If a Police Officer is looking to talk to you, he can pull you over for no front plate. While at the drivers window he smells alcohol. Even if you had 1 drink, he can make you walk the plank or whatever else they do. I have no front plate but if I drank occasionally, I would put one on...
__________________
2001 01 Build Jet Black///M5---------------------------X
AS CAI ~ Lo Jack
Non Smoking Kit ~ First Aid Kit
RE Octane SSK Custom Design ~ BeastPower Brackets
Tehnik/Eibach SwayBar 28mm Front 18mm Rear ~ Center Console Armrest w/ Storage Bin
TUBI Cat-Back Exhaust System 80mm High Polish Tips ~ To All the Jedi Fighters: Believe in The Force------------
LLumar Window Tint 80% Rear, 65% Rear Sides ~ 4 Chromed OEM M5 Wheels ~ 18 x 9.5
Pilot Sport 4 Corners 275/35 18 ~ Luxury Nappa Interior
Burled Walnut Trim ~ Warning Triangle
3 ~ 1/60 ~ M Audio Do Not Enter---------->///M5---------------------------X
The front license plate thing has nothing to do with safety while operating a vehicle. There are many other effective means of improving safety.
Anyway, all of this Amber Alert stuff and traffic cameras have partially to do with acclimating citizens to larger programs already in the works such as the Total Information Awareness program being run by John Poindexter at the Pentagon. Once we get used to cameras for semi-legitimate purposes like Amber Alert or traffic monitoring, these networks can be utilized for other purposes too. I am suspicious of programs like Amber Alert that are so far ineffective in catching kidnappers when such crimes have been typically on the decrease year over year. It is good to be aware and a bit cynical, and the front license plate things seem to tie in to issues of comprehensive surveillance under the guise of safety and homeland defense.
It sounds to me like Jeeperjohn actually looks forward to getting tickets.
Not me.
Best thing to do is have your temporary tags in your window and don't put plates on, I mean front AND rear!
__________________
BMW M5 - Carbon Black on Black, Luxury interior (SOLD)
Porsche 996 GT2 - Black on Black
Porsche 996 GT3 - Black on Black
Porsche Cayenne S - Dark Sea Blue on Havana
Jaguar E-Type 4.2 - Burgundy on Black
BMW 540i Sport - Gray on Gray
The front license plate thing has nothing to do with safety while operating a vehicle. There are many other effective means of improving safety.
Anyway I am suspicious of programs like Amber Alert that are so far ineffective in catching kidnappers when such crimes have been typically on the decrease year over year.
It sounds to me like Jeeperjohn actually looks forward to getting tickets.
Not me.
HBRAM,
Me looking forward to a ticket, not a chance. I think you may have misunderstood what I meant. I know think the red light cameras help the safety in the sense that you think about stopping on the yellow to avoid a ticket. It's pretty effective with me, since I don't want the red light ticket and error on the side of stopping a little early rather than trying to beat the light.
To be honest with you, I don't think there is an effective way to improve safety with drivers on the road with their "H.U.A." Look at some of the idiots you see on a cell phone while turning around and yelling at their kids. There are a lot of drivers just barely able to get a license and then add in the other factors, DUI, junk cars, can't read english traffic signs, can't walk and chew bubble gum at the same time, non-driving timid, etc... Got to figure a way to protect them from themselves so they won't hurt anybody....since we can't rely on the process of natural selection (there's too many of them) to get them off the road thru their driving antics!!!
You probably are right about some of these neo-nazi camera programs, but you sound kind of paranoid. Remember Kurt V's. WELCOME TO THE MONKEY HOUSE? The cameras were everywhere and everybody was finally equal!!!!
John
Just a thought.
__________________
2002 M5 titanium silver
19701/2 Chevrolet Camaro SS396/375 HP
1973 Chevrolet Z-28
1986 Jeep CJ-7
1960 Willys CJ-5
1946 Willys CJ-2A
Last edited by jeeperjohn; 18th January 2004 at 06:07.
I know that the red light cameras help the safety in the sense that you think about stopping on the yellow to avoid a ticket.
Maybe. But the number of rear ender accidents at the intersections that have the cameras jump 1000%. They put one in at one of the intersections I go thru on the way to work and nearly every week there's a tie-up with a rear ender. When it was first put in, it was every day. It's now been about 2-3 years and the rate seems to have settled into 1/week.
Whenever I approach such an intersection I am wary of the idiot in front of me being paranoid and jamming on the brakes well before the light turns or being rear-ended when I want to stop to avoid the getting ticketed.
