Illegal Right Turn & Rolling Right Tickets Defined

The difference between the two types of tickets is huge!   If you made a right hand turn at a red light and were caught by a camera, chances are that the ticket you received in the mail states you violated CVC§21453(a) even though they could have (some argue should have) cited you for CVC§21453(b). For some cities, like Los Angeles, CA most of the revenue is generated by illegal right turns, in fact an LA Times article from December last year reported that according to the Los Angeles Police Department, an estimated 8 in 10 photo tickets were issued for right turns.  Do you wonder police department’s are now issuing tickets under Vehicle code section CVC§21453 (a) regardless of whether or not the motorist was turning right?

Here are both of these sections:

21453 Circular Red or Red Arrow

(a) A driver facing a steady circular red signal alone shall stop at a marked limit line, but if none, before entering the crosswalk on the near side of the intersection or, if none, then before entering the intersection, and shall remain stopped until an indication to proceed is shown, except as provided in subdivision (b).

(b) Except when a sign is in place prohibiting a turn, a driver, after stopping as required by subdivision (a), facing a steady circular red signal, may turn right, or turn left from a one-way street onto a one-way street. A driver making that turn shall yield the right-of-way to pedestrians lawfully within an adjacent crosswalk and to any vehicle that has approached or is approaching so closely as to constitute an immediate hazard to the driver, and shall continue to yield the right-of-way to that vehicle until the driver can proceed with reasonable safety.

Now, here’s the distinction:

The first section (a) says nothing about right turns, and is basically used for those who go straight through a red light.

The second section (b) essentially says you can turn after stopping if there is no sign prohibiting a turn on red.

So if you made a “California rolling stop” why wouldn’t you be cited for the second section (b) instead of (a) you might ask...

Check out this “Traffic Infraction Penalty Schedule” (from the January 2010 Edition Uniform Bail and Penalty Schedules, California Rules of Court, Rule 4,102):

Section: 21453 (a, c)
Offense: “Red” Signal- Vehicular Responsibilities
Total Bail/Fee (Keep in mind the so called “Total Bail” is before certain additional court or other fees that is added and there are 30 counties in CA authorized by law to exceed the total bail/fee):$380.00

Section: 21453 (b)
Offense: “Red” Signal- Vehicular Responsibilities With Right Turn
Total Bail/Fee (Keep in mind the so called “Total Bail” is before certain additional court or other fees that is added and there are 30 counties in CA authorized by law to exceed the total bail/fee):$146.00

Article contributed by ticketbust.com, helping drivers contest and dismiss their traffic tickets. If you get cited for a red light photo ticket, contact us at www.TicketBust.com or call us at (800) 850-8038. For Spanish, please visit www.Combatesuticket.com or call (818) 584-3689. For more information on how TicketBust can help to beat your cell phone ticket, visit www.fightcellphonetickets.com or call (800) 850-8038.

State Map	Red Light Camera Fine $	Red Light Camera Points
Alabama	$50
Arizona	$180	no Points
Arkansas	$50
California	$446	1 Point
Colorado	$90	4 Points
Delaware	$75-$230
District of Columbia	$75	2 Points
Florida	$75-$125
Georgia	$70	3 Points
Hawaii	$77
Illinois	$100	20 Points
Indiana	$100
Iowa	$45-$150
Kansas	$100
Louisiana	$100-$140	No Points
Maryland	$100	2 Points
Michigan	$100
Minnesota	$130
Mississippi	$100
Missouri	$100
Nevada	$600-$1,000	4 Points
New Jersey	$75	No Points
New Mexico	$70-$250
New York	$50-$100	3 Points
North Carolina	$75-$100	3 Points
Ohio	$100-$200
Oklahoma	$100
Oregon	$355
Pennsylvania	$100	3 Points
Rhode Island	$85
South Dakota	$89	No Points
Tennessee	$50-$100
Texas	$75-$200	No Points
Virginia	$100 - $200	4 Points
Washington	$124
West Virginia
Wisconsin	$75

