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conlyjonathan t1_j300kpa wrote

You spelled sandpaper the glass wrong

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SeriousGoose t1_j3013rr wrote

I hope no one would do anything like that or like drilling a hole into the compartment the lense is in and filling it with Great Stuff Expanding Foam Sealant.

At least they'd be able to get in there to fix it quickly as long as no one has filled the lock with super glue.

PS: I'm obviously just joking.

PPS: If anyone really did want to mess with one of these, don't do anything that might result in unsafe conditions for the person sent out to repair it.

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degggendorf t1_j306lmg wrote

>don't do anything that might result in unsafe conditions for the person sent out to repair it.

So I should cancel my order for the scarab beetles from The Mummy?

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diskimone t1_j2zxtz2 wrote

When they were first installed, it happened a few times. They just cleaned it the next day.

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Beebeeleen t1_j2zpztc wrote

Seen it done. A day later, the spray paint was gone.

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V0nH30n t1_j2zs97y wrote

If they REALLY WANT TO BE HEROES, use etching fluid instead of plain olde spray paint

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MissFrothingslosh t1_j30g4my wrote

Came here to comment this. You can buy it at craft stores. Not that I would do it. But would be far more efficient.

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Wonderful_Bother9172 t1_j30lyhs wrote

There has been a few that got sprayed with it! They replaced the glass. But I was happy to see it was used!

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mhb t1_j377eul wrote

It's trivial to replace the window. More creative approaches are more difficult to fix.

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V0nH30n t1_j37orh2 wrote

Agreed, so like what's your plan man?

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Blackulor t1_j2zwdqx wrote

Perhaps a group of like minded Samaritans could gather to tackle the fetid and fungal creep of surveillance. Paintballs? Tow ropes? I dunno. Just spitballing

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cowperthwaite t1_j3063dv wrote

The speed cameras/red light cameras and the surveillance cameras made by Flock are two very different things.

https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/crime/2022/12/15/providence-network-of-license-plate-cameras-set-for-big-expansion/69728713007/

https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2022/11/15/providence-speed-cameras-where-are-they-how-many-tickets-and-how-much-money/69633672007/

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anatomicallycorrect- t1_j32di9t wrote

Both of these articles are paywalled.

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jeffscomplec t1_j31subu wrote

To what end? The cost of repairing/replacing them would be paid for my the tax payers

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DarkStarMorningDew t1_j2zweux wrote

I got flashed by the camera on blackstone going 5 over recently. I haven’t received anything, but is it a guaranteed speeding ticket?

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foxymarxy t1_j306o49 wrote

Same thing happened to me and I got tickets in the mail a few weeks later. But I believe there is a 10mph grace limit but I could be wrong/they could have changed it.

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Status_Silver_5114 t1_j31fumx wrote

Did it flash on you and not the next person? It comes in the email sometimes up to a month later.

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ancient_scully t1_j32ggdu wrote

If they're too lazy to slow down for 20 feet, I doubt they'd take the time and effort to disarm a camera. A fine for doing that would definitely cost more than a speeding ticket.

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upvotepartyplan t1_j30x40v wrote

The so called cameras are not run by the state. It’s essentially an idiot tax paying the fine. You do not have to pay the fine.

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Sad_Succotash_9347 t1_j31iayb wrote

I've never paid one. Reading the ticket carefully its just worded that you should pay. I myself never signed a contract with any company and I'm not being legally bound to a ticket some company collects on and gives a percentage to the city hosting said cameras.

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[deleted] t1_j31e4p3 wrote

In the Netherlands, they covered the traffic cameras with old tires when they first installed them. They then doused the tires in gasoline, and lit on fire.

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FranklinDC t1_j33j3lh wrote

The traffic cameras are good, actually. It is important to prioritize pedestrian and bike safety as we shift away from overdependence on personal automobiles.

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Alternative-Bat-8453 t1_j346vxn wrote

We have a high ass police budget, they should do their jobs, instead of relying on constant camera surveillance. They take out rights away piece by piece and we pay for it.

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SeniorChainSaw t1_j331s37 wrote

People have done it many times over at Blackstone. I'm sure they monitor them closely now

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gutter_sluggs t1_j306d17 wrote

Most camera lenses are protected and spray paint won’t stick to them

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TheGreyVicinity t1_j30uttr wrote

I recommend lobbying, this is the only useful bill Texas has passed in like 20 years

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SaltyNewEnglandCop t1_j32qco6 wrote

Or you know, don’t speed.

