Re “Bixby Solves Camera Mystery Fast”
Jim Lissner’s ongoing disagreement with the Culver City Police Dept. is sizzling again today even though Chief Scott Bixby appeared to have resolved Mr. Lissner’s latest complaint at the outset of the holiday weekend.
When the soft-spoken, hard-driving anti-red-light traffic camera activist last week questioned the doubling of red light camera violations in the last three months, Chief Bixby readily responded. He said refined technology was introduced this spring. It identifies nuanced violations. The previous technology caught only the blatant ones.
That did not remotely mollify Mr. Lissner.
“We still need the city to explain how, without any new cameras being added, ticketing has spiked so much and so suddenly,” Mr. Lissner said.
“I am not gonna buy the usual explanation offered by most cities, that ‘the economy recovered so more people are driving.’”
He has contended for years that cameras do not increase safety or reduce accidents.
The passionate Mr. Lissner, who operates the website www.highwayrobbery.net, served up a series of what he calls preventative measures:
- Would you like to have speed cameras (photo radar) in California? How about higher sales taxes, higher car registration fees, and higher gas taxes? (Or, how about a lower fine for rolling
right turn tickets?) As of early 2016, all of these are in bills working their way through the Legislature in Sacramento – or coming soon. See the Action/Legis page for more information.
- Warn your friends about Snitch Tickets. They are fake tickets issued by the police. They are sneakily different from a real red light camera ticket. And they can be ignored.
Read about them at the top of the Your Ticket page, at www.highwayrobbery.net/redlightcamsticket.htm#Fakes
- Let your friends know that real tickets issued by cities — or the Los Angeles MTA — in L.A. County can be ignored. The reason: The L.A. County court does not report ignored camera tickets to the DMV. (More information is in Set # 2 on the L.A. County Docs page.) Educating your friends about these two big classes of tickets that can be ignored will reduce the money flowing to the greedy cities and camera companies, and hasten the demise of red light cameras in California.
- Do you drive in Culver City, Beverly Hills, Canoga Park, or Millbrae (adjacent to San Franscisco Airport)? In 2016, these cities greatly expanded their camera ticketing. Watch out.
- There is a practical reason not to shop any more in red light towns. In the questionnaire on my website, I ask defendants how often they have driven through the intersection where they got their tickets. While the majority of defendants were caught at intersections they had not visited previously, many were flashed at an intersection they were very familiar with. Conclusion: You are not safe from getting a ticket — or getting in an accident — simply because you know there is a camera there. It is necessary to change your routine, to eliminate repeated visits to the intersection. (It’s like playing with snakes: No matter how careful you try to be, eventually they will catch you off guard, and you will get bit.) The small amount of money you have saved at the big box discount store in that town will be more than offset by the cost of tickets, rear-ending someone or being rear-ended.
Mr. Lissner may be contacted at www.highwayrobbery.net