zam2000

I got my 04 W211 four months ago. As for the moment, I'm still running with temporary tag (stick in windshield), eventhough I have received the license plate shortly after I bought the car.

There're so many traffic light camera around my area. There're also maze of camera near where I work (West LA). It's not that I'm avocading for running light, but sometime, you miss one beat, and next thing you knows, it's $385 ticket, thanks to the ultra-reliable robot cop at street corner. I know one guy who got TWO camera tickets in SAME day, ouchhh !!!

I keep my car clean, just as it just left the showroom. If unfortunately I got pull over, guess I have to play the stupid game of "haven't seen anything from DMV". For the moment, the risk of fix-it ticket (expire license) seem to outweight the $385 traffic ticket.

Funny, just with about a year of putting the camera into most major intersection, the city must be having so much cash. They're repaving most of the street, build new & stylist side-walk on most major streets, and plant plenty of really nice tree & flower. Cop seem to get nicer motorcycle (BMW) !!!. Before, the camera could only detect people who run red-light going straight, but now, after upgrade, it could take hostage those who run red-light doing left turn. And more people missing light on red-turn than going straight, so the number of ticket issued must jump significantly. I guess w/ the new source of revenue, it is just matter of time before they upgrade the entire patrol fleet to Chryster 300C, with Hemi engine !!

Are any of you facing the same dilema as I do ? How do you deal w/ traffic light camera. Forget about "obey the law blablabla...." crap.

Btw, traffic light camera in UK makes my city look silly. They must be putting camera every 500 ft or so !!!

HELL ONA HARLEY

Your kidding right????? The reason we have cameras at intersections is because of clowns like you. I've know too many people in cars and especially motorcycles injured or worse at intersections....Glad to see your down there in so.cal, please give a warning when coming my way.....

bmms8

i also was kind of in the same posistion, not because of the lights, but because cars look ugly with them on i did put my plates on after 3 months of owning my car, i believe that is the law, but a good excuse is to tell a cop is, "I was going to the dealer to get the screws, and have your license in the trunk, and have nothing on your car at the time, sounds kind of extreme, but ppl do it, GL

zam2000

Let me guess, Hell-On-A-Harley, the reason you sound **** off is because you worry when a biker slicing between lane hit a car w/o license, it'll be hard to make a case ???

FYI, my last traffic citation was more than 10 years ago, and it was for going 12 miles over speed limit in Arizona !!. I just hate the way citi official abuse the system, just as lot of jerks at the Social Republic of San Francisco do. If you guys are so saint in driving, why don't you just buy insurance for comprehensive only, forget liability, since you won't be hitting anyone !!. How about never exceeding 65 mph on the freeway ?


The number one reason car often use biker as a stop bump is because biker think they don't have to obey traffic law, worse, they think there's no law for them, only for other.

topspin4hand

The cameras don't take a shot of your windshield as well as the license plate area?

scorchie

On some of my cars, I've never put plates on as long as I owned the car. Just keep it clean and looking like a current model, that works in California because our temporaries are a tiny piece of paper in the window.

-s-

bmms8

even if they did, it would be very hard for them to find you based on just a picture, and i doubt they will put forth the effort.

whenever i get near a green camera light, i do get nervous, but its easy to not get a ticket if your careful, i always stop early if its yellow, as long as you look for em, youll be fine, but i have seen many cars at night get tickets because they didnt know its a camera light, flash is offly bright.

HELL ONA HARLEY

Absolutly not, I'm more worried about you or some other knucklehead running a red light and wiping the pavement with me or worse my wife.

This is off subject but....If the biker is spliting lanes its because here in cali the LEGAL to do so.

This is the law as I understand it.... A motorcycle can share a lane (or pass within) with another moving vehicle as long the speed of the vehicle is not exceeding 35mph. The motorcycle can not pass the vehicle faster than 10 mph of the vehicles speed.....
All of this really has nothing to do with your neglect to stop "in time" at an intersection, but it seemed you need to know why bikers are (legaly) spliting lanes... A quick ride on any motorcycle will definatly change your attitude on cheating the red at an intersection. I only hope you think a little more before running your next red light....


About your driving record, I havn't had a ticket in over 20 yrs so in an other 10 yrs come back and brag to me.


I will agree with you there are some real wingnuts on bikes these days and perhaps they are only getting what they deserve, but don't judge all for the few...

HELL ONA HARLEY

One quick note.... I don't know you zam2000, so there is nothing personal..... I get up set when I hear a (non-shelaunt sp?) attitude about beating the red...I for one don't like "big brother" into my life either, but if the camera's keep a few less people from getting whiped out at intersections then so be it.... People running reds and bikes don't get along to well and I for one have had some experiences with both, so without going into details I'll let it go at that.... Drive safe....

marksatex

Man the Texas Highway Patrol Guys would have been all over expired dealer plates.

Running with no front plate and a few mph over the limit is about as wild as I get....

CALBenzo

I am just the opposite with respect to the rear plate, which I just got. I couldn't wait to put it on since the fit and finish, at least on mine, under the plate is not as good and is slightly wavy. The license plate covers it up.

I guess I never thought of not putting the rear plates on! The front plate is different, however.

Miguk_Saram

..uh.. ..just a couple of quick notes..

bmms8: offly? How about "awfully".

HonaH: non-shelaunt (sp?)? How about "nonchalant (fr)".

Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest (what a burden!).. How about spending some of that hard-earned, Mercedes money on a dictionary!
(relax, I'm just kidding)

Now, regarding the plates and camera issue: there was an article in the Washington Times (DC area newspaper [USA]) not too long ago that evaluated 3 methods of "tricking" the license plate cameras; 2 of them were prismatic-type license plate covers, and the 3rd (and most effective) was a spray: www.phantomplate.com.. for further details read the article here.

Now, I don't advocate running red lights, but I am adamantly against "photo ticket" enforcement.

Happy motoring!

bmms8

lol, actually offly was what i was trying to say awfully coudve work better though.

zam2000

I would NOT recommend the phamtomplate product (camera blocker spray, as they advertised). The reason is: I bought it, and it didn't work, so you can save $35 on something else other than that piece of crap. You have to blast at the camera w/ VERY heavy bright light to have it to go overexpose (which will make the plate unreadable), and that's only happen if you're either under very bright sunlight that's already direct at your license plate, Or if it's camera van (part along side of the road and taking pix of your car), both of which don't apply to most people driving condition. As the matter of fact, after I have applied the spray on the plate, I found that on the condition which it will make the pix overexpose, the regular plate, w/o spray and was CLEANED, would go overexpose at the comparable level.

If you go to their website and compare the pix of w/ and w/o spray, you will notice that they're taken at different light condition, or that the ISO is way higher on the one w/ the spray on (the whole picture look much brighter).

As the matter of fact, anyone can make that metallic coat for less than $5 from HomeDepo (my gf is a chemical engineer, working at a paint company, so I can claim some truth to this statement )

If anyone still in doubt and wanna try, send me the shipping cost, and I'll be happy to send you whatever I have left (probably around 1/2 can).

The best ways to avoid camera ticket are:

1. Safe & considerate driving
2. If you have a new car, keep driving w/ the temp tag, just in case you happen to be in that out-of-luck nano second.