Show Low to install speed cameras ... time for a boycott! (schools, taxes)

[movin'on]

Originally Posted by Valley Native

Show Low to start using speed cameras

Get ready, people! The robotized radar SCAMeras are invading the small towns too. Gee, I wonder why there is such a need for speed enforcement anyway in Show Low. The town has ONE main street! What is defined as speeding there anyway: 36 MPH in a 35 MPH zone???

This news has seriously altered my future plans. Every summer, I vacation in the White Mountains, sometimes for several weeks to escape the heat. I've been very faithful to Show Low by staying in hotels along "the Deuce", dining at their restaurants, using the gas stations, and other services. Plus, I admit that I never drive fast in Show Low because there's no need to. However, the installation of these radar cameras has forced me to never patronize anything in this town ever again! I'm hoping that anybody else who vacations in the White Mountains will boycott Show Low as well. We need to send a message that robots are not going to take over our lives without a fight!

OMG, what is the big deal with driving within the speed limit? Certainly is reason to boycott a town.

[las vegas drunk]

The whole state of Arizona is nothing more than a dump as evidenced by this thread, to quote one of my former posts why I got out of this crappy state....


I was born and raised in Phoenix and I will tell you what I miss about Phoenix after living in Vegas for almost three years....

"I miss the photo radar camera lights and vans mailing me traffic tickets all over the place. I have not had even one ticket here, and I drive the exact same way since I have lived in Vegas. It is not fair. Although I have not gotten one, they actually give tickets in person, I hate that. I thought we were supposed to pay $600-$1,000 in automated tickets a year?"

[country pride]

Probably because more and more people are discovering what a 'laid back' town Show Low is and they bring their lifestyles with them when they move or visit there. But then people do that everywhere. They 'incorporated' Casa Grande, once upon a time it was a pleasant little town. Despite all that, I still ike Show Low.

[shiphead]

hahhahahahahaha. Not enough money Show Low? you have tons of construction and new giant businesses moving into your town and you pull this? No one speeds in town beyond 5 over. Everyone goes 40 MPH in town. Are they setting the camera's to 35? or is their goal to get all the out of town people?

$219,195 to set up 10 cameras. How about installing viable mass transit beyond the little bus that goes 9 to 5?

Originally Posted by http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/12/13/20081213speedcams1213-ON.html

Show Low is joining other Arizona cities and towns using speed cameras to enforce its speed limits.
The city council awarded a contract last month to Redflex Traffic Systems Inc. to operate up to 10 speed and red-light enforcement cameras. The cameras will also include license-plate readers for identifying suspect and stolen vehicles.
The contract award comes after a series of fatal traffic crashes during the summer in the eastern Arizona town of 11,000.
According to a city staff report, there were three fatal crashes inside four weeks, compared with an average of one traffic fatality per year.
The city will spend $219,195 to set up the system. Officials expect fines to pay for the cameras and generate enough for extra court staff and police officers.
Redflex already operates traffic cameras in Peoria, Tempe and on Valley freeways.

[Valley Native]

Originally Posted by Route_66_traveler

Why, obey the speed limit, and you won't get a ticket. It use to be, you do 35 on the Deuce of Clubs or you got a speeding ticket. Now with the people moving up in the area I've been passed in the blink of an eye. Riding with the cops one night, people were doing 50 mph on the Deuce of Clubs!! That is WAY to fast for a 2 lane road!! Honking at people in the right lane, to get out of their way.

By the way, I've noticed that those who complain the most, are the law breakers.

But you know what............

It wouldn't bother me if you all did boycott Show Low, Lakeside-Pinetop, Snowflake, or Taylor. There would be less fools on the roads.

As I stated before, I'm one who never speeds while in Show Low ... so you have nothing to worry about whenever I go there. But regardless of how fast I drive, I'm still highly opposed to robot radar. In fact, this is how adamant I am about this nonsense being forced on us. I will boycott any town that uses photo radar.

You SHOULD be bothered if a good share of people boycott Show Low and the other towns you mentioned. Those places couldn't survive like they are now if it wasn't for vacationers from the Phoenix & Tucson metro areas. Subtract the summer visitors, and what else remains for a viable economic base??? Thankfully, a huge boycott probably won't happen ... but if it did, the towns up there would dry up. Then all you'd have to rely on for tax revenue is photo radar citations paid by what few local residents there are.

