New England B.S. Thread

Providence and Pawtucket are brutal with the red light cameras. We each have received tickets in the mail and don’t recall going through the red lights. The Pawtucket one I got a few weeks back was $80.

 

They have to pay for those cameras somehow!

 

They don't though! It's a third party company the town only gets something like 25% of the fines.

I have to stop this here otherwise I'll get into political discussion and get the ban hammer.

HAPPY MONDAY!

 

That's crazy!

 

That’s weird. So both the city and the private company are relying on those cameras for income. How do we know there is no funny business going on with those cameras or editing of photos?

 

I can't speak for all - in my town, it was a Union issue since tickets must be issued by an officer. The tickets come after an officer reviews the footage.

https://turnto10.com/i-team/on-your...silva-sensys-gatso-group-conduent-july-6-2022

I was off on the amounts - this one the city is 86/14 split.


Under that contract, East Providence keeps 86% of the profit made off citations, while the other 14%, or $7.30 of the $50 ticket, goes directly to the vendor.

 

There has been a lot of litigation in other states around red light cameras. I think Ohio has made them illegal because there was so much fraud going on. Cops were signing off on tickets that they never looked at, some towns reduced the timing on yellow lights so that people who should have gotten through on the yellow went through when it was red, and lots of misidentification of the actual plate number.

There was one study that showed that intersections that had the cameras installed actually saw an increase in crashes at intersections.

 

Speaking of misidentificstion I got a letter last year saying I got tagged driving in a bus lane.... in the Bronx lol. So not only was the plate number incorrect, I had recently gotten rid of my NY plates all together and was working up here during the time frame given. I kindly notified the city and it was dropped but I was ready to fight someone over that

 

It's RI... so there's most definitely some funny business going on.

 

https://ww2.motorists.org/issues/red-light-cameras/increase-accidents/

Not only that, if you need to move to yield to an emergency vehicle, they can and will uphold it as a violation. I don't have those news articles readily available but they've been upheld on appeal in CA, and a couple places in Europe.

 

What a freaking awesome day weather wise. It was 60° out earlier!

 

I've come to the realization I need to hold onto this truck because they've gone up so much in price that it's kind of unrealistic to replace it in the near future. I just rolled over 60k so to do that I need to keep miles off of it. At the rate I'm going, I have less than two years before I hit 100k.

I'm thinking of trying to find an XC60 this summer - always wanted one - and that would become the daily driver. The girlfriend and I would split the cost in some way and she could take it on her longer trips to keep miles down on her Mazda too.

At the same time, I'd put some money into the F-150. Change every fluid, spark plugs, brakes, stuff that if I do it all at 65-70k I'll never need to do it again.

 

43.2 was the peak here!

 

36 degrees, zero clouds, and the best snow of the season so far up here!

 

My feeling on RI is that the yellows are extra short. I typically don’t go through red lights but of course go through yellows.
I got rear ended a couple years ago in Cambridge when I stopped at a stale yellow. The guy that hit me said he didn’t expect me to stop.

 

I went home and brought the dog for a run. Well, I ride, she runs. Was great - I think it's back to being a bit chilly now though already

Fluid film it is the BIGGEST thing to keep something long term in New England. Modern cars can be forgiving for ATF, spark plugs, etc. Rust knows no limits.

I'm in the same boat but in a cheaper mid size. I don't care about miles though since my commute is a mile and a half. But you've seen me do maths for DD cost-benefit though I'm about to roll over 60k - I'm at like 59970. So, see me in a month!

So that Brat twinned to a Toyota I found because I searched facebook for "rally car", I'm thinking about something just for giggles, but I would send it for NMW. I know there's an easy out "just get a WRX" but I want to see what else I can find. PS I also just found out Subaru put a CVT in the WRXs but I'd love to set up something as a daily drive and rally car, then I can just go balls out on the tacoma, SAS x 40s - anything more "forest roads" I'd just rock my daily.

 

I've come to the same realization. I've come to own a truck I can't reasonably afford to replace due to the skyrocketing current prices. I'm about to roll over 70k with mine, I either need to trade it to something more reasonable now, while it's still high value, or run it into the ground (which could be quite a few years down the road given how it's been cared for).

 

Welcome to Cambridge!

IIRC, the standard time for yellow lights is 8 seconds. Shortening that by as little as 1 second could boost revenue and make no mistake, this is about revenue.

 

Beautiful day to get outside and start on brush trimming. Unfortunately, life blew up all of my plans and I ended up driving to Cambridge. Fortunately, no one hit me although one jackwagon in a Honda did cut me off because he apparently realized late that the Left turn only sign meant him too.

 

1 second per 10 MPH is a rule of thumb I heard. And I think I did see a lawsuit that when red light cameras went up, that a town/company DID shorten the yellows once. I don't think that happened in RI, but they did change the duration because the street that comes down to the trail from Seekonk is backed up into Seekonk as late as 7 8 oclock now, when it used to backed up half that distance only until about 6 or christmas time. That entire intersection needs to be blown away and put in a roundabout.