Question about illuminated pedestrian crosswalks and speeding

[Zhariak]

Don't care about the ticket.... But was curious what to expect.

Driving in some area I'm not familiar with. 30 feet away in front of me is a pedestrian crosswalk.

Speed limit 60, me and everyone else is cruising around ~70

Out of nowhere, the pedestrian lights light up. I go to hit the brakes, then after taking 4 takes on each side, there's absolutely no pedestrian. The area is wide open, so literally no one hit the button, I'm thinking WTF? Take my foot off the brake.

Bam, 7 flashes of light come from behind. I guess a photo radar vehicle was remotely operating the crosswalk or something and issuing tickets.


Now here's the question. I remember years ago they had the signs stating if the lights were light, the speed limit is 30, however I haven't seen one of these for years.

Does the 30 limit still apply when lit? Or was this changed?

I never have beef with tickets, enforcement, speed traps or whatever. But this particular circumstance kinda pissed me off.

Just wondering if I'm going to be getting a ticket issued in a 30 zone, or a 60 zone?

[beyond_ban]

Those lights are activated whenever you are traveling above the posted speed limit, but they do not affect what the actual limit is. The fact that a photo radar vehicle was there was just an unfortunate coincidence. I believe the photo radar vehicles are set to ticket anyone traveling 11km/h+ over the limit, but I could be mistaken.

Edit: it wasn't a speedlimit sign that illuminated, but the actual crosswalk lights?

[xnvy]

Crosswalk lights activated by nobody? That seems really weird.

[Zhariak]

Originally posted by beyond_ban
Those lights are activated whenever you are traveling above the posted speed limit, but they do not affect what the actual limit is. The fact that a photo radar vehicle was there was just an unfortunate coincidence. I believe the photo radar vehicles are set to ticket anyone traveling 11km/h+ over the limit, but I could be mistaken.

Edit: it wasn't a speedlimit sign that illuminated, but the actual crosswalk lights?

I'm not talking about a lit up speed limit sign. It was an actual pedestrian crossing crosswalk bar above the road that lights up when someone presses a button.


Originally posted by xnvy
Crosswalk lights activated by nobody? That seems really weird.

I know, I was like WTF! It was weird...

[lilmira]

http://momsieblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/large-sixth-sense-blu-ray11.jpg

[revelations]

location?

[danno]

They are triggered by a button as everyone knows. The button does fail sometime it calls all the time other times it doesn't work. I replaced a button up by kincora today.

As far as I know if the led crossing is on you have to do 30km till your through it. Maybe you were also in a playground or school zone?

[Zhariak]

Originally posted by danno
They are triggered by a button as everyone knows. The button does fail sometime it calls all the time other times it doesn't work. I replaced a button up by kincora today.

As far as I know if the led crossing is on you have to do 30km till your through it. Maybe you were also in a playground or school zone?

I'm a hard ass when it comes to doing 30 in playground zones, I don't believe it was. It was too much of a major thoroughfare.

Literally everyone was getting tickets, the lights lit up just as a big batch of cars were 30 feet in front of it. Brake lights litup, and as soon as everyone realized there was no pedestrian, they just keep proceeding.

I'm just curious if I'm getting a 12km+ over ticket, or a 42km+ ticket, lol.

[4DoorGTZ]

I wonder if this falls under the same circumstances as a traffic light. You don't slow down to see if there is cross traffic at a red light and then proceed through if no one is coming.... Perhaps that's how CPS will spin it, dirty dirty trick if so. At least they should employ someone to walk across in an effort to avoid crying wolf.

[darthVWader]

I'm thinking someone needs to video this going down.

[mr2mike]

Not related but I saw on Crowchild the photoradar guys with their ford edge and running their 4 way hazard lights while parked on the side of the road.

Seems to be a few dirty tricks going on.

[FraserB]

Originally posted by mr2mike
Not related but I saw on Crowchild the photoradar guys with their ford edge and running their 4 way hazard lights while parked on the side of the road.

Seems to be a few dirty tricks going on.

Photo radar vans are so obvious now that no one should be getting tickets. If you're paying a tiny bit of attention and see a vehicle on the side of the road with boxes on the roof, you should be slowing down.

[beyond_ban]

^ people are so paranoid of photo radar tickets that they slow down to 10+ km/h below the limit for any broken down POS on the side of the road.

[speedog]

Originally posted by mr2mike
Not related but I saw on Crowchild the photoradar guys with their ford edge and running their 4 way hazard lights while parked on the side of the road.

