Astoria Police crosswalk ticket scam (Portland, Newberg: 2014, crimes, school)

[Silverfall]

Originally Posted by pdxMIKEpdx

I believe that the police have to put up some kind of signage or warning that this kind of "sting" operation is taking place up ahead.

At least that's how it's done in the Portland area.

Maybe you missed the warning.

BTW, I'll bet you will be extremely vigilant concerning pedestrians crossing the street from now on, so I guess the ticket had the desired effect, whether you believe it was "just" or not, huh?

It was in our local paper here. Said it was going on for two weeks.

[Billy_J]

Also note they tend to videotape these "stings"...

[oldtrader]

When the public complains to the police department, or the police department notices an ongoing problem with people not following the law and making it dangerous for pedestrians, they are going to take steps to get the public's attention and end the problem. That is part of their job.

Apparently, you are not obeying the law, and got caught in an act that is dangerous for pedestrians. It is your fault, not the fault of the police. If you were driving in a safe manner and not endangering pedestrians, you would not have gotten your ticket.

[Nell Plotts]

I know someone who got a speeding ticket following traffic on Hgy 30 going through Astoria recently. Evidently Astoria police want to 'calm' traffic.

My only advise is to drive below the speed limit and anticipate that pedestrians may step off the curb and you will need to stop on a dime.

[KaaBoom]

They do it better then that here in California. The police decoy walks out into heavy traffic on a busy six lane thoroughfare at a stupid mid-block crosswalk that shouldn't even exist. By the time drivers see the decoy in the crosswalk, it's way too late too late to stop. So everybody gets a ticket. Drive-though style. All those cops have got to make their money somehow.

[cyanogenocide]

pdxMike, this has little to do with stopping for pedestrians. Pedestrians usually wait until there are no cars coming to cross. The APD are apparently setting folks up by having the plain car stop and the citation is for passing a stopped car at a cross walk.

You also have your psychology wrong. Punishment rarely works; it's positive reinforcement that works. If I got scammed this way, I would not patronize any businesses in the area any more. This happened to me when I lived in New York City. I kept getting these ridiculous fines. At first, I was beating them in court because they were so outrageous, then I started losing. These fines were entirely stupid. I recall the last straw was the time I was in a crowded subway car and the next one over had just a few people in it. I walked to that one and got a seat. Then I got ticketed. When the officers pulled me off the train, they asked if I was looking to rob people! This was at 12:30pm on a Sunday. Broad daylight! I got one once for illegally reversing! That one I beat, but was appalled. I took the opportunity to remove myself from the state. They'll not get another single tax dollar from this guy ever again.

If more people were like me, instead of like pdxMike, we'd turn more of these ridiculous police nanny states into Detroit, MI.

[cyanogenocide]

Originally Posted by Nell Plotts

I know someone who got a speeding ticket following traffic on Hgy 30 going through Astoria recently. Evidently Astoria police want to 'calm' traffic.

My only advise is to drive below the speed limit and anticipate that pedestrians may step off the curb and you will need to stop on a dime.

My advice would be to take an alternate route. Don't patronize anything in Astoria. Avoid it entirely. I have never heard of Astoria being dangerous for pedestrians. Its a ruse to yank money out of pockets. It's a "tax". Turn Astoria into a ghost town.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Originally Posted by cyanogenocide

pdxMike, this has little to do with stopping for pedestrians. Pedestrians usually wait until there are no cars coming to cross. The APD are apparently setting folks up by having the plain car stop and the citation is for passing a stopped car at a cross walk.

You also have your psychology wrong. Punishment rarely works; it's positive reinforcement that works. If I got scammed this way, I would not patronize any businesses in the area any more. This happened to me when I lived in New York City. I kept getting these ridiculous fines. At first, I was beating them in court because they were so outrageous, then I started losing. These fines were entirely stupid. I recall the last straw was the time I was in a crowded subway car and the next one over had just a few people in it. I walked to that one and got a seat. Then I got ticketed. When the officers pulled me off the train, they asked if I was looking to rob people! This was at 12:30pm on a Sunday. Broad daylight! I got one once for illegally reversing! That one I beat, but was appalled. I took the opportunity to remove myself from the state. They'll not get another single tax dollar from this guy ever again.

If more people were like me, instead of like pdxMike, we'd turn more of these ridiculous police nanny states into Detroit, MI.

Sorry, don't buy your argument.

It's the law in Oregon to stop for pedestrians.
If there wasn't a sting setup and you got a ticket, would it still be unfair or a scam?

And you say you once got a ticket for "illegally reversing"?
If you were indeed "illegally reversing", then you deserved the ticket.



Clearly, you don't spend much time walking about and putting up with inattentive drivers.
Portland has redesigned and improved many actual physical crosswalks, and pedestrians still get killed in and around them.......because of the drivers.

As far as your statement of "and the citation is for passing a stopped car at a cross walk",
that is probably one of the top reasons pedestrians get squished when trying to cross the street.

You could look at it like this, a person is crossing the street, a car stops for them, but another car in the other lane is either too inattentive or lazy to realize that "Hey there is a car stopped at this crosswalk for some reason" and just barrels right through wiping out a young mother and her little baby in a stroller trying to cross the street.

I guess it's the mother and her baby's fault or the stopped cars fault for the disaster.
Certainly not the fault of the driver that didn't stop. Right?

BTW, this isn't New York.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Originally Posted by cyanogenocide

My advice would be to take an alternate route. Don't patronize anything in Astoria. Avoid it entirely. I have never heard of Astoria being dangerous for pedestrians. Its a ruse to yank money out of pockets. It's a "tax". Turn Astoria into a ghost town.

Like that pipe dream will ever happen.


How about just driving the speed limit and obeying the traffic laws, and enjoying Astoria without having to worry about getting a traffic ticket?

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Oh yeah, I forgot to ask, which alternate route should one take to bypass Astoria?

If you've ever been there, you would realize that suggestion is not realistic.

I guess you could go by boat down the Columbia, or spend a ton of money on gas and waste hours time going any other way.