Drivers who appeal school speed zone camera fines almost guaranteed to lose

I've been reading the law, linked in the news site; and, the document says, among many other things, in 316.0776(3)(a),

(emphasis mine)

  "the county or municipality MUST NOTIFY the public that a speed detection system may be in use BY POSTING SIGNAGE
  indicating photographic or video enforcement of the school zone speed limits. Such signage SHALL CLEARLY DESIGNATE
  THE TIME PERIOD DURING WHICH THE SCHOOL ZONE SPEED LIMITS ARE ENFORCED using a speed detection system"

Under the assumption that the time range text is easily visible, not covered in trees, not tiny, able to be seen by a person driving at the regularly posted speed from a distance that they can safely and reasonably slow down, etc, then it doesn't seem terrible.

THAT SAID, they should absolutely *FIX* the blinking lights.

In part of the article, it is declared that the traffic cameras caught 500,000 violations this school year ("since fall") across Florida, which is ... concerningly high. That's several thousand per day. Across all Florida, but still. Only about 3000 people protested across that; and, assuming all protests were genuine, that's less than a 1% broken light rate, which means broken lights are probably pretty quickly fixed.

I hope the signage either already has prominent time ranges and/or will have prominent time ranges in the near future. My thoughts on this are certainly complicated.

After 3 decades living in WestCentral FL counties, I learned something about local police departments. You can measure the ethics of the police chief (and to a lesser degree, county commissioners), by whether they embrace or refuse revenue-generating traffic cameras.

    a school speed zone camera caught him going 38 mph when he thought 
    the speed limit was 40mph because the school speed zone sign wasn’t
    flashing when he was driving past an elementary school near his home. 

    In fact, despite the sign stating, "20 mph when flashing," the sign 
    isn’t even equipped with a flashing beacon.

    As a result, Weaver believes the cameras have become an easy money grab
    for counties and cities using a vaguely written law to cash in on drivers.

Hillsborough county officials have clearly lost their way.

> the signage requirements for school speed zones only require signs to designate when the school zone is in effect. So even if a school speed zone sign states that drivers must slow down “when [the light is] flashing,” that light doesn’t have to actually be flashing for a driver to get cited.

I'm a little confused. If the light isn't flashing, doesn't that mean that the school zone isn't in effect? I don't understand what about the law makes it possible to get cited when the light isn't flashing.

You should also read up on towing laws. It is up there with civil forfeiture.

I think the problem with many unjust laws is that the people who get trapped in them either have very little power, or because of the subject society sort of says guilty through involvement.

Less wealthy people whose cars are towed usually have trouble raising the funds, or even getting a ride to the impound lot. Any delay is an almost exponential multiplier to fines and maybe even seizure of the vehicle.

I've actually heard people argue against having lights on signage for this exact reason: people shouldn't be reliant on lights that may or may not work to modulate their behavior when driving. They had been referring mainly to pedestrian crossing signs, but I think it applies here too. I generally treat any school speed limit sign as in effect if it's before nightfall as a rule of thumb.

It's really sad how law in the US is caught in a three-way game of ping-pong between "let people do whatever they feel like doing", "let shady governments and law enforcement use law as a trap to fleece people", and "do everything slapdash and inconsistently so no one knows what's actually allowed". I think it's a fine idea to have automated enforcement of speeding. I'd like it here. But the point of it should be. . . to eliminate speeding. Not to raise revenue. And if you have poor and inconsistent signage and variable enforcement so that people aren't sure what speed is allowed, you didn't actually reduce speeding, you just increased fines.

Someone needs to show up in hi vis and a helmet and hack the lights to flash all the time. Hit em right in the revenue.

These things are popping up all over the place now that the recovery funds from feds are gone. My city just implemented them and it’s a shitshow.

It’s hard to argue about it because many people are sick of post-Covid driving behavior. Most traffic enforcement ceased during the pandemic and was slow to resume. I made a few trips from upstate to lower Manhattan in under two hours - you could just set the cruise at 95 and go.

In my state, I think it will undercut complete streets and traffic calming in road engineering. One major avenue in my city is being reconstructed, I’m curious as to whether the city will allow the engineering changes to the road that will improve it and cost $750k-$1M of annual ticket revenue.

There’s also the never mentioned surveillance issue. Most devices log 30 days of video and LPR every vehicle.

Now I perhaps understand why the Garmin navigator amusingly warns be about approaching a school zones when it's 11:30 p.m. (way out of school hours) or Sunday (not a school day). Because, USA.

(Florida)

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