Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

[NooDle]

Nice of them to send you the actual photo right away though. Here, you need to refuse the payment, fill out a form and generally act like a dick before you get some actual proof.

Whatever happened to 'innocent until proven guilty'?

 

[Spectre]

The problem with Ohio is that it's in the fucking way.

And Virginia will throw you in jail for 80 in a 75. Throw both of those on a map and actually going anywhere on the interstate system gets tough.

Dunno, I can use the interstate quite a lot without going into Ohio or Virginia... or actually exiting my state.

You may have more of a point than that, actually. The van was rented on the driver's work account because crazy discounts.

He works for a certain online retail empire that's been known to have a callous disregard for the legal opinion of governments from time to time.

Yeah, they'll toss that out or just file it and never do anything with it.

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Seeing as it's an not actual law, can you just ignore it? I've heard of state parks doing something similar and it doesn't go on your record if you ignore these things.

It's actually still a law either way - it's just a civil ordnance instead of a penal code entry. There are still penalties (that vary by state) that can be assessed - and they can report it on your credit record.

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Nice of them to send you the actual photo right away though. Here, you need to refuse the payment, fill out a form and generally act like a dick before you get some actual proof.

A lot of jurisdictions had their red light camera/photo radar schemes get derailed because they refused to provide proof that the alleged violation occurred. Even in civil cases, the accused has the right to see the evidence against them.

Whatever happened to 'innocent until proven guilty'?

Greed.

A good lawyer can get a lot of this thrown out because a lot of these red light or speed camera ordinances do not past muster. However, in most places the civil fine is mysteriously *just* below the initial payment you would have to make for a lawyer to handle the case... And should you show up in court *with* a lawyer anyway and look like you're seriously going to challenge your ticket, they'll suddenly dismiss it to protect their major revenue stream.

This does sometimes backfire spectacularly when they issue a ticket to a lawyer who has nothing better to do than to make them his or her new hobby. Redflex has been caught filtering tickets so that attorneys don't get them, but they goofed on this one and it's bit them right in the ass. This happened in a local Dallas suburb:
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/ric...aid-richardson-red-light-cams-violated-rights
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/La...era-Lawsuit-Against-Richardson-385760061.html
http://watchdog.org/270981/red-light-cameras-5/

And then this a couple months ago:
http://kdhnews.com/news/local/kille...cle_002dac96-3076-11e7-b517-53a82c45e67e.html

 

[prizrak]

It's all Latin.

Meh it's all Greek to me

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OH FUCK YOU. Usually I don't mind paying speeding fines, but at this point it's basically a commercial transaction on which the government gets typical EuroVAT rates.

What do you think speeding fines are dude? When something like NYS thruway (big empty road that goes through parts of NY that are not the city) has a 55mph limit do you really think it's about safety?

 

[Hemily]

Because you bought the non-'sport' model and this is the dashboard you got with it:

The tach was optional; you got an idiot light farm, a fuel gauge, speedometer and an odometer. You also couldn't hook up most service tachs to the then-new distributorless ignition system and OBD-II wasn't a thing yet, so you either had to hook up a giant diagnostic computer to the vehicle or have some other provision for tach readings for diagnostic purposes.

Thomas' Cadillac has a similar data display set.

Going to an all idiot-light-farm setup like this was common back then for the Detroit Three. It was initially well received by the general buying public, but then became much ridiculed.

If you shelled out quite a lot of additional money, you'd get this dashboard in your Olds instead:

Poking at an older post, hope folks don't mind.

What was the fascination with digital stuff in the late 80's and early 90's on US cars? we had a Caddilac in at work with the fancy wording on the air filter box "Digital Injection"
It was stupid, the engine was stupid too, and we had to use the climate control panel to check for engine error codes.

There was also the Buick Reatta in like 89, with the CRT toucscreen that never worked.

 

[EyeMWing]

I know damn well they're not about safety, but I have less of a problem with government shakedowns than corporate ones.

In my accounting software, I file traffic tickets under Taxes. I may need to file this one under Other=>Lost to Theft.

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Apparently they actually have video on their website.

Given I'm filming a YouTube series on this car, you can bet your ass I'm using that. Because getting a speeding ticket in a 27 year old decrepit POS is objectively funny.

 

[prizrak]

I know damn well they're not about safety, but I have less of a problem with government shakedowns than corporate ones.

In my accounting software, I file traffic tickets under Taxes. I may need to file this one under Other=>Lost to Theft.

I always fight my tickets, because I will waste all of their time and resources I can if they want to bust me for going all of 75mph on a highway (typically what I get)

Apparently they actually have video on their website.

Given I'm filming a YouTube series on this car, you can bet your ass I'm using that. Because getting a speeding ticket in a 27 year old decrepit POS is objectively funny.

Nowhere near as funny as my friend getting one in her Prius (yes neither one of us understands why we are friends)

 

[NecroJoe]

Apparently they actually have video on their website.

