Having just been in Chicago, one of the most prevalent subject of conversation (despite the football season of course) is the ever-rising number of tickets being given to drivers. The Daley administration first made Chicago the most expensive parking city in the country with a corrupt deal that bordered on the criminal. The city was also accused of corrupt dealings with the company handling red-light ticking. However, none of this has curtailed the city contractors and officials clipping motorists for revenue in the form of endless ticketing. The latest outrage was the city reducing the time of yellow lights — a small tweak of a second that resulted in nearly $8 million in new tickets. Drivers are being treated as sources for revenue and hit with the equivalent of speed traps and short lights to generate more and more tickets.
Near my mother’s house in Chicago, she constantly warns me of such a trap that suddenly reduces car speed to a crawl. The reason is that it is being treated as a school zone even though there is no school nearby. All of her neighbors have been clipped despite driving less then 40 miles per hour on the main street.
The short yellow lights resulted in thousands of new $100 tickets from red light cameras. These cameras seem to function as a new hidden tax but the cost is not just cash by destroying the driving records of citizens – impacting insurance and, for many, their jobs.
Chicago may have picked up this idea from the Florida Department of Transportation which in 2011 secretly reduced the length of yellow lights and bringing in a windfall. Since most people have a common notion of the length of time, a small tweak can catch them off guard and snare their cars in a red light run.
It would seem logical that all yellow lights should have a uniform standard time to avoid this type of manipulation. At a minimum, Chicagoans have got to rise up against this type of revenue-generated traffic trap. People are struggling in Chicago and they do not need city officials manipulating lights to find new ways to siphon us more of their money (before they have to pay the over-priced meters of course).
Source: Time
The point of the yellow light is to INSTRUCT the driver that a red light is next and to prepare to stop. The point of the yellow light is not to speed up and try and make it through. Most people, if not all, who get ticketed are taking the yellow light as an INSTRUCTION to make it through, with some logic of front or back wheels over some line etc. This get to an extreme point where sometimes people make a train and are going through the intersection well after the light is red. So, do we err on the side of safety or the side of danger?
The speed traps are another issue, however. For graphic examples of speed traps try driving through Waldo, Florida. From both directions before you get to the city line, there are full size billboards warning of speed traps. There is always a cop in the ditch waiting and the infraction starts at one mile an hour over. In Northern California near Redding, the 5 interstate speed limits changes from 65 to 50 for no reason. I was caught there passing a semi. I counted over twenty police vehicles: SUVs, Jeeps, station wagons, pick ups, patrol cars, all Highway Patrol ticketing as fast as they could. This was the interstate, a long way from town, with no intersections or curves, hills, whatever. I got ticketed at 6:00 in the morning once on the 95 going through Jacksonville, Florida. The speed is 55 but the 45 signs from construction, long since finished, are still up. The officer stated that the signs should have come down but they are still there. 45 on an interstate.
David, I took 2 sojourns down to your state for Spring Break in college. As soon as we hit the Mason Dixon line w/ our Yankee plates, we slowed down in every small town. Well, as you said, that speed trap mentality is now systemic. This country taxes us to death and now they’re almost literally, picking our pockets. All to feed the bureaucratic beast, obese and incontinent.
Pogo, It is a race w/ many Dem controlled cities to see which one is next to go bankrupt like Detroit. I think it’s between LA and Chicago.
I am so sick of the trend in all communities to make traffic tickets not about safety but about raising revenue. It conveys the notion that the police are overpaid with nothing to do. We need to cut law enforcement budgets all over the country and then they would not have the time to harass citizens over traffic and invent new ways of robbing them of their hard earned money.
Paul, Insurance companies HATE these cameras. They cause numerous rear end collisions when a driver slams on his brakes so as not to get a ticket. They are pushing cities to get rid of them. They’ll have to grease a lotta palms to get rid of these lights in Chicago.
Rear end collisions almost always mean a lawsuit. Ambulance chaser attorneys have sources in police depts. that send them all rear end collision reports. I had company vans for surveillance. One of my guys was doing a surveillance in the ‘hood in Milwaukee. He was following an insurance fraud queen who had 2 lawsuits for injuries ongoing. Both companies hired us. Anyway, my guy is stopped @ a traffic light right behind the subject when a company truck rear ends him. THANKFULLY, although he was pushed forward, he didn’t hit the queen of fraud. There would have been 3 lawsuits and our cover probably blown. There was a few thousand dollars damage to my van but Ernie was fine. Well, the truck that hit him was a nationwide auto parts company truck. LOTS OF INSURANCE. This is the gold standard for tassel loafer ambulance chasers. Within a few days Ernie had letters from 5 Milwaukee attorneys telling him that they could handle his case, get him to the right docs, etc. This is what civil litigation has devolved to. And, these ambulance chasers are annually one of the biggest donors to the Dem party. That should explain our favorite barrister here cultist defense of everything and anything Dem. It ain’t about politics, it ain’t about people’s rights, it’s about money. “When they say it ain’t about they money, it’s about the money.” This country needs loser pays in civil litigation, like every other country in the world.
No need to protest.
People are voting with their feet.
“Cook County has been losing population to the collar counties for decades…
As the Great Recession churned job prospects for many, Cook County lost about 13,000 residents with six-figure household incomes to other places, despite the widely hyped revival of downtown housing and jobs.
Between 2007 and 2011, Chicago and its immediate suburbs also ended up with about 10,000 fewer residents with a bachelor’s degree or higher, even after accounting for new arrivals,
The numbers during the five-year period are not huge, given Cook County’s 5.2 million population, but the county’s net loss of about 8,400 people just to DuPage was the seventh-largest county-to-county migration in the nation.”
