Toll Evasion Violation - WHAT THE HECK?

st1300r · Apr 26, 2017

Good luck getting it sorted.
I had a similar implausibility with cingular remember them? Within minutes of each other, they had me making calls from New Jersey and Wisconsin. Their fraud department investigated and determined the phone wasn't cloned and I made the calls LOL. After months of silliness I sent em a letter telling them I'd be happy to pay the bill if they could give me a valid one. A simple cc: Madeupname, ESQ. at the bottom of the letter was all it took to get them back to planet earth.

Hopefully they have a photo and the OCR just screwed up or you were sleep riding

Valker · Apr 26, 2017

Williamson said:
Just been notified by my work office (in Melbourne AUS) that my company provided Ford Ranger was photographed at 8km/h over the speed limit. Problem is, for that past five week my wife and I have been touring the USA & CAN.

Someone has some explaining to do about the unauthorised use of the company vehicle when we return.

8km/h over???? That's 5mph. They usually won't write you up for that anywhere near here except, possibly, in a school zone. Draconian!

Upt' North · Apr 26, 2017

Come on SupraSabre, cough to it we know it was you.
Do the decent thing and come clean.
Or is it a case of you'll never take me alive coppers.
Good luck, you'll need it if it's anything like the UK.
Upt'North.

SupraSabre · Apr 26, 2017

I wrote them a letter telling them I wasn't there, and my motorcycle was parked in my storage with a bad waterpump.

I also said that if they wish to pursue this to please send me a picture so that I will have more proof that it wasn't me!

We'll see what happens next!

wjbertrand · Apr 26, 2017

I had a similar parking ticket experience when I received the citation in the mail from the City of Berkley, CA. The ticket had the license number from my car then, a 2002 Lexus IS300, but was described as a green Honda Civic as well. The time of day was the middle of the week when my car was likely either in my garage at home or the parking lot at work. I've never been to Berkley and certainly not in that car. Obviously the meter tender made an error writing down the license number for the Honda. I called the city expecting a simple resolution but what I got instead turned out to a month's long battle. On principle there was no way I was going to pay. At one point I told them to put it in front of a judge. The mail went quiet. After a couple weeks I called up for a status and was told it had been resolved. They never followed up with me to let me know. The attitude of the people on the phone were terrible.

On another instance, I was returning from WeSTOC in Sooke BC. I've crossed the Golden Gate bridge several times before and it used to be free to Motorcycles coming into the city. As I approached the south end of the bridge I could not find the free/MC or even a cash lane. They'd automated everything since the last time I'd crossed a couple of years before. Unable to do anything about it I just carried on. A few days later I received a bill in the mail complete with a photograph of me riding my bike. They were only looking for the toll, no violation penalty so I just quickly paid it. I guess MCs were free before because of the traffic delay caused by a biker to remove gloves, dig out the fare, put gloves back on etc. Now with transponders, it's easy to charge us and bikes are no longer free.

OhioDeere · Apr 26, 2017

Here in Ohio if you contest an electronic citation they will drop it. Most of the time. Because they have to prove eyewitness to the event. They can harass you all they want but in the end you don't have to pay. Been there.

MV_Dave · Apr 26, 2017

Here in the Seattle area one of the major freeways on the east side (I-405) has so-called HOT lanes, basically an HOV lane that single drivers can pay a toll to use. The tolling is fully automated so a transponder is required unless you are an HOV.

Except if you are a motorcycle. Bikes are allowed to use the HOV lane for free, but in their infinite wisdom of the Washington State DOT they are required to have a special bike transponder because the system isn't smart enough to recognize a bike. Even though they query the state's license plate database to know where to send the bill, they couldn't add the single line of code to check if the vehicle was a motorcycle. :doh1:

So like the law abiding citizen that I am, I got the free bike transponder, mounted it per the instructions and gave it try. Which resulted in a $0.75 toll charge for one way on my round trip. An email sorted it out but the sheer stupidity of the system is amazing.

Ozzie · Apr 26, 2017

We don't have them in our town, but red light cameras! Had several in Charlotte when I lived there. Got a ticket, which I argued by saying the light was yellow when I entered, I later timed the yellow/red and it was way shorter than the federal requirement, so, armed with that info and a subpoena for the camera I went to court. There was no way that Charlotte was going to send out a crew to remove said camera and haul it into the courtroom, which, by reason of the subpoena, they had to. Once I got to court, the ticket was dropped.
On an interesting note, I believe the cameras are now gone, because the company that the city contracted with(after promises of $$$$ in the city coffers) failed to deliver.

SupraSabre · Apr 26, 2017

Ozzie said:
...
On an interesting note, I believe the cameras are now gone, because the company that the city contracted with(after promises of $$$$ in the city coffers) failed to deliver.

Yeah, our Red Light cameras disappeared for the same reason!

the Ferret · Apr 26, 2017

Valker said:
8km/h over???? That's 5mph. They usually won't write you up for that anywhere near here except, possibly, in a school zone. Draconian!

I got a ticket for 30 in a 25 in Brooksville Ky on a trip through there (great motorcycle area)....and they wanted me to go to traffic school. I called them up and told them I wasn't going to travel to go to the school. They said they would send the points to Ohio if I didn't. I asked how many points. They said 1. I said send it.

ChucksKLRST · Apr 26, 2017

It is all computer tabulated and billed. No human interface. Computers can not be, or do no wrong. So I have been told. Don't you just love computers?