Given I'm filming a YouTube series on this car, you can bet your ass I'm using that. Because getting a speeding ticket in a 27 year old decrepit POS is objectively funny.

I'm sure it goes without saying, but make sure they don't have some sort of restrictions on unauthorized use of their footage.

 

[EyeMWing]

I'm sure it goes without saying, but make sure they don't have some sort of restrictions on unauthorized use of their footage.

If they do, they can pound spectacular amounts of sand. That's a fight I'd absolutely love to have because in their own words, it's prima facie evidence of a crime and therefore should be subject to public records.

 

[JCE]

Fuck Ohio.

Anyone know what the legal standing of these things are in The Shittiest Driving State In The Union?

That sucks. Wow... Fuck. That. Shit. I didn't actually know we had speed cameras setup in this country--only red light camera invoice generators (aka revenue). Any idea what is considered "excessive" speed for the camera to go off? Or does this motherfucker go off if you're even 1mph over?

 

[prizrak]

That sucks. Wow... Fuck. That. Shit. I didn't actually know we had speed cameras setup in this country--only red light camera invoice generators (aka revenue). Any idea what is considered "excessive" speed for the camera to go off? Or does this motherfucker go off if you're even 1mph over?

Usually 5 over, don't ask me how I verified that

 

[Matt2000]

It would bust the 10% +2 margin given in this country to account for miscalibration. It would be interesting to see what that margin is in Ohio, too little and you might have a way out right away.

Interesting that they take pictures from the front and back, why not just the back?

 

[93Flareside]

If the camera was set up better, I would imagine it would be for verifying who's driving.

 

[EyeMWing]

These are apparently handheld cameras so they can say a cop was there.

 

[Hok]

Here in Sweden we also have plenty of speed cameras on some roads. But they have to be able to identify the driver of the car. The cameras are also signposted in advance. So you have to be really inattentive to be caught. Still plenty of people are caught. I have been lucky and never been caught by a camera here in Sweden.

No speed cameras that I am aware of on motorways here.

But I was flashed once entering a village in Germany, driving a rental car. Luckily I never heard anything about it afterwards.

 

[Spectre]

That sucks. Wow... Fuck. That. Shit. I didn't actually know we had speed cameras setup in this country--only red light camera invoice generators (aka revenue). Any idea what is considered "excessive" speed for the camera to go off? Or does this motherfucker go off if you're even 1mph over?

There are many states and jurisdictions in this country that permit speed cameras. Texas outlawed them at the state level, which makes us rather unusual. That hasn't stopped some towns in Texas from trying an end run around the ban, by the way.

 

[Spectre]

Poking at an older post, hope folks don't mind.

What was the fascination with digital stuff in the late 80's and early 90's on US cars? we had a Caddilac in at work with the fancy wording on the air filter box "Digital Injection"
It was stupid, the engine was stupid too, and we had to use the climate control panel to check for engine error codes.

There was also the Buick Reatta in like 89, with the CRT toucscreen that never worked.

Go back and reread the reply I gave you at the time - the digital fuel computers were a considerable advancement over the analog ones being used at the time and the climate control panel diagnostic system vastly beats the fucking literal briefcase full of electrical wiring and meters I have to connect to my Ford or the pony-keg-refrigerator-sized diagnostic machine I have to connect to my Jag to get the same information. No, I'm not kidding.

EEC-IV "Breakout Box":

As for the digital dashboards and everything else, it wasn't just American cars that had it. In fact, it was pioneered in the mass market here by the Japanese. At the time, 'digital displays' were the new hotness and thought to be the way forward for the future (which it turned out it was, just with an intermission in the 90s-2000s and a massive improvement in technology over time.) Also wasn't just cars - pretty much everything that could take one was being fitted with LED/LCD/Plasma displays at some end of the market at the time. Look at the digital watch, which took off around this time to use just one example. Everything else had it so it was natural that cars would get them too.

Some implementations were, of course, better than others.

 

[93Flareside]

The Audi s5 looks too long to be a coupe. Something's just odd about it.

 

[Spectre]

The Audi s5 looks too long to be a coupe. Something's just odd about it.

Coup? does not imply a maximum length, and historically coup?s have often been *longer* (visually if not actually) than the sedans on the same chassis.

 

[JCE]

The Audi s5 looks too long to be a coupe. Something's just odd about it.

The S5 is shorter than the CL, and THAT (the CL) looks disproportionate.

My brothers's S5 was awesome. Looks good in person.

 

[Spectre]

For example:
1975 Jaguar XJ-S coup? - 191.72 inches long.
1975 Jaguar XJ-C coup? - 190.75 inches long.
1975 Jaguar XJ6 SWB sedan (same platform as the XJ-S) - 189.5 inches long.

Both coup? derivatives are longer than their parent sedan.