a trip to Canada some years ago that they have these radar gun/camera combo thingies mounted periodically on the side of the road. You go one mile an hour over the speed limit, it snaps your picture and you get a ticket in the mail. Consequently everyone there drives about 10 mph under the speed limit so as to not get nailed by one, and it takes you forever and a day to drive 3 blocks.

Could this be a portable version of one of these? Is CHP paying the governator's salary by parking a cop on the side of the road with a camera-radar and having him "write" 500 tickets an hour?

Do I have a ticket coming in the mail?

Here you go.

Order this product from this guy's store. He's a good, reputable seller, and you'll get it soon and have no more worries about traffic cameras. Good stuff.

Mike

Is it white spray paint?

Canada had Camera's up until about 5 years ago, it was scrapped for some reason. I renewed my drivers license 3 years ago and was lectured that I was lucky as I had 5 photo radar tickets outstanding, they had tried to serve me but I was always 1 address ahead of the law, then the Liberal Government in BC decided to give amnesty to the 21000 outstanding tickets they were having trouble driving in. saved me $1320

I thought the City of Calgary was still using them in unmarked minivans with the flash installed under the rear bumper (Astro Vans if I remember correctly)? Has this changed?

Yeah, the photo radar is getting a real foothold here. The freeway up through Scottsdale has several, and Chandler is putting them up at several points as well. Mesa and Scottsdale have mobile photo radar setups (consists of an Astro Van parked on the sidewalk with cameras pointing at you).

Big Brother is here, and he's multiplying.

No it's a clear paint that is ultra reflective when a camera flash is used. If a picture is taken of the plate and the camera has any sort of flash, or it is bright outside, it renders the plate unreadable.

And it's completely illegal.

That spray is complete bullshit - Doesn't work. Didn't you watch that Mythbusters episode? To test, what you need to do is just take a camera with a flash and take a photo of your own license plate from a similar angle to what the speed camera would catch you at, you will find that the license plate is in focus.

I know someone who works at a company here in AZ called Redflex, who manufacture alot of the Photo Radar systems, including the fixed systems here in AZ on the Freeways and at Red Light Running cameras. The only people who don't get tickets are motorcyclists wearing helmets. If you are in a car, regardless of what kind of spray or cover you put over your license plate, unless it is completely obstructed, you are gonna get a ticket.

There is also a myth that if you register your car in your wifes name and her car in your name, if you get snapped you won't get a ticket. They will still send the ticket, hell - they will even pull a photo of your spouse from the DMV Licensing computer that they have access to at the processing center.

/\ yep it doesn't work. Neither do the plastic covers you put over the plates. Was kinda entertaining though watching Adam try to drive a Lamborghini. lol

I dunno. One of the guys at a past ECXC (like 4 or 5 years ago) had one on his plate, and damned if you stepped two steps to the side and you could NOT see the plate numbers at all.

If you can't see them with your eyes at 6 feet, a camera isn't going to see them, either...flash or not. The human eye is much more sensitive than a camera.

(Note - this is assuming the camera is on the side of the road and taking the picture when the vehicle is relatively close (like a red-light camera). A camera with a straight on shot will see it just fine.)

Please elaborate... I'm curious.

Because they cannot identify the driver if they are wearing a helmet. Wear a helmet inside your X and you'd get off too!

They can always get you with owners liability/responsibility.

LOL LMAO LMFAO

riiiiiiiiiiiight

Ineffective and illegal...what more do you need to know? Paul H. is a cop and his reaction is typical of the officers I work with.

Here's a thought you may not have considered...how about obeying the law?

Yeah - that's how they do the red light camera tickets and tollway violations here... they say it's the vehicle owner's responsibility and then they make it a civil penalty so the criminal system doesn't come into play. They just want their money.

And yeah - that photoblocker spray doesn't work. I actually bought a can last year (yep... I'm gullible) and tried it out. I took flash pictures of my plates before and after and it didn't do ANYTHING.

No, "they" just want people to stop running red lights. The revenue is just icing on the cake.

Personally, I'm all for it. In the city where I work as an emergency dispatcher, our cameras won't nail you if you're in the intersection when the light turns red - only if you ENTER the intersection AFTER the light has turned red. If you blow through a red light like that, you deserve a ticket.

Those red light cameras were banned/ deamed unlawful her in MN.

Something about the accused not being able to confront their accuser in court.

Arizona will never do that. They're in love with the damned things here because they can take pictures of Mexicans that don't exist...I dunno.

Those cameras are GOOD cameras, and unless your plate is obscured, they're gonna read it. I manage an imaging and data capture vendor where I work, and have toured their facility. In addition to scanning and keying credit applications, they also do the speedpass violators and some of the Arizona red light cameras. The pictures are stellar. The data entry people key the license numbers.

Was an interesting, if not maddening tour.

They tried using that argument here as well, but fortunately it didn't work since it's just a lame way to get around being caught running a red light.

Sadly though, in the course of the debate we discovered there are idiots in the Georgia Legislature who think like this:

<<
Georgia House Speaker Glenn Richardson says that he has a better idea: “I bet for the money we spent on these cameras, we could put a little bit more asphalt down,” he said. “If we put down more lanes of traffic… people wouldn’t have to speed through that light because they were worried about being late for work.”
>>

Right, it's the ROAD that makes people run red lights. Good God. :rolleyes:

The truth is that most people who don't like red light cameras feel that way because they run red lights.

Here in NJ the State Police use the laser guns on major highways; looks just like they're pointing a rifle at you ... kind of creepy.

Mythbusters did crush that whole anti-camera spray/ shield bs. Use a number of cars with different types of filters from spray to the plastic shield and none of them prevented the professional photographer from getting the plate numbers.