Also, you can achieve the same thing safety-wise (IOW, fewer red light runners and T-bone accidents) by lengthening the time the yellow light is on and making all 4 lights red briefly before the next intersection is green. Studies on the cameras show that they don't make enough money if the yellow lights are of reasonable length, so cities that install them are committed to shorten the yellow light cycles so that the cameras make enough revenue by catching enough runners. My view in light of this is that red light cameras are bogus ways of making more revenue for cities and the companies that make the cameras (they get a cut of every ticket) and do zilch for public safety that can't otherwise be done w/o the cameras (like the above mentioned longer yellows and simultaneous reds before green).
__________________
Need4Spd
'01 M5/UUC SSK + Rogue WSR/RE Tranny Mounts+Royal Purple Synchromax/Axxis ULT Pads/StopTech SS Lines/TC Design from BeastPower Anti-roll Bar Brackets/Dinan LtWtFlywheel and Stage 3 suspension/Goodyear F1 Asymmetrics/Vines thrust arms/IATS relocation/10w-60 oil/hardwired Escort 9500i/Euro Armrest/TEC Cupholder/IceLink/PowerChip 91 Gold/TUBIs!/Strong Strut/BSW Stage 1/BT/Angel iBrights 3.0
'05 M3 Imola Cabrio 6MT, Nav, HK
"Is it the sounds that make a BMW a BMW? A BMW is designed to be heard, felt, experienced. So our engines sing. Our steering talks back. And we insist on offering manual transmissions in nearly all our models for drivers who crave them. The result is an almost telepathic oneness with the car. Just as surely as you can hear a BMW, a BMW hears you."
Last edited by Need4Spd; 18th January 2004 at 10:43.
[quote=Need4Spd]Maybe. But the number of rear ender accidents at the intersections that have the cameras jump 1000%.
Whenever I approach such an intersection I am wary of the idiot in front of me being paranoid and jamming on the brakes well before the light turns or being rear-ended when I want to stop to avoid the getting ticketed.
Also, you can achieve the same thing safety-wise (IOW, fewer red light runners and T-bone accidents) by lengthening the time the yellow light is on and making all 4 lights red briefly before the next intersection is green.
so cities that install them are committed to shorten the yellow light cycles so that the cameras make enough revenue by catching enough runners.
There's a classic example of the non driving/non thinking idiot following you!!! He's either following you too close or not paying attention for how fast he's driving and rear ends you when you stop for the light. The first thing that comes out of the idiot's mouth is that you "STOPPED TOO QUICK"!!!
Sure... How about the idiot is just following too closes and not giving himself enough room to react and stop or not paying attention.
i don't think that you will ever make them better drivers by lengthing the yellow, they'll still drive the same way.
You are right about the city trying to shorten the yellow to issue more tickets. There was an article in the LA Times that talked about LA City doing that and getting caught. It was something like 3 seconds instead of 3.6 seconds, so the court dismissed all of the tickets and was going to refund those that had paid.
Sorry about that misplaced word "think" should have been "that" in the quote you used.
IMHO the red light cameras are being put in place purely for revenue enhancement purposes. Citys tend to rationalize the need citing some "rampant increase in red light running and road rage". Pat Bedard wrote a great expose in Car and Driver a few years ago which showed how the shortening of the yellow was contrary to the times recommended by traffic engineers. City's tend to plead ignorance and blame the contracted red light camera companies... The only good news is that in some areas the income is below expectations and that this trend may be on the decrease.......It really pisses me off when the citys use "safety" to try and put one over on us.....
__________________
Glenn
08 M5 Interlagos
Dinan Exhaust
01 M5 Anthracite
UUC short shift
Dinan 3.45 Diff
07 Exige S
HBRAM is right. The VAST majority of traffic enforcement is done solely for the purpose of generating revenue and has NOTHING to do with safety. If people were really interested in complete safety, all vehicles sold in the USA would have speed governors on them. What amazes me is that we continue to put up with this BS, and the fact that we accept such nonsense as "reasonable suspicion/just cause" for the fuzz to crawl up our butts on public highways. Local communities frequently receive a significant portion of their revenue from traffic citations, and actually budget this revenue as part of their projections for what local property/school taxes should be. We should really have a Nader-like activist to remedy this piracy and clue the public in as to what the root cause of most accidents are: poorly-trained drivers and a sanctimonious, sacrosanct "YOU MUST OBEY" attitude.
Do Not Enter---------->
Linear Mode