Apple Needs TomTom's TeleAtlas Maps to Compete with Google Maps

The iPhone and iPad manufacturer Apple might buy the GPS navigation firm TomTom / TeleAtlas as it needs their mapping assets to compete with Google Maps. Analyst Ben Wood is out with some interesting predictions for 2011, including one that cash-rich Apple (AAPL) will by GPS firm TomTom. Wood, formerly at Gartner, is a top wireless industry analysts, and I’m not just saying that so he returns my calls. Better yet, you could expect a wave of useful location-based features to reach MobileMe, third party apps, and, of course, Apple's iAds system. And, of course, such a purchase could assist Apple should it decide to make a stab at the auto-electronics market.

Most moving violation tickets are issued on the spot by police officers who pull you over.  However, automated enforcement traffic tickets such as red-light camera or speed camera tickets usually come through the regular mail and are sent to the registered owner of the vehicle.  These tickets are not typically sent through certified mail in most cities.

If you happen to get a certified letter from a company posing as a city, police or court you should exercise caution.  Verify the city, police or court and the address on the envelope and make sure its not a false address.  Make sure it corresponds to your local police department or court for ticket processing.

We have been getting some strange emails from potential scam artists who might be posing as ticket agencies illegally. We suspect that they are sending innocent people red light camera tickets and asking for payment.  This scam is very similar to the Property Tax Scam that asks for your payment and comes in an envelope that looks very similar to the Franchise Tax Board.

Technically yes according to the law!  Did you know speed traps are illegal in California?

California Vehicle Code defines a speed trap (in section 40802) as a section of a highway “measured as to distance and with boundaries marked, designated, or otherwise determined in order that the speed of a vehicle may be calculated by securing the time it takes the vehicle to travel the known distance”.

So, automated red light camera system systems are technically illegal speed traps as defined in California law because of the sensors placed in the ground used to measure speed. Could this be a contributing factor to why class action lawsuits are finally being launched against major camera companies or why cities such as El Monte, Fresno, Moreno Valley, Union City and earlier this year, Costa Mesa, have shut down their camera systems? 

Automated enforcement systems were designed to record an incident that occurs during the red phase of the light.  However, do wonder how do red light cameras work?   A vehicle triggers the system by passing over a measured distance in the roadway (two sets of inductive loops are cut into the pavement). These sensors record the time it takes for the vehicle to cross the distance between the sensors and calculates the speed of the vehicle based upon the distance and the elapsed time for the vehicle to cross it. If the vehicle is over the set threshold then the system activates. Thus the calculated speed of the vehicle is used to trigger the camera (which records and stores information for use in later issuing a ticket for the prosecution of a red light violation).

Article contributed by Ticketbust.com, helping drivers contest and dismiss their traffic tickets.  If you get cited for a red light photo ticket, contact us at TicketBust.com or call us at (800) 850-8038. For Spanish, please visit Combatesuticket.com or call (818) 584-3689. For more information on how TicketBust can help to beat your cell phone ticket, visit www.fightcellphonetickets.com or call (800) 850-8038.

A typical red light camera intersection has cameras positioned at a corner of an intersection, on poles a few yards high. The video and photo cameras point towards oncoming traffic so the cameras can photograph or video cars driving through the intersection. Red light systems do not necessarily have cameras at all four corners of an intersection.  Some intersections also have cameras to capture traffic photos from the rear as well.  

There are a number of road sensor trigger techniques, but they all serve the same purpose: They detect when a car has moved past a particular point in the road.  These sensors work with the computer behind the operation that is connected to the cameras.   The computer constantly monitors the traffic signal and the cars moving over the triggers. If a car sets off a trigger when the light is red, the computer takes two pictures and often video to document the violation. The first picture usually shows the car just on the edge of the intersection and the second picture shows the car in the middle of the intersection with the red light illuminated above.

