Montgomery County photo speeding ticket (Germantown, Gaithersburg: photo radar, home, middle school)

[Saddlebrook]

No this does not go against your record. They are all over the county, so be careful.

[cool rob]

Originally Posted by Saddlebrook

No this does not go against your record. They are all over the county, so be careful.

And throughout DC and Prince George's County, not sure about VA, but be careful either way

[psychofan]

Originally Posted by gr8doglove

I have a radar detector in my car. (They are legal in Maryland.)

Can radar detectors detect speed cameras?

Yes and No, a radar detector should detect speed cameras that utilize radar technology to determine the speed of your vehicle's movement from one point of the radar field to another. HOWEVER, if these speed cameras utilize sensors embedded into the road then radar detectors will not pick it up.

Speed camera@Everything2.com

[psychofan]

Amazingly timely as WBALTV just reported on speed cam today. . . .

Speed Cameras: For Safety Or Revenue? - Baltimore News Story - WBAL Baltimore

The report has links to the locations of speed cameras in Rockville, Gaithersburg, and Chevy Chase for those driving through the areas.

[cpterp]

They're obviously for revenue. Even if they promote safety (which they probably do), their biggest use is as money machines. Only Mongtomery County currently has them, but the GA approved adding them in other counties, but only in school and work zones, which makes sense.

Two different cameras have caught me in the past two months, one in Germantown and one in Gaithersburg, and I was promptly mailed $40 fines. Of course you can challenge them, but the court fees cost more or the same as the fines, so it doesn't make much sense. Eventually, you learn where they are (although they keep sprouting up all over the place) so it's visitors to an area covered with the cameras that get hurt the most.

I've heard numerous hillarious "tales of revenge" including persons "mooning" the cameras, some people destroying the cameras, and high schoolers copying and printing the license plate numbers of their teachers, covering their own license plates with the paper copies, then speeding past a camera.

[gr8doglove]

Originally Posted by psychofan

Yes and No, a radar detector should detect speed cameras that utilize radar technology to determine the speed of your vehicle's movement from one point of the radar field to another. HOWEVER, if these speed cameras utilize sensors embedded into the road then radar detectors will not pick it up.

Speed camera@Everything2.com

Thanks for the information.

[dkf747]

Isn't it funny reading about those who were caught and now calling them money makers? The cameras only take pics if you are going 10 or more miles an hour over the limit. You guys deserved your tickets. Most of the cameras are located in areas (near schools) where you need to be going a safe speed. No sympathy.

[cpterp]

Originally Posted by dkf747

Isn't it funny reading about those who were caught and now calling them money makers? The cameras only take pics if you are going 10 or more miles an hour over the limit. You guys deserved your tickets. Most of the cameras are located in areas (near schools) where you need to be going a safe speed. No sympathy.

Okay gramps, one of the cameras where I got caught was nowhere near a school or work zone; in MoCo they don't have to be. The ones that will soon appear in all of the other MD counties do. Also, 10mph over is not very fast considering the speed limits on some of these roads (I was "flying" at 45mph in a 35mph zone?). I take it you must be one of the 2% of people who obey the 55mph limit on 270 as well huh (even the Pennsylvanians don't)?

[dkf747]

Originally Posted by cpterp

Okay gramps, one of the cameras where I got caught was nowhere near a school or work zone; in MoCo they don't have to be. The ones that will soon appear in all of the other MD counties do. Also, 10mph over is not very fast considering the speed limits on some of these roads (I was "flying" at 45mph in a 35mph zone?). I take it you must be one of the 2% of people who obey the 55mph limit on 270 as well huh (even the Pennsylvanians don't)?

Gramps? Me? Not even close. 55 on 270? I barely did 35 on 270 this morning. I said MOST of the cameras in Montgomery are in school zones or other zones where you shouldn't speed. I recognize that there are some in ridiculous locations (like the one on Conn. Ave). Which one caught you?

[psychofan]

Luckily, I have not received a speeding ticket via the speed camera. My beef isn't with speed cameras located in front of schools, it's with the ones located in the middle of nowhere like the one on Richter Farm Road in Germantown/Boyd. That one absolutely makes no sense at all.

I take Wootton to work every morning and earlier in the week on Monday, there was a police officer hiding behind the electronic sign in front of the high school pointing his radar gun at cars heading west on Wootton. Basically, he was tagging cars headed TOWARDS one of the speed camera, why? Traffic already travels between 15 and 25 mph on that stretch in front of the school already, especially during the morning commute. That's just ridiculous in my opinion.

Now, red light cameras are a whole different thing. They just makes rear-ending that much more common at those intersections. Lengthening the yellow light by two seconds longer would make more sense and increase safety that much more.