Vigilantes painted “SCAM” on the pavement in large, white letters near a speed camera in Potomac, Maryland. The sign serves as a warning to approaching drivers that the automated ticketing machine on the side of River Road is active. WUSA television used a helicopter to capture a unique perspective on the warning. Montgomery County jurisdictions are notorious for issuing as many speed citations as possible using ticket quotas, even though the practice is banned under state law. The county program generated $7.2m worth of tickets last year. The village of Chevy Chase used cameras to nearly double its entire budget, spending a significant amount that was promised for “public safety” instead on “beautification improvements.” The latest incident marks an increase in the number of anti-camera incidents in the US. Just two months ago, vigilantes struck four speed cameras in Gaithersburg.
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Anyone who destroys or otherwise disables one of those Revenue Generating Devices (they are absolutely NOT “safety” devices) should be given an award.
Score one for CTFrank! I agree.
Somewhere, George Orwell is smiling…
If you drive the posted speed, the cameras suddenly become useless as revenue generators…..
I live about 2 miles from Potomac, MD.
Just some information about the county/area:
– River Road is 55mph until that speed camera where it goes down to 35mph because of a shopping area
– Montgomery County is one of the richest personal incomes per capita in the USA, and all the cops are tough here and try to get your money
– Our county has speed vans, speed vans are mini vans parked on neighborhood streets and streets with a speed limit of 35mph or less. The speed vans have speed cameras inside them.
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/25/2553.asp
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/24/AR2007082400967.html
@1996MEdition
35mph or less is not a fuel efficient or time efficient speed for most vehicles and most drivers.
Also keep in mind that 36 mph is just as ticketable as 55mph when the speed camera is involved
Good luck finding people that will agree to drive below 35mph on a big street.
1996, you’re right, but if everyone suddenly started complying with 35, they’d probably lower it to 25 in the name of “safety,” er, revenue.
They should at the very least make it harder for insurance companies to raise rates due to speeding tickets.
By the way, the mobile speed cameras in Montgomery County are in mini vans that are marked with traffic cones and large painted signs on the vans themselves, you’d have to be deaf, dumb, and blind not to see one coming up on the road. If you get caught by one you clearly are not paying attention!
They should at the very least make it harder for insurance companies to raise rates due to speeding tickets.
I don’t think that camera offenses affect your insurance or criminal record anywhere I’ve heard them implemented. They’re the moving version of a parking ticket: they follow the vehicle, not the driver or owner.
I sent this article to a co-worker who lives in Montgomery County (originally from Arizona). His reply was as follows:
“In Arizona, irate drivers blast away at speed cameras with pistols and shotguns…”
Needless to say, I was rolling over in laughter…
1986MEdition:
If you drive the posted speed, the cameras suddenly become useless as revenue generators…..
I like the Arizona solution better…:)
How hard would it be to get a national speed and red light camera ban in this country?
I think there are enough people concerned with privacy, and enough data to prove that these revenue generating schemes are accident factories or worse, and have nothing to do with safety.
You’d probably have to wage a state-by-state grassroots war to pry the greedy politicians out of the pockets they are already into, but I don’t know that there’s any cost too high not to end up like England.