Arlington Texas Red Light Cameras - Not Legal Yellow Lights

**Steve** · 05-25-2009, 03:00 PM

I just got a ticket for a red-light camera in Arlington, Texas. This is as the corner of Cooper and Division streets, I was heading south and I remember the night the ticket was taken.

They send you something in the mail and there is a link to a video you can watch. Guess what, I watched the video and timed the yellow-light ... it's BELOW the limit that the state sets for a yellow light. I clocked it at about 3.25 seconds and the minimum that the state requires is 3.5 seconds.

I guess the city of Arlington is looking to get a little bit of extra revenue out of regular old folks like my by speeding up the yellow lights to an unsafe and illegally short duration to trap people like my who would otherwise not had run the red light.

I'll see if I can download the video and post it up here to see. It's a flash format so it's being difficult.

**Steve** · 05-25-2009, 03:17 PM

I said this before, but it's been proven that cities are speeding up yellow-lights just so they can cash in on tricking drivers to go through the red light.

http://www.motorists.org/blog/6-citi...es-for-profit/

**omegafiler** · 05-25-2009, 04:05 PM

Man, that sucks. Cities seriously need to find other ways to earn more revenue. This has nothing to do with safety. In fact, there are some cities that are taking down red light cameras because people aren't running lights in those areas and the city is no longer making enough money. It's just stupid. They need to make stuff like that illegal.

Are you going to try to fight it? Not sure how much luck you'd have, but wouldn't hurt to try I suppose.

**mburn039** · 05-25-2009, 04:13 PM

Statistics show that those cameras reduce the amount of side collision accidents because less people are running red lights but they increase rear end accidents by a higher percentage because people slam on their brakes at yellow lights. These things are dangerous and the whole idea should be banned. This is another example of political imperialism. The government has more power than the people who elected them due to bull**** red tape, clauses, and down right deception!

**Z71_guy** · 05-26-2009, 09:52 AM

they had those down in the twin cities and had to stop using them because the ticket needs to be issued to the person driving not the person who is registered to the vehicle

**Steve** · 05-26-2009, 10:07 AM

Well, for me, in this instance, I was driving and I did go through a red light, by about 1/10th of one second, I mean it was SOOOOOOOOOOOO close that it is too close to call.

My point is that the city of Arlington must know that they need to make money, and the video that I can watch, I timed the yellow-light and I never clocked it at 3.5 seconds, it was anywhere from 3.2 to 3.35 ... I know it's hard to time these things on the computer, but I never got 3.5 seconds.

**vncj96** · 05-26-2009, 10:36 AM

Like Z71 Guy said, they did that for a long time in MN but after numerous court appeals they removed it along with the cops that would clock cars and mail them the speeding tickets, as this doesnt prove who is actually driving the car, so if in your video they cant make it out that it is you keep pushing them to prove that its you.

**vncj96** · 05-26-2009, 10:39 AM

Steve, sjst out of curiousity where do they have your vehicle when they say you committed the infraction. To be issued the sitation for "running" a red light the majority of your vehicle must not have passed the halfway point of the intersection to be issued the sitation.

**Steve** · 05-26-2009, 10:41 AM

It was right on the line, it's possible that I was maybe 1 foot away from the white line ... hard to tell, I think I can download that photo and post it here.

**Steve** · 05-26-2009, 11:12 AM

Here is the photo. It got me going 38 MPH which is 55.73 Feet per Second.

So that works out to be the following if the yellow light was tripped early .... (the Trailblazer is roughly 16 feet long)

.2 seconds = 11 feet (most of the entire length of the vehicle)
.15 seconds = 7.75 feet (1/2 of the vehcile length)
.1 second = 5.5 feet (the entire engine compartment and front wheels)

Now, it's possible that being a mere human that I am not able to correctly respond to the video by clicking on a stop-watch ... that's the human element ... I suggest that people are NOT robots and while I constantly measure 3.35 to 3.4 on the stopwatch ... if it's that close then it's not worth giving a ticket ..