False positives are typically prevented during traffic congestion by having minimum speed limits for a violation to occur.  In some states, a ticket is issued to the car's registered owner, no matter who's actually driving.  However, a police office typically has to compare traits of the license plate with the registered owner like.  You are a male or a female or a certain age group or even race.

In some states red light camera tickets only needs to photograph the car from behind, since the authorities only need a clear view of the rear license plate. In other states, the actual driver is responsible for paying the ticket and must be verified.  If you were not the driver of the car often times you will be threatened to turning in the driver which is referred to as a snitch ticket.  In this case, the photo enforced system needs a second camera in front of the car, in order to get a shot of the driver's face. The ticket is still sent to the car's owner after verification.

Pete Tenereillo, the founder of Trapster has apparently been acquired by Navteq / Nokia.  Navteq is a struggling  Chicago-based mapping company, that is a division of Nokia which is another struggling mobile phone maker who is quickly losing market share.  AutoBlog broke the news and said there were about five companies in the running and there was a bidding war for the company. The terms of the deal are not available. We are waiting to hear back from Nokia and Trapster.   

Pete is an engineer and a sports car enthusiast who founded the company to primarily help his fellow drivers slow down when police were near while driving through the roads of San Diego.  We met with Pete when shortly after he launched the application and only had a few hundred thousand users.  The company interest in working with us to verify our database of fixed red light camera and speed cameras locations.  We never licensed our database to Trapster but they suspiciously had most of the locations shortly thereafter.  It is not clear how they accumulated the locations in their database nor do we know how many they have. 

It has been wildly reported how many downloads they have for their application but no one ever seemed to know how many users they have on a regular basis to keep the data fresh.  The application has apparently received 9M downloads and is free.  Its very common for iPhone application to have many downloads but a non-existent user base.   However, Trapster likely has many hundreds of thousands of users who share data and its impressive how they have scaled this capability as a small company.  

Its not clear if Trapster ever generated any subscription or advertising revenue from it but we don't think so. Trapster raised an angel round of less that one million dollars a few years ago and is based in San Diego.  We are not sure if they ever raised any more money than $1M or a VC round.  However, we would like to congratulate them for raising the awareness about the application and accumulating so many users.  

As a disclaimer, we publish an open database of fixed red light camera and speed camera locations and don't do a lot to prevent companies and people from copying it.  However, we are the largest database and most accurate database of red light cameras do date and no other companies have accepted our challenge to do a database comparison.  We do have a number of companies who license our database and are ethical about paying us for data they use.  

Its great to see the company get acquired as there are several companies developing applications in Europe that are interesting in coming to the US.  Europe has 40,000+ photo enforced cameras and its a much larger and more mature business over there.  The US currently has only about 6,000 cameras but its growing at a rate of about 20% per year. 

Best Buy & Amazon Radar Detectors on Sale

While shopping today we discovered the following devices on display at Best Buy.  The store was located in California so its not surprising that the aisle was empty since its virtually impossible to get a speeding ticket on the congested roads.  However, we were wondering if any of these devices had GPS inside and were able to warn you if you were getting close to any red light cameras?

The Passport 9500ix is the only device that uses satellites for GPS navigation to pinpoint your exact location and compares it to the detector's on-board database of red light and speed camera locations.  An alert goes off as you approach a intersection with an audible and visual alert.  There is no information on how the company has acquired its database of locations and no information on how to update it.  If they truely want to have industry incredibility about the number of locations I would recommend they disclose the number of red light cameras in their database.  I can guarantee you they don't have all 7,000 location that we have in our red light camera database.  

The devices that were on the wall are also on sale at Amazon and here are their links:Search Amazon.com for radar detectorSearch Amazon.com for radar detector Solo S2, Passport 9500ix, Passport 8500 X50, Beltronics V8, Beltronics V6

  

Loma Linda has switched off the city’s red light cameras earlier five years after they were installed at four intersections and has lengthened their yellow lights to solve the traffic accident problems. The cameras caught 20 red light runners per day at a cost of nearly $500 a ticket which is $10,000 or approximately $300,000 per month. City officials said 80% of the traffic tickets written were for illegal right turn violations spotted by the cameras were for people making right-hand turns at 5 miles per hour and not coming to a complete stop.

