At least in Maryland you get a few miles over....

wsuffa

wsuffa

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 22, 2005
Messages
23,615
Location
DC Suburbs
Display Name
Display name:
Bill S.
Not funny

Illinois will begin using photo radar in freeway work zones in July. One mile per hour over the speed limit and the machine will get you a nice $375.00 ticket in the mail. Beginning July 1st, the State of Illinois will begin using the speed cameras in areas designated as "Work Zones" on major freeways. Anyone caught by these devices will be mailed a $375.00 ticket for the FIRST offense. The SECOND offense will cost $1000.00 and comes with a 90-Day suspension. Drivers will also receive demerit points against their license, which allow insurance companies to raise Insurance rates.

This is the harshest penalty structure ever set for a governmental unit involving PHOTO speed enforcement. The State already has two camera vans on line issuing tickets 24/7 in work zones with speed limits lowered to 45 MPH. Photos of both the Driver's face and License plate are taken. Pass this on to everyone you know who might be affected!!!

For more info: http://www.dot.state.il.us/press/r033005.html
 
wsuffa said:
Not funny

Illinois will begin using photo radar in freeway work zones in July. One mile per hour over the speed limit and the machine will get you a nice $375.00 ticket in the mail. Beginning July 1st, the State of Illinois will begin using the speed cameras in areas designated as "Work Zones" on major freeways. Anyone caught by these devices will be mailed a $375.00 ticket for the FIRST offense. The SECOND offense will cost $1000.00 and comes with a 90-Day suspension. Drivers will also receive demerit points against their license, which allow insurance companies to raise Insurance rates.

This is the harshest penalty structure ever set for a governmental unit involving PHOTO speed enforcement. The State already has two camera vans on line issuing tickets 24/7 in work zones with speed limits lowered to 45 MPH. Photos of both the Driver's face and License plate are taken. Pass this on to everyone you know who might be affected!!!

For more info: http://www.dot.state.il.us/press/r033005.html
Click to expand...

Absolutely, positively ridiculous.

Reason #2,976,887 to AVOID Illinois.

(Items #1-2976,880 reference Chicago)
 
Sorry, I've gotta say "yeah right" on this one.

They've been saying this for three YEARS already, and the signs have been posted in all the work zones, too. Funny thing is, when they first started saying it, they started parking white vans in the construction zones... WITHOUT CAMERAS. :rofl: I've "sped" through many a work zone in IL. Many of them are "artificial" and no work is actually going on, they just throw barrels up along the sides of the road, reduce the speed limit, and set up a speed trap with extra super-duper fines.

I also got nailed on my way down to meet Grant and Leslie for the FlyBQ. They at least put *something* in the back window of the vans now that makes a flash - But I still haven't gotten a ticket in the mail either. Considering that was 5 weeks ago, I'm not really expecting one.

Ask me about the toll booths and amnesty programs in person sometime...
 
dmccormack said:
Absolutely, positively ridiculous.

Reason #2,976,887 to AVOID Illinois.

(Items #1-2976,880 reference Chicago)
Click to expand...


X2. Haven't set foot in Chicago or the state of IL for that matter since Meigs.
 
Hm, I guess it's a good thing that I still haven't received my license plates for the car that I bought 4 months ago :P
 
dmccormack said:
Absolutely, positively ridiculous.

Reason #2,976,887 to AVOID Illinois.

(Items #1-2976,880 reference Chicago)
Click to expand...

Probably just a response to the state's budget deficit. Fortunately for me, Minnesota's Supreme Court ruled that photo enforcement denies due process.
 
sba55 said:
Hm, I guess it's a good thing that I still haven't received my license plates for the car that I bought 4 months ago :P
Click to expand...
I ordered new vanity plates for the BMW and it took almost 7 weeks for IDOT to get them to me. But when I bought my VW last month on the 29th I got plates (regular) that day from the dealer and the title showed up in the mail today (19 days after purchase).
 
Tax revenues are down...
Fill the State Coffers with Ticket Revenue..
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Sorry, I've gotta say "yeah right" on this one.

They've been saying this for three YEARS already, and the signs have been posted in all the work zones, too. Funny thing is, when they first started saying it, they started parking white vans in the construction zones... WITHOUT CAMERAS. :rofl: I've "sped" through many a work zone in IL. Many of them are "artificial" and no work is actually going on, they just throw barrels up along the sides of the road, reduce the speed limit, and set up a speed trap with extra super-duper fines.

I also got nailed on my way down to meet Grant and Leslie for the FlyBQ. They at least put *something* in the back window of the vans now that makes a flash - But I still haven't gotten a ticket in the mail either. Considering that was 5 weeks ago, I'm not really expecting one.

Ask me about the toll booths and amnesty programs in person sometime...
Click to expand...

THAT's what gets me. I've seen it many places, but particularly in Illinois, having lived there for 33 years. Further, now they've done so much to protect the worker (i.e. most workers are on the other side of a protected concrete wall) that most construction zones are two lanes bordered by concrete walls, without much interaction for the worker.

Note that I'm all for protecting the worker; when I lived in Charlotte, NC, a worker had both legs cut off by being crushed between a truck and a guard rail.