Seems to be a few dirty tricks going on.
Why is this a dirty trick in your opinion?

if you're not on the ball enough to be at least half aware of what's going on around you while you're driving, then you probably deserve a ticket from a police officer set up in such a fashion. Hell, hazard lights on should be something you pay attention to.

[Zhariak]

Originally posted by FraserB


Photo radar vans are so obvious now that no one should be getting tickets. If you're paying a tiny bit of attention and see a vehicle on the side of the road with boxes on the roof, you should be slowing down.



Originally posted by speedog

Why is this a dirty trick in your opinion?

if you're not on the ball enough to be at least half aware of what's going on around you while you're driving, then you probably deserve a ticket from a police officer set up in such a fashion. Hell, hazard lights on should be something you pay attention to.


I totally agree, I always spot them... Like I said, this was an area I've never been in before...

There was a side street (a road, then some grass, pavement, and then another road). The photo radar vehicle was parked on the other road that's beside the road I was on. It wasn't as easily visible since it wasn't on the road I was on. Also, there were vehicles to my right, so didn't see it since it was on the other side of both the divider, and the vehicles.

There's a chance I didn't even get a ticket because of those cars between us, just trying to prep myself for either a cheap ticket, or if it's steep.

[bignerd]

Originally posted by speedog

Why is this a dirty trick in your opinion?

if you're not on the ball enough to be at least half aware of what's going on around you while you're driving, then you probably deserve a ticket from a police officer set up in such a fashion. Hell, hazard lights on should be something you pay attention to.

I have seen them park at night on Deerfoot pulled over on the side of the road with NO four ways under street lights that are burnt out, or in areas where there are no street lights.

I know what they look like and these were very hard to see, especially when they use their dark blue Ford.

[Cooked Rice]

Still 30 KM/H when the lights flash.

[Zhariak]

Forgot to post an update...

No ticket in the mail. Not sure if it's because I wasn't speeding, or if it's because there was a car between mine and the camera.

[Maxt]

Originally posted by FraserB


Photo radar vans are so obvious now that no one should be getting tickets. If you're paying a tiny bit of attention and see a vehicle on the side of the road with boxes on the roof, you should be slowing down.
It's not that easy anymore. They are now parking in parking lots adjacent to roadways amongst cars, not just on the road side.
They like parking lots like Timbertown on 42 ave around 7-8am on weekdays, crowchild around Kensington road and a few others.

[88CRX]

Originally posted by Maxt

It's not that easy anymore. They are now parking in parking lots adjacent to roadways amongst cars, not just on the road side.
They like parking lots like Timbertown on 42 ave around 7-8am on weekdays, crowchild around Kensington road and a few others.

Was just about to post that timber town location, my brother got a ticket there several weeks back and they've been there lots lately. Sneaky.

[Zhariak]

Just an update.

Not sure why it took so long, but just got the ticket in the mail... No idea why it took over a month.

Got nabbed for 70 in a 50 zone. Serves me right!

[shakalaka]

Damn....

[-relk-]

Glad to see they didn't cheese you with the lights at 30 km/h

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by beyond_ban
^ people are so paranoid of photo radar tickets that they slow down to 10+ km/h below the limit for any broken down POS on the side of the road.

Even worse (IMO) is speed-on-green lights, or even just red light camera intersections where people think it's speed on green equipped.

For example, 14th st going south at Heritage. Traffic flow around 80-90km/h as per usual, bunch of people slow down to 60-65 paranoid of a speed on green ticket under the Heritage lights, and then back up to 80-90. I have even seen someone get rear ended because of that before, from someone who realized last minute and nailed the brakes.

[CapnCrunch]

Originally posted by Zhariak
Just an update.

Not sure why it took so long, but just got the ticket in the mail... No idea why it took over a month.

Got nabbed for 70 in a 50 zone. Serves me right!

It still doesn't explain why the pedestrian lights went on. Weird.

[jltabot]

radar vans are getting sneakier. I saw one the other day... a caravan parked on the side of charleswood drive but covered in a variety of decals so you would think its a contractor's work van or something (no big blocks on the roof rack like the ford escapes either). two seconds later, a double flash

not me though :poosie:

[toastgremlin]

Huh, I saw someone blow by me in Sundance last weekend and saw the same thing at the new-style crosswalk leading into Fish Creek across Sunvalley.

Photo radar car, speeder, and then the crosswalk lights went nuts with nobody present in the crosswalk. Radar car didn't fire though, no flash, and the crosswalk lights stopped flashing before I got to the intersection.

I guessed it might have been kind of RF interference with the radar, but I have no idea why the crosswalk would care about that since none of the "old style" ones do. No real reason for it to have radio of any kind, unless that's how the two lights talk to each other when the button is pressed (but that's stupid).