Speed cameras in NE IA

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Cyientist

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This one has me mad enough to keep me up tonight. Came home and my wife let me know that I had a speeding ticket in the mail from going through West Union 27 days ago!!!

The speed camera had me going 46 in a 35 zone on the way out of town and dinged me for $100. It's my 1st speeding ticket in 25 years of driving, so it has me worked up.

I'm not the first idiot to think I've been had from one of these, but it chaps me that I get this a month after the fact and the only evidence I get is two pictures of my vehicle with a timestamp 0.2 seconds apart. I don't know exactly how the speed sensors work, but I'm guessing it records when my front and rear wheels go over a sensor (there was a single camera ID and a separate single sensor ID on the ticket).

The timestamp must record past a tenth of a second but they round off on the ticket and don't show it. To me 0.2 seconds can mean anything from .15 - .24 seconds. For my car to travel its wheel base of 109.8 inches or 0.002 miles in .15 - .24 seconds, it would me I was going anywhere from 30 - 48 mph. Even if it was exactly 0.2 seconds to travel that distance, it would mean I was going 36 mph.

Let's just send a Polk County plate a ticket a month later saying they were going the speed we start issuing tickets and call it good! I guess this ticket will cost me $100 and a night of sleep...
 

MisterO

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The scoundrels who put them up ought to be ashamed of themselves for being cowards. If a politician wants to raise money, they should be honest about it and just raise taxes. If it’s about safety (which it is not), then put an actual cop out there and write real tickets and engage in actual law enforcement. This is just a money grab by that jurisdiction.

Not sure about Iowa’s rule but I believe if you don’t pay it, it actually just gets reported to your credit and doesn’t go to warrant like a regular traffic ticket. I’m thinking if you’ve been driving for 25 years with nary a blemish to an otherwise perfect driving record, you likely are a fairly responsible guy who has a good job, owns a house and a nice car. Toss the ticket, take the credit hit, and go back to bed.
 

SCNCY

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Don't these cameras work similar to speed guns in that it that it tracks the distance and time between two points, then takes the derivative of distance to get velocity (using calculus)? So it doesn't really track your tires, but the distance and time that the front of your car gets closer to the sensor in two points in time.
 
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baller21

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I got hit with two tickets in the mail on consecutive days when they turned the 235 camera back on but there was no doubt I was speeding so I just paid it and now slow down through that area.
 
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singsing

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I got dinged this week for passing on a double yellow. I live in Kansas so the roads are flat. This road I drive to work is 8.8 miles long with double yellows the whole way..in the country to boot. Anyway, I get behind someone who was lost or looking for something because they about came to a stop at every home we came upon. After a couple miles and about 10 cars piled up behind him I passed on a flat section of road with no one coming. One of the 10 cars behind me was a cop. So if I get behind someone driving 2 miles an hour on that road by law I have to follow 8.8 miles? Stupid!
 

NoCreativity

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Johnson PD pulled me over at the top of that hill where Merle Hay and Beaver ends. I thought I must have been speeding because it was the only remote thing I thought they stopped me for.

Nope, turns out I didn't "come to a complete stop" at the intersection even though there was nobody else around for miles.

Ok, that's fine, 50 bucks and I'll go home, nope, $340 dollars. I would have been better off going 50 in a 35 through there.
Lots of bs injustices in the world, pay your ticket and move on.
 
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kentkel

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I got dinged this week for passing on a double yellow. I live in Kansas so the roads are flat. This road I drive to work is 8.8 miles long with double yellows the whole way..in the country to boot. Anyway, I get behind someone who was lost or looking for something because they about came to a stop at every home we came upon. After a couple miles and about 10 cars piled up behind him I passed on a flat section of road with no one coming. One of the 10 cars behind me was a cop. So if I get behind someone driving 2 miles an hour on that road by law I have to follow 8.8 miles? Stupid!
That is unbelievable! It seems to me that you were doing the SAFE thing by going around a person who was actually causing more of the safety issue! That police officer would have been doing more to serve the public by pulling the "slow" driver over and investigating why they were going well below the speed limit! I am always respectful of the authorities when I have been pulled over, but I may have been tempted to "complain" or "plead my case" in your situation.
 
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BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
Johnson PD pulled me over at the top of that hill where Merle Hay and Beaver ends. I thought I must have been speeding because it was the only remote thing I thought they stopped me for.

Nope, turns out I didn't "come to a complete stop" at the intersection even though there was nobody else around for miles.

Ok, that's fine, 50 bucks and I'll go home, nope, $340 dollars. I would have been better off going 50 in a 35 through there.
Lots of bs injustices in the world, pay your ticket and move on.
$340 is probably right if you didn’t stop where beaver ends.
 

NoCreativity

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$340 is probably right if you didn’t stop where beaver ends.
Yeah, it's completely ridiculous. There weren't any other people or cars around anywhere and I went about 1mph through the intersection. He was sitting back on that gravel where those houses are at the end of Merle Hay road and I was going east on Beaver coming back from Saylorville.

I just think its ridiculous stuff like that is alot more than a speeding ticket which is alot more dangerous than what I did.
 

Al_4_State

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These are just revenue generators that don't affect your driving record, so I think the standard to defend them in court is lower. It's not technically a criminal charge, but a civil ordinance violation - like not shoveling the snow off your driveway, not mowing your lawn, or having loud house parties.
 
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BCClone

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Yeah, it's completely ridiculous. There weren't any other people or cars around anywhere and I went about 1mph through the intersection. He was sitting back on that gravel where those houses are at the end of Merle Hay road and I was going east on Beaver coming back from Saylorville.

I just think its ridiculous stuff like that is alot more than a speeding ticket which is alot more dangerous than what I did.
Joke went over your head.