So what was the trouble keep them profitable? Were they not collecting the ticket revenue? City officials claim most of the revenue went to the Redflex that managed the system or about $15 million according to Loma Linda officials. The city got only about $50,000 a year or $200,000 of the $15M in revenue generated. Redflex Traffic Systems, which operated the cameras at four intersections: Barton Road at Anderson Street and Mountain View Avenue, and Redlands Boulevard at Anderson and Mountain View.

Watch how some residents got out of the tickets and how the city solved the problem making longer yellow traffic lights.

California Government Employees Get a Free Ride

Approximately 30 years ago, the Confidential Records Program in California makes private license plates available to police officers and other state or government employees so certain workers can choose to keep their DMV info private, like their home address.  The law is supposed to keep certain information private like, the home address, to prevent say criminals from harassing, threatening, or stalking police officer’s, judges etc. This law has been expanded over the years to include numerous other Government or State worker positions (like park rangers) not just police officer’s or judges, and has even been extended to include spouses and children. Furthermore, employees can retain confidentiality for 3 years if they switch to a civilian job, and retired peace officers can remain in the confidential plate program indefinitely.

When someone in the privacy program is detected, the DMV will only release the person’s employing agency to non–police agencies and or to private companies that process citations for cities and counties. The DMV cannot release a home address and therefore a violator with a confidential plate who is caught on camera cannot get a ticket.

There is no question that camera enforcement of traffic violations generates revenue for the State.  If the DMV has more than one million vehicles registered to motorists who are connected to a few thousand state and local Government agencies that are allowed to opt for confidential plates, this could prevent the State from collecting on millions of dollars in fines from those State workers.  These State works can also get out of fines, tolls, or parking tickets. California assemblyman Jeff Miller has taken efforts in hopes to close the gap of this so called loop hole.

Blog submitted by ticketbust.com, helping drivers contest and dismiss their traffic tickets.If you get cited for a red light photo ticket, contact us at www.TicketBust.com or call us at (800) 850-8038. For Spanish, please visit www.Combatesuticket.com or call (818) 584-3689. For more information on how TicketBust can help to beat your cell phone ticket, visit Fightcellphonetickets.com or call (800) 850-8038.

What the Blank Data Fields on Your Automated Traffic Enforcement Notice to Appear Mean to You?

A red light camera ticket is mailed to you on a form (TR-115 see below) generally labeled Notice to Appear –Automated Traffic Enforcement and this form has data fields that are filled in with information like Name, Driver Lic. No., Age, Birth date, Yr. of Veh., Make, Color, Code and Section, etc. Sometimes many of these fields are not filled in and you may wonder why?

Well, some of the fields are mandatory and some are optional or discretionary (like the color of the vehicle pictured). The Judicial Council of California, Notice to Appear and Related Forms available here: Court Info, actually sets forth the mandatory fields which must appear and be filled in appropriately for the Notice to Appear to be considered genuine and valid.

Look to see if certain fields like your age and birth date are filled in or if the body style of your vehicle is filled in, if not, if these fields are left blank, then you might be able to get your ticket dropped on a technicality.- blog submitted by ticketbust.com, helping drivers contest and dismiss their traffic tickets.

Here are a few other ways to get out of a red light camera ticket as well . . .

Lack of Proper Warning Sign Notices

10 Reasons Traffic Tickets are Not Enforced

Tickets dismissed for Bad Weather

Article contributed by TicketBust.com, helping drivers contest and dismiss their traffic tickets. If you get cited for a red light photo ticket, contact us at TicketBust.com or call us at (800) 850-8038. For Spanish, please visit www.Combatesuticket.com or call (818) 584-3689. For more information on how TicketBust can help to beat your cell phone ticket, visit fightcellphonetickets.com or call (800) 850-8038.