The red light cameras are just a high tech version of the cop’s $20 shakedown.
I have largely stopped going to Chicago for fun, when I used to go rather often. Haven’t been there ina couple of years now because of this kind of nonsense.
Bailers, I grew up in Ct. so we best leave pizza aside. If I’ve learned anything from living in 7 different states and 3 different time zones, the “best” pizza is what you grew up eating. That said, when I had visitors from out of state who wanted Chicago pizza, I took them to Lou Malnati’s. I really respect all they do for soldiers overseas. I do like their cornmeal crust. Chicago architecture is the best in the US. Again, you do touristy things when people come to town. So, we would take them on the superb Chicago architecture boat tour down the river. They always have very knowledgeable people conducting the tours.
Living on Waveland, I could walk to Cub games. We lived there when “No Lights” signs were everywhere. Dallas Green had just taken over, just hired Harry, and was building an actual team. You know it was Green’s granddaughter who was killed by that shitbird who shot Gabby Giffords. I read it devastated him, as it would anyone,
Chicago is not the only city to have done this. Many cities with ‘speed cameras’ have found the yellow caution lights have been shortened. All tickets were thrown in Phoenix a while back and most cities have gotten rid of the cameras.
Nick,
I have heard Devil is being made into a movie, and I can’t wait if it’s true. I am very much a fan of David Burnham and love the history here in Chicago. One of my favorite things to do in summer is take the late train home and just walk around River North and Gold Coast, which I would never see if I just stayed by my office. The architecture is fantastic
The sight of a green plastic chair in the street during winter is something most people wouldn’t believe if they didn’t live or visit here. But this is Chicago, where we put a “s” at the end of our grocery stores, hold New York pizza in complete disdain (because we all know real pizza comes from a guy named Lou and has butter on the crust) and have perpetual hope that next year will be the year for the Cubs.
Oldfox33, I’m with you… time to start shooting at ”Red-light” cameras…..
Bailers, The Devil in the White City is a great book on those murders, I ssume you’ve read it. I heard they’re making it into a movie.
We moved to Chicago in 1981. We has a cold and snowy winter, living on the 2100 block of Waveland. The lawn chairs holding your parking spot is uniquely Chicago.
These cameras seem to have nothing to do with safety and everything to do with fund raising. Civil forfeiture and traffic cameras where the rules are manipulated for more money, what’s next?
“At a minimum, Chicagoans have got to rise up against this type of revenue-generated traffic trap.”
Oh Professor, you have such funny jokes on Friday!
In all seriousness, as someone who’s worked in the Loop for the past 12 years, and grew up a few miles north of the border, I can assure you this will never happen. The closest Chicago got was when Toni Preckwinkle was elected, but that was 4 years ago. This is a city where the mayor can bulldoze an airport in the middle of the night and have nothing happen. This is a city where ward bosses still hold sway. Where parking spaces on public streets are held by deck chairs.
Word to the wise if you aren’t from here – NEVER move chairs or other things in the street to park. Unless you want your car keyed or tires punctured.
Chicago hasn’t changed much at all in the past 100 years. There’s still the layer of filth that has existed since the serial killer of the World’s Fair and Al Capone. I love this city, but this kind of action doesn’t surprise me in the least.
Obola also came from Shecago (Obola: Art Thou Dying Properly?).
This is the City, the corrupt culture, that produced the current Administration in DC. I voted for Obama instead of McCain. But, I lived in Chicago and the words of McCain saying Obama is just another corrupt Chicago politician were prophetic.
When I worked in KC, cops I worked w/ told me that if a driver w/ a Chicago driver’s license you pulled over for speeding or a traffic violation, tried to give you $20[that was the standard bribe amount, maybe more now], that you should not arrest them for bribery. That’s the way it works in Chicago, the “Chicago way” as Sean Connery says in the Untouchables. As corrupt as many Dem controlled cities are, none have such a systemic disregard for honesty. LA, NYC, Detroit, etc. all have corruption and corrupt cops. But, nowhere is it like Chicago where everyone knows $20 is what you give the cop and you’re free to go. The State of Illinois stopped allowing City cops from patrolling the interstates in Chicago because they were shaking down out of state drivers w/ phony violations and blatantly asking for money. It was bad publicity! I was smelt fishing one night when we lived in Chicago. We had a 12 pack of Old Style. Drinking is not allowed on the waterfront but everyone drinks, and cops leave you alone if you use the paper bag rule, have the can in a paper bag. That goes in most cities. It’s an unofficial social contract. Well, 2 cops tried to shake us down. They asked for $20. I wouldn’t pay it. They threatened to take us to the station. I knew they wouldn’t, the Sgt. would kick them in their ass. These cops got pissed. But, all they got from us was ~5 Old Style’s. Screw them!
When governments become parasites.
Reblogged this on BLOGGING BAD w/Gunny G ~ "CLINGERS of AMERICA!".
Reblogged this on BLOGGING BAD w/Gunny G ~ "CLINGERS of AMERICA!".
It’s beyond time for some organized civil disobedience and active vandalism against a city that treats its residents as suckers and dupes.
The same thing was done in Clearwater, FL. The yellow lights were shortened to about 4 seconds and the red light cameras catch the offending driver. There was a protest against the shortening of the time on the yellow lights, not sure if it has been changed or not. There are red light cameras in many cities in the area,Sarasota County, FL and Manatee County, FL, as well.
St Petersburg City Council voted to do away with the red light cameras, but other cities in Pinellas County continue using them. The tickets are as much as $180. I try to avoid the intersections with cameras, but if you are not familiar with the city, it is difficult. Seems a rather unethical way to generate money for a city. They say the reason is to stop traffic accidents, but drivers are stopping short on the yellow to avoid a ticket.