Culver City: Red-Light Camera Trap
by Nathan Walpow
Late in November I went to Bed Bath and Beyond for Sonicare refills. Saved a few bucks with one of their 20% off coupons (handy hint: they don’t pay attention to the expiration date) and a rebate. Blew a lot more by getting caught by a red-light camera on the way home. And I would have stopped except the idiot in front of me took forever to turn out of the Target/BB&B lot and I got pissed and when I caught up to her at Jefferson and Overland I figured if she was going to make it through, I was too.
Guess how much. Go ahead, guess. Nope. Higher. $446. Culver City (where the intersection is, and where I live) is well known for making a ton of money off these things.
I wandered around the Interwebs trying to find out my chances of beating the ticket. There are ways to do so (the photo of the driver being unclear chief among them), but none of them seemed to apply to me. Plus if you go to court to fight it, the judge (or fake judge that they sometimes use for this kind of thing) has the option of denying you traffic school if he or she finds you guilty. Which means a point on your record, and associated insurance grief. In the end, I decided on traffic school. Even more money, but my driving record stays clean.
I did some research and discovered there’s about one accident a year at Jefferson and Overland due to somebody making a left after the light turns red. No justification for doing so, of course; but is it right that, especially now, with so many in economic trouble, Culver City stuffs its coffers on such a spurious traffic trap?
Comments
My wife just got caught on the same light. The yellow light was legal (around 5 seconds and the legal limit is ~3.5 from the newsgroup) but the green light was probably 1 sec.
$466 is too much!
2010-07-21 by davidIt’s interesting that they have a camera at that location when a hundred yards north they sanction jaywalking. I received a ticket because I endangered the “jaywalkers”. There is a hiking trail there and because they didn’t feel safe crossing the street (illegally) drivers received tickets if going slightly over the speed limit or higher. If you go with the flow of traffic it is hard to come to a full stop when you see a pedestrian in the middle of the street without causing the person behind you to wreck into your car. And then when you try and stop, they wave you on and refuse to cross. This is so unfair, especially because this is a curvy street.
2011-09-7 by DEE
it just so happens that i won an $85,000 lawsuit after a cop threw me face down on the ground when i dared to argue with him over me (NOT) running a red light. i argued because i knew that i couldn’t afford the ticket. HUGE amount. jeez.
i’m with you on this, kid.
2010-01-7 by florence