by admin — published on August 28th, 2008
Police in Scottsdale, Arizona arrest a man for videotaping activists protesting a photo radar van.
Police in Scottsdale, Arizona arrested a man late Wednesday claiming he “obstructed” a photo radar van. Jason Shelton, 35, had been videotaping a pair of anti-camera activists at 6800 E. Shea Boulevard before being taken into custody. (This guy wasn’t even participating in the actual protest — He was only filming the protesters!!) The protesters held signs calling the speed camera program a rip-off and advertising the group CameraFraud.com in an impromptu demonstration. Shelton intended to post his video on Freedom’s Phoenix, an Arizona-based political opinion and news website. Enraged local officials did what they could to ensure that would not happen.
“The City of Scottsdale, including the police department, respects and protects an individual’s right to stage and/or participate in a lawful demonstration,” Scottsdale Police said in a statement. “However, behavior such as the intentional obstruction of a contracted photo enforcement van’s operation is not lawful and subject to enforcement action.”
Read the rest of this entry »
If you found this website/post informative or interesting,
won't you consider making a small donation or other contribution?
by admin — published on August 26th, 2008
Wisconsin Appeals Court ruling overturns speeding tickets based on federal speed limit sign regulations.
A Wisconsin Court of Appeals judge issued a ruling earlier this month in favor of a defendant who argued his speeding ticket was invalid because a municipality failed to comply with federal rules. Motorist John Klos said that he did not deserve a ticket for driving 37 MPH in a 25 MPH zone on River Street, the main road through the city of Spooner. Klos had measured every sign posted on that street and found each was either too short or too close to the curb, failing to meet national standards set by the federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). Under Wisconsin law, the speed limit is invalid if the signs are not posted in the correct position.
“On state trunk highways… speed limits specified [as 25 MPH zones] are not effective unless official signs giving notice thereof have been erected by the authority in charge of maintenance of the highway in question,” Wisconsin Statutes Section 346.57 states.
The city countered Klos by saying that the speed limit signs were, in fact, properly posted according to Wisconsin standards. Municipal and circuit court judges agreed, ruling that federal rules did not apply to Spooner and that the city was well within its rights to issue citations even if the signs had “minor deviations” from federal standards. Appellate Judge Edward R. Brunner found that the lower courts misinterpreted state law, which explicitly incorporates the provisions of the federal manual.
Read the rest of this entry »
by admin — published on August 24th, 2008
Speed cameras hidden in sport motorcycles and horse trailers generate big revenue for North Wales, UK.
Drivers in North Wales, UK are falling into well-hidden speed camera traps. Motorists who do not think twice when passing a high-performance sport bike or an SUV hauling a horse trailer may, weeks later, find notice of an alleged violation weeks later in the mail along with a demand for a payment of £60 (US $120). Motorcycle enthusiast websites have been tracking the latest tactics used by the North Wales Police.
Visordown News last week published reader photographs of the “CopBlade,” a Honda Fireblade equipped with a front-mounted speed camera and hidden police lights. The 170hp motorcycle can cover a quarter-mile from a stop in just 10.8 seconds on the way to a top speed of 174 MPH.
“One hundred MPH wheelies have never been so easy as on the latest Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade,” MotorcycleNews wrote in its review of the sport bike. “Yet the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade is also idiot-proof, docile and real-world responsive, too.”
Read the rest of this entry »
by admin — published on August 23rd, 2008
Legends abound about police radar guns picking up mailboxes going 50 miles per hour. But does that really happen? It might, if the officer using the gun isn’t properly trained on signal interference.
“I can point a radar detector directly at my air conditioner in my car and get a reading” from the fan, said Kevin Morrison, a public-safety product specialist with Decatur Electronics, the country’s oldest maker of radar guns.
“Weather can cut down on the radar’s range because rain obscures some of the radar signal,” Morrison said. As a result, you probably won’t encounter many speed traps in a downpour.
As mentioned, seemingly inanimate objects, such as your car’s fan, can screw up the machine, too.
But police are (or should be) trained to watch out for such problems. The easiest way to check for interference is by listening to the high-pitched whistling sound the radar gun makes, Morrison said. If the sound, known as an “audio Doppler tone,” rises and falls smoothly, there’s no interference. “If it’s broken and raspy, it’s not a clear return. It’s not a good signal coming in,” he said. The officer should be able to testify in court about the clarity of the gun’s sound.
But how does he or she know that you’re the one speeding, as opposed to the car in front of you or next to you? Morrison said this is another reason why the officer must see you speeding, as the gun, even when pointed in your direction, may be registering someone else’s speed.
Read the rest of this entry »
by admin — published on August 20th, 2008
The lights sitting atop traffic poles on W. University Avenue, in Gainesville, FL, glow white when the stoplights below them turn red and shut off when the lights turn green.
They mystified the whole Doria family as they waited at a red light at 13th Street and W. University Avenue while driving downtown for dinner recently, and Nickie Doria wrote to Since You Asked to find out why the white lights are there.
“We were all trying to figure out their purpose,” Doria wrote to Since You Asked. “Can you shed some light?”
Phil Mann, Gainesville’s traffic operations engineer, calls them “tattle-tale lights” for their ability to alert police that someone has run a red light, no matter where the police officer happens to be situated.
The white lights are wired directly to the power supply that makes the traffic light turn red, so they turn on as soon as the red light does.
“It’s a safety issue,” Mann said. “When officers are doing red-light enforcement, they have to see both the red light and the vehicle running it, which means having to do what? Run the red light themselves. The white lights are visible from 360 degrees, so the officer can sit downstream instead.”
Mann said a Florida Department of Transportation grant in 2006 let the city install the lights at five intersections. The city chose the five intersections where the most red-light running crashes occurred: W. University Avenue and 6th Street, W. University Avenue and 13th Street, W. University Avenue and 34th Street, Archer Road and SW 34th Street, and 69th Terrace and W. Newberry Road.
Read the rest of this entry »
Loading ...