Are Portland, Oregon, Red Light Traffic Cameras a Big Scam?

Are Portland, Oregon, Red Light Traffic Cameras a Big Scam? Anyone Else Notice that the Red Light Traffic Cameras Are Timed Differently Than Ordinary Stop Lights? They Are Out of Sync with the Timing of Cameras Along the Same Street Lex Contributor Network . I happen to know a lot about physics and the science of motion. Did you know that it is virtually impossible for mater to come to a complete stop? That is what you are supposed to do at a stop sign. Yeah, yeah, bad excuse for a courtroom, but it is true probably even if the temperature is a prolonged period of absolute zero. Forget the complexities of physics and observe how the red light traffic cameras work the next time you end going though one of the many intersections in Portland than have them. Every time I get up to speed on the streets that have them, just 25 mph, I notice that the Red Light cameras intersection stop lights are out of sync with the rest of the lights on the same street , avenue or boulevard. My friend and I were almost tail ended one night when the light suddenly changed to yellow and then to red as we just inched up to the intersection. Apparently there have been a lot of tail end crashes at these intersections in Portland as a result. My friend and I decided to time the traffic lights on the street by driving back and forth. At all intersections but the red light camera ones we counted "one thousand one , one thousand two , one thousand three" for the light to go from green to yellow and "one thousand one and one thousand two" for it to go from yellow to red. Then we came to the red light camera intersection and found that the light would change sporadically . we would count "one thousand one and one thousand two" and it would go form green to red. totally out of sync with the pattern on the rest of the street! Then once it turned form yellow to red it went so fast we could not even say "one thousand one!" It has to be intentional that the city has set the lights like this to trap motorists for the city to make money off the contraptions. I did some more investigations and found out that the red light camera operate with trip wires embedded in the road pavement before the car approaches these red light camera intersections. Some might even have more than one trip wire embedded so the system can calculate the speed of an oncoming automobile. Then it occurred to me that it was strange that the timing seemed to be erratic and I realized that someone could be monitoring the camera live in a command center and switch the lights from green to yellow and then to red at will. It might even be that Commissioner Sam Adams has a big screen TV hooked up in his pearl district condo where he can play the the system like a video game trying to trap cars by changing the time erratically! After timing the lights for a while it definitely seemed that something is fishy! Do you suppose someone in city government gets to play the red light camera game from their big screen living room TV with actual cars? I would not put it past the technology! Later on we decided to test more of the interactions and found the same out of sync timing. Most motorists know that on many Portland streets and streets in other American cities and Canadian cities that red lights can be timed such that it can be possible to drive cross town without ever having to stop at one of many stop lights. I remember doing it with a friend from downtown to uptown in Manhattan one night because my friend knew how to exactly time the lights when there was no traffic at night. Portland streets will allow you to do the same with experience until you come to a red light camera intersection. I know the city is money hungry and likes to punish automotive drivers as I have had fun with funny parking/ no parking signs all over town. The city used to paint red and yellow lines where there are no parking zones now instead it puts up signs that say you can park in front of driveways and not behind them. they also put up signs that say no parking before you get to a curb so if a truck is parked in front of the sign you won't see the sign to know there is no parking where you park. I try to avoid parking and not getting out of the car now to check to see if the sign says you can park in front of a drive way like the one at Glisan and RD above the pitizacara restaurant where i got a $60 ticket for being totally confused by all the different trick signs. They almost got me to park at the intersection line several times when a car or truck blocked the no parking sign that was behind my car and not visible like the one just before you get to the trail at stone house trail at forest park. When i got the 60 dollar parking ticket on Glisan at 23rd and called the city first they told me that their sign guy might have made a mistake and after that they would not talk to me any more. Not only was I fooled but my passenger was also confused by sign pointing to the parking lot driveway that said parking there was ok. The lady who admitted it was just a temp which meant she could temporarily.maybe , be telling the truth? If you happen to have a stop watch go out and time the red light cameras more accurately than we tried to do and find out for your self. Don't forget to go and time the control lights to see if they are in sync which they seem to be. One night over at the interaction of Burnside and 19th where there are red light cameras I saw some kids taking flash pictures there that almost caused cars to be tail ended. Nothing like a flash camera at night to terrify cars that know about the red light camera there. I am certainly for stopping dangerous incidents of cars going though red lights but it seems that Portland Red Light traffic cameras are being used for something else when they make the yellow lights turn to red faster. The Idea of a stop light is to get cars that have reached the legal speed time enough to get into the yellow light before it turns red and not to try to let them get up to speed and try to predict when the light will suddenly change with no time to spare. It is only fair at red light cameras to make the yellow light period as long as any other intersection on the street and maybe longer. I see so many cars come to abrupt stops at these intersections compared to all the rest that I do have to wonder why? The punitive nature does not help. If it is true that there is a rash of rear end crashes at these intersections, more than at ordinary intersections without traffic cams then it is clear that the city maybe running a dirty little scam? I realize that traffic engineers have selected intersections where the city desires to keep traffic moving to prevent gridlock which could be an excuse for a quicker yellow light and an erratic timing mechanism . I still would be very suspicious that the real reason was to try and trap cars with funky timing. Chances are you too have noticed the difference in how the timing seems to work at the red light traffic cam intersections? I don't know for sure yet but it might just prove true that Sam Adams has a live picture of the intersections on his big screen pearl condo screen and presses a button to change the light to yellow especially when an expensive new Mercedes Benz hits the trip wire coming to the intersection. I come to these intersections and now try slowing down to 5 or 10 miles per hour because often when i approach them they seem to be reacting to my approaching them. Sounds paranoid but it is possible they are monitored as a live video game and the trip wires not known to most drivers could make it an excellent video game to play. Oh beware of the speed trap from Fairview Past Troutdale. The police use some instrument there that does not even take a picture of your car and license plate so they can point the device at the road and pick up any other car or truck near by that may be speeding. The evidence you are speeding with a Doppler detection device is nill if the device is not fitted with a camera. I was driving there once got pulled over when I was watching my speedometer and being passed by other cars. Amazing . The police officer told me he would be coming to court so there was no way for me to win. Its a scam they are running there. Almost as bad as Portland police who actually gave me a retro active court date for a traffic violation of having my tags on backwards ...even though I had the tags. All they want to do is make money and then waste it on so called public services like these. One thing you notice about the redlight cameras is the yellow light comes on very quickly without notice and flips off faster that other intersections in the hope of entrapping people. Amazing money maker for the goon city.