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Billh491 t1_je7at7m wrote

Last May late at night I was on 95 in Maryland and got hit with a ticket like this. The work Zone was not active. It was 40 bucks plus 2 buck processing fee. It said it was a civil fine. I did not get any kind of a bump in my insurance this year.

I remember reading it over and it seemed pretty much impossible to fight it as I would have to come back to Maryland and it felt more like a parking ticket based on my reading of it.

They send them out at 12 miles over.

From the site Violators must pay a $40 fine. Automated speed enforcement violations are considered civil violations; therefore, no license points are assessed.

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mylastdream15 t1_je7ie31 wrote

MD has them all over. Speed trap cameras. Went there once almost a decade ago. Got two tickets for 15$ each. And yep. Pretty much impossible to fight since you'd have to drive back down to MD to do so. And they make them cheap enough that I bet most people don't because they don't want to bother to take the time. I bet they make bank on this. It's ridiculous. What's worse. The area I got them in was a backroad and there were literally no other cars around. I assure you. No one was being made safer by these cameras.

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Billh491 t1_je7p58h wrote

Back roads even. At least I was on 95.

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optifreebraun t1_je8181l wrote

And making it a lesser civil fine frequently makes it nearly impossible to fight. Fighting your average traffic citation written by police officer - in most jurisdictions - at least carries the fiction that you can fight it in court. You may not get that day in court with a civil violation.

Last part - these traffic cameras are incredibly regressive taxation. The wealthy hedge fund manager from Greenwich gets hit with the same fine as the single mother of two barely making ends meet that just missed a speed sign. Whether you like law enforcement or not, they are still human beings that likely wouldn't hesitate to write up the Greenwich guy or give a break to the single mom - you don't have that with a camera that sends a ticket to everyone.

I'd hear stories from Asian countries where wealthy conglomerate owners that liked cars wouldn't give two shits about the cameras and would speed everywhere because, well, when you can pay the fine, who cares?

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Miles_vel_Day t1_jea2nug wrote

>And making it a lesser civil fine frequently makes it nearly impossible to fight.

State regs about marking work zones are strict and specific enough that if a contractor was violating them in any way, you could easily get one of these tickets thrown out. That's probably why they made the fines (warning, $75, $150 for the first three offenses) relatively low - people will just pay them without complaint to avoid further hassle, even if they are not actually legally liable.

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Miles_vel_Day t1_jea2bou wrote

Sounds like a stealth toll, haha.

Out of curiosity, in what manner was the work zone closed, exactly? Was any of the roadway blocked off, or was the work zone just off to the side? Were there clearly visible orange signs indicating that you were approaching a work zone?

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Billh491 t1_jeaqb0w wrote

Not closed just no one was working at 10pm.

It was a major project much like our state it is years long. I knew I was in a construction zone and I’m sure I saw a sign about speed trap. Just let my speed get away from me.

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