[Fighter 1]

Originally Posted by finger laker

that's right - it's for our own good and safety!!!!

Why would you care unless you are a dirty, filthly, low class, law breaker!!!

Why don't you just go back to where you came from with your criminal ways

we don't need any tourist revenue - we're flush with cash


/sarcasm............

get real !!!! It"s the money!!!!!!

[AZs-Games]

Give me break about

"LAWBREAKERS" and "Boycotting a little town"

How dare anyone complain over AZ's RIDICULOUSLY COSTLY FINES for RELATIVELY MINOR TRAFFIC OFFENSES!!!

After all we deserve to increase these petty ticket fines to stratospheric levels then we'll all be so rich .... that we won't need anyone else to live or work here ... like us.

Before we came to AZ from the mid-west neither of us had ever had a moving traffic violation - period.

My wife works for the Library ... I work in security. We're both extremely law-abiding drivers, both have served on juries. Neither of us drink. We're extremely conservative; driving always at, or under the speed limit, ALL the time. We pay our taxes and we do our duty.

Shortly after arriving in AZ My wife was "caught" by the one-second delayed Green light-stutter between the following left Red light. That was a huge $300 fine (she went to traffic school - no points). Many new AZ drivers get caught this way - for what? They simply try to proceed on the green arrow as any normal, experienced driver would.

One rainy day after following a slow-poke brake-riding SUV driver I was "caught" by a local photo radar light entering the sensor "dead zone" by only 1/20th of one second. The time difference was printed right there on top on my through-the-mail ticket. Wow! That one 20th of one second cost a staggering $285 + court costs. That's more than double what similar traffic citations cost in other US regions.

In cash-strapped Arizona cities these very expensive tickets are obviously NOT about real traffic enforcement. Its all about 'OUR' governments ability to generate badly needed cash revenue via high tech means by targeting any and all drivers, ALL the time!!! IMO Most of these camera errors are just that, innocent errors.

What's it worth? Tickets are big business ...about $7 BILLION $ dollars to all US governments. Source: USA Today.

Okay so what's the point?

We're relocating our "lawbreaking selves" ... taking our online sales business and our savings out of this ticket-crazed state. Apparently some Arizonans feel its perfectly okay to use its own legal system to indiscriminately prey on hard-working citizens; tourists and locals alike.

Did you vote for this legalized form of roadside tax collection?

We didn't and we won't perpetuate it.
Now-crowded Arizona's greedy traffic enforcement system is plainly out-of-control.
What a marvelously efficient way to control inter-state migration and keep sorely-needed local tax revenues in AZ.

[Valley Native]

Originally Posted by AZs-Games

Did you vote for this legalized form of roadside tax collection?

As citizens, we were never given the opportunity to cast a vote on it. The state had a serious budget deficit thanks to former Governor Napolitano ... so her idea was to implement the speed cameras as a fast way to increase revenue in the state's coffers. To put it simply, she authorized photo radar on a state wide level without any consent from the voters. The sad thing is that municipalities have caught on to the SCAMera craze, and are starting to install these devices all over the place.

And you're absolutely right about photo radar being a tax collection scheme. It's basically a tax on drivers, disguised as a "safety measure" to make everyone drive like slow old farts. I'll be the first to admit that excessive speed and reckless driving can be a problem, but radar cameras cannot arrest those road warriors. Those who wish to chug along like old farts belong in Sun City ... not on the highways.

Originally Posted by AZs-Games

Now-crowded Arizona's greedy traffic enforcement system is plainly out-of-control.
What a marvelously efficient way to control inter-state migration and keep sorely-needed local tax revenues in AZ.

It's refreshing to hear this sentiment from transplants. More often than not, it's the newer transplants who embrace photo radar because they are usually the first to bellyache about how bad Arizona drivers are. Thank you for displying some common sense. Rep points for you!

[shiphead]

well i drove around looking for speed cameras, none found. Did they decide to use the money towards something they actually needed?

[baby1212]

I 'was' generally for cameras enforcing the law. But when they trick you into what you think is the law and then nab you because of a technicality and you have to jump through a ton of hoops to defend yourself. I don't know... it's certainly annoying and they aren't winning my support or anyone that is close enough to know my story. Not that I'm exactly out campaigning (yet) but...

(read some of my other posts on the topic)