But when you've got the barrels up for WEEKS with no construction activity, it's a little like crying wolf. At some point you just presume that today is like any other day - no work going on.
 
gprellwitz said:
Yeah, my mother sent me this too. Does no one notice the release date of the press release?
Click to expand...
I did not even bother to look as I have heard this so many times over the past few years. But you are right, this is the 4 year old announcement that never became true. They are still using the occasional white van.
 
Speaking of Maryland:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030703484.html
Among the thousands of drivers who have been issued $40 fines after being nabbed by Montgomery County's new speed cameras are scores of county police officers. The difference is, many of the officers are refusing to pay.
...
In recent weeks, officers have twice been photographed speeding past a camera and extending a middle finger, an act that police supervisors interpreted as a gesture of defiance
....
During the last eight months of 2007, the department's cameras recorded 224 instances in which county police vehicles were nabbed traveling more than 10 mph over the speed limit... Of those citations, 76 were dismissed after supervisors determined that officers were responding to calls or had other valid reasons to exceed the speed limit. Nearly two-thirds of the remaining 148 fines have not been paid.
...
Under the law, owners of vehicles, not drivers, are punished for failure to pay fines. Manger said, however, that officers who continue to ignore citations might be disciplined. ...
​
-harry
 
mantakos said:
Speaking of Maryland:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030703484.html
Among the thousands of drivers who have been issued $40 fines after being nabbed by Montgomery County's new speed cameras are scores of county police officers. The difference is, many of the officers are refusing to pay.
...
In recent weeks, officers have twice been photographed speeding past a camera and extending a middle finger, an act that police supervisors interpreted as a gesture of defiance
....
During the last eight months of 2007, the department's cameras recorded 224 instances in which county police vehicles were nabbed traveling more than 10 mph over the speed limit... Of those citations, 76 were dismissed after supervisors determined that officers were responding to calls or had other valid reasons to exceed the speed limit. Nearly two-thirds of the remaining 148 fines have not been paid.
...
Under the law, owners of vehicles, not drivers, are punished for failure to pay fines. Manger said, however, that officers who continue to ignore citations might be disciplined. ...
​
-harry
Click to expand...

Gee, ya think? :D
 
We're in the middle of a problem with photo radar and work zones. The short version is:

- city puts up sign "max 40 when people working"
- city puts photo radar vans at work sites
- vans snap tens of thousands of "speeders" after hours when nobody is around
- finally one person takes it to court and the judge rules against the city for unlawful practice and throws out all pending cases
- people that paid fines instead of taking time off work and fighting it are denied refunds due to them already admitting guilt by paying the ticket
- it takes over a year to get your day in court
- you cannot renew your license or insurance without paying any outstanding tickets even if you have court day set

Basically we're screwed. Pay a bogus ticket and admit guilt or stand your ground and be without your license for a while.
 
tyndall said:
We're in the middle of a problem with photo radar and work zones. The short version is:

- city puts up sign "max 40 when people working"
- city puts photo radar vans at work sites
- vans snap tens of thousands of "speeders" after hours when nobody is around
- finally one person takes it to court and the judge rules against the city for unlawful practice and throws out all pending cases
- people that paid fines instead of taking time off work and fighting it are denied refunds due to them already admitting guilt by paying the ticket
- it takes over a year to get your day in court
- you cannot renew your license or insurance without paying any outstanding tickets even if you have court day set

Basically we're screwed. Pay a bogus ticket and admit guilt or stand your ground and be without your license for a while.
Click to expand...

For traffic court? If you don't mind me asking, where is this??
 
Obi Heed Kenobi said:
For traffic court? If you don't mind me asking, where is this??
Click to expand...
Manitoba. My wife got a ticket in the mail that showed what looked like her plate on some totally different vehicle. Thank god she found someone at the police station that saw the obvious error. Otherwise her choice was pay it or wait a year and a half. Traffic court is low priority up here. It pays for them to be slow. They pocketed ten million with the work zone fiasco.
 
tyndall said:
Manitoba. My wife got a ticket in the mail that showed what looked like her plate on some totally different vehicle. Thank god she found someone at the police station that saw the obvious error. Otherwise her choice was pay it or wait a year and a half. Traffic court is low priority up here. It pays for them to be slow. They pocketed ten million with the work zone fiasco.
Click to expand...

That's what happens when the circuit court judge has to travel by moose.
 
flyersfan31 said:
That's what happens when the circuit court judge has to travel by moose.
Click to expand...
Hey, I haven't seen one travel by Moose for a long time. Everytime they came out of the courthouse someone was having a barbecue. :D
 
If you actually went 45 MPH on the work zone on the Illinois Tollway you would be killed in minutes. There is a one lane "express" no trucks section that goes for about 15 miles up north. Some TV station should try doing 45 on it. They better be driving an armored vehicle.

Just going 55 on a 45 on the two lanes around here can be deadly. Those guys sitting 12 feet up think you must be idling, and I don't mean truckers. I use the considerable "gone" the Mustang comes with but that doesn't last long. I can hear the locomotive behind me slowly spooling up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top