SupraSabre · Apr 26, 2017

ChucksKLRST said:
It is all computer tabulated and billed. No human interface. Computers can not be, or do no wrong. So I have been told. Don't you just love computers?

I've been working with computers since 1970...Garbage in, Garbage out!

Williamson · Apr 26, 2017

Valker said:
8km/h over???? That's 5mph. They usually won't write you up for that anywhere near here except, possibly, in a school zone. Draconian!

the Ferret said:
I got a ticket for 30 in a 25 in Brooksville Ky on a trip through there (great motorcycle area)....and they wanted me to go to traffic school. I called them up and told them I wasn't going to travel to go to the school. They said they would send the points to Ohio if I didn't. I asked how many points. They said 1. I said send it.

I think we have speed cameras and red light cameras in most States in Australia. Speed cameras were first triallled in Victoria around 30 years ago, and introduced soon after.

In Victoria there is a 3km/h (~2mph) tolerance applied, penalties are monetary and demerit points, both increase as the margin over the speed limit increases. Drivers 25km/h (~15mph) or more over (classified as "hoon" driving) have a strong likelihood of their vehicle being impounded for three months being added to the fine and points; second offence the vehicle can be impounded and crushed. As far as I know, only one vehicle has been crushed in approximately 10 years.

Don't less this put you off Australia, in the past 25 years and ~500,000km) I have any had three "camera violations" so if you're smart (like me?) it's pretty easy to avoid them.

Paul st1300 · Apr 26, 2017

I received a ticket in the mail a few years ago. It was from a red light camera from the broke city to my west, Memphis. I opened it up and there was a picture of a white 330 BMW and four other cars following it thru a red light. I pass it to my wife, because I was seldom given the pleasure to drove the car. Something about a lead foot I was told

dwalby · Apr 26, 2017

Williamson said:
In Victoria there is a 3km/h (~2mph) tolerance applied, penalties are monetary and demerit points, both increase as the margin over the speed limit increases. Drivers 25km/h (~15mph) or more over (classified as "hoon" driving) have a strong likelihood of their vehicle being impounded for three months being added to the fine and points; second offence the vehicle can be impounded and crushed. As far as I know, only one vehicle has been crushed in approximately 10 years.

In soCal its getting to the point where even if you are going 80mph in a 65mph zone there are plenty of cars passing you at 85-90mph.

ST Gui · Apr 26, 2017

Two biggest computer problems: GIGO and PEBCAK.

I'm all for red-light and speed cameras if they were always correctly implemented and under police/city control. But most if not all of these cameras are leased from and controlled by vendors outside of the departments. An alarming number of cities' and counties' traffic light yellows are shortened incorrectly. I don't know who does that but those same municipal entities are responsible to see the work was done correctly.

I am partial to Draconian traffic enforcement even though I did get caught by a red-light camera. But all of them had video and as I had my tinted visor down the City didn't send an award. That and/or because the cameras were dropped a month later.

Speed cameras aren't legal in the overly oppressive Republik of Kalifornia.

the Ferret · Apr 26, 2017

One of our local communities put up speed cameras. They collected a lot of money and went on a spending spree. Unfortunately they just lost a lawsuit about them and now need to refund all the money they took in from the cameras. Trouble is they only have 1.5 mil left in the bank and they now have to return 3 Mil.

ST Gui · Apr 26, 2017

the Ferret said:
Unfortunately they just lost a lawsuit about them and now need to refund all the money they took in from the cameras.

The same thing happened to a couple of cities around here. I don't know that all their cameras were affected but it doesn't make any difference to the general public.

I don't know there financial situation but playing with the yellow light duration is a recipe for disaster.

Williamson · Apr 26, 2017

dwalby said:
In soCal its getting to the point where even if you are going 80mph in a 65mph zone there are plenty of cars passing you at 85-90mph.

Yeah, I've notice that too in the five weeks we've been touring USA & CAN.

Noticed quite a few drivers / cars on the sides of highways and freeways in the company of Highway Patrol or State Police, makes me wonder what sort of speed they were doing to attract Police attention.

Sure we have excessive speeders in OZ, but incidents of drivers in Victoria travelling at 130 - 140km/h plus are usually reported on radio news bulletins.

Note: Rural highway speed limits in OZ are usually 100km/h (~60mph), some rural freeways are 110km/h. In the Northern Territory they have some 130km/h roads and a section of the Sturt Highway is still (I think) unrestricted.

Panjammer · Apr 26, 2017

dwalby said:
In soCal its getting to the point where even if you are going 80mph in a 65mph zone there are plenty of cars pass

Totally agree, several times I've been passed by CHP on the highway when i've been going at 80, no lights on either

Toll Evasion Violation - WHAT THE HECK?

st1300r

Valker

Upt' North

SupraSabre

48 Years of SoCal Lane Splitting/Commuting-Retired

wjbertrand

Ventura Highway

OhioDeere

Been There, Done That, Got the Shirt.

MV_Dave

Ozzie

SupraSabre

48 Years of SoCal Lane Splitting/Commuting-Retired

the Ferret

Daily rider since May 1965

ChucksKLRST

Team Colorado

SupraSabre

48 Years of SoCal Lane Splitting/Commuting-Retired

Williamson

Paul st1300

dwalby

ST Gui

240Robert

the Ferret

Daily rider since May 1965

ST Gui

240Robert

Williamson

Panjammer