Mufreesboro Nails Nissan With Red Light Robbery
Newschannel5.com reports that the bloom may be off the rose when it comes to relations between local government and employees slaving away at Nissan’s new Tennessee plant. “Murfreesboro recently installed six red light cameras to catch people who ignore traffic signals. About 2,600 citations have been issued since July. Thousands of drivers have been ticketed and employees for one of Rutherford County’s largest employers have been repeat violators. ‘When we’re looking through the citations and Nissan North America did stand out. There were nearly 40 citations,’ said Murfreesboro Police spokesman Kyle Evans.” Problem: a lot of the violators are driving leased vehicles, registered to Nissan. Evans smells a rat. “‘When you have this many citations perhaps when you’re driving a vehicle that’s registered to you directly and you may have the idea you’re not going to be held accountable or responsible for it,’ he said. ‘Pretty much all these citations have not been paid.'” Good neighbor that it is, Nissan promises to trace the plates to the employee leasing the car and make sure they pay the citation. That ought to make everyone happy.
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I guess the new expression, at least in Murfreesboro, is "Drive it like you leased it." I'm not torn at all about red camera lights, as long as there are no shenanigans going on regarding the length of the yellow light signal. I agree with psarhjinian that they are much more reliable than an officer. Menno: About one month ago, I was behind an SUV that was weaving all over the road. I had had enough of this sort of driver; so, I asked my wife to call the police on her cell phone. She did, giving them updates of our progress through the streets of our fair city for approximately 5 minutes. I continued to follow the car on a very circuitous route to the parking lot of a Subway shop. The driver continued to mostly drive very slow with occasional bursts of acceleration and weave into and out of the driving lanes of the roads we were on, nearly hitting one jogger and severl light posts. No cops. I asked my wife to call them back after the girl finally stopped at the Subway and 20 minutes later (she was still there in the parking lot) a cop finally showed up. She tried to pull out, but he used his cruiser to block her in. After talking to her for several minutes, he left with her still behind the wheel. She then continued to sit in the parking lot (I stayed parked on the opposite side of the street approximately 1/2 block away) for at least 5 minutes longer, during which time the cop cruised by again (I guess she decided that she didn't need to go wherever she had been headed to when the cop first pulled up). It makes me wonder what she was on and why the cop let her go. Oh, I have also seen drivers run red lights in front of cops with nothing happening.
Menno: The problem is you live in Michigan. Actually I don't know how you can drive a Prius there with the condition those roads are always in.
Hi BlueBrat Yes, Michigan drivers are well known throughout the entire midwest as amongst the worst in the union, but I hear it's a matter of warped-pride that people from the people's socialist repugant of Massachusetts insist THEY are even worse drivers than LA or NYC inhabitants. I moved back home from the UK 16 years ago (where, if you drive incompetently, you'll end up dead or worse - in a British gaol; that's jail to the rest of us). As for Michigan roads, it was positively embarrassing to be from Michigan and drive US 2 in the Upper Peninsula a few years ago. There's a spot where US 2 meanders into Wisconsin. Suddenly, the "suspension and patience test" ended - smooth roads. Ker-POW wham, slam, shake rattle roll - we were back in Michigan.... US 2 is significantly better now, even in Michigan, but pretty much the rest of the roads in Michigan SUCK. Just goes to show that Prius's are TOUGH little sunsabitches, doesn't it? My first Prius, a 2005, put 48,000 miles on these craptastic Michigan roads over 3 years (one loose wire on the self-levelling headlamps was the ONLY PROBLEM)*, and the new one has 16,800 miles on it - I've had it a year. (I drive a lot - hence my need for a hybrid). BTW 4 weeks ago, diesel cost 75 cents a gallon more than gasoline here, now they're even. So either the oil companies are cutting diesel drivers some slack (OK you can all stop laughing hysterically now) or else gasoline prices are about 75 cents per gallon too high (could that be greed?) - not forgetting that it takes more crude oil to make a gallon of diesel than gasoline. * the loose wire on the '05 Prius made the self-levelling headlamps "go to default" - raising them. This was precipatous for me since it allowed me to see & miss a deer on the way back from Grand Rapids at 10pm!
Alright, I am so sick of this crap, if we want to solve this red light problem once and for all just install gates at every intersection just like at rail road crossings, if you blow the light you will damage your car. However, the police could not gain revenue from the cameras, I wonder how many lights have shortened yellow cycles to increase the chances of violation.