It’s amazing how driving the speed limit will not only be safer for everyone, but also prevent fines, and also be more fuel efficient, and let’s be honest, you all bitch about someone who drives fast down your street.

So drive the speed limit and be a good motorist.

Life would be so much more enjoyable if everyone obeyed the traffic laws, you’d start see less crosses on the side of the highway and less candle memorials at intersections.

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unhpian t1_j2zvydv wrote

Or you could, you know, just go the speed limit?

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nissanxrma t1_j3025y8 wrote

I went 31 in a 25 school zone at 5:56pm and got a $50 ticket. Fuck speed cameras. The judge erased the ticket since its close to the threshold and I still had to pay $38.50 in court fees. They’re a money grab and I won’t change my mind.

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eternashine t1_j303htw wrote

If a punishment is a fine, then it's only a punishment for the poor.

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ImaroemmaI t1_j305nb8 wrote

Honestly if it's near a school zone then just pour some extra concrete. Speedbump, doesn't need electricity, can't be spray painted over and if someone fucks up their car on it, the money goes to a blue collar worker instead of some government stooge's pension.

*edit, apparently speedhumps will slow down emergency services

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Bobisadrummer t1_j30tch9 wrote

Emergency vehicles shouldn’t be speeding either.

Edit: Thank you to all the folks who’ve downvoted this comment. It’s silly people like you that keep me and my fellow EMS workers employed.

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Proof-Variation7005 t1_j32sfoe wrote

Cops can certainly abuse the privilege but emergency vehicles absolutely be speeding. If your loved one was in an ambulance that didn't go above 25mph, you'd want that driver fired.

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Bobisadrummer t1_j32toqz wrote

Spoken like someone who's never worked in EMS and has never taken an EVOC. Going lights and sirens doesn't give you the right to disregard speed limits.

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ImaroemmaI t1_j34c365 wrote

To be honest I'm more worried about other cars getting out of the way for EMS in the first place, than them not being able to follow speed-limits. That and it would be cool too if more people were taught basic first aid, plus kept a kit nearby.

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Proof-Variation7005 t1_j32s7ek wrote

I'd agree that it disproportionately affects the poor, but even a billionaire gets mad at receiving a traffic ticket. And the reality is that there is a huge speeding problem in this city. It does create a real safety concern and this is part of how you address that shitty behavior from people.

Plus, name a thing in society that doesn't disproportionately impact the poorer people more. We live in a world where money drives everything. Picking and choosing where to acknowledge it is silly.

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Proof-Variation7005 t1_j32qinn wrote

A school zone speed limit is 20mph, not 25mph. I'm not sure why that time matters. Kids have sports and after-school activities. Teachers and staff stay in the school building. I think that was around the time of day when the teacher was killed in a hit and run in front of her school a few years ago.

I get all the frustration with tickets, but it is remarkably easy to not get hit a ticket.

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[deleted] t1_j306qsi wrote

[deleted]

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Status_Silver_5114 t1_j31fzld wrote

Kids are at after care and sports until 530 so people and kids are still leaving the building until close to 6 hence the timing.

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the_falconator t1_j31kwsd wrote

There's a lot fewer of them and other places kids congregate after school don't have reduced speeds

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Status_Silver_5114 t1_j31tyvb wrote

So because there’s only a “few” of them you can speed by them when it’s even darker out? Nice attitude. Also the school near us 80% of the kids are there after school anyway.

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the_falconator t1_j31unil wrote

The whole logic of having a school zone speed limits because there's a lot of kids so Yeah if there's less kids there's less risk of them running out in the street .

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ArmSpiritual9007 t1_j30pupx wrote

I've seen this said too many times.

The average person spends 293 hours a year behind the wheel of a car. Doing simple math, if the person drives 50 miles an hour for all 293 hours, that amounts to 14500 miles (not unlike my commute).

If you drive 10 miles over the speed limit, as most people do, you will save about 2 days of your life (4 days if you compare 25 vs 35).

If person gets 1 ticket at $50, assuming they make minimum wage at $13 in RI, round math, call it 4 hours to pay speeding ticket.

It is therefore benefitial from a risk-reward perspective for drivers to go over the speed limit. 2 days accumulated over the years. Drivers spend 4 hours of potential risk, to earn at best 48 hours of life back.

Over a few years, you have even accumulated enough time savings that a week long hospital visit for a car crash will be covered.

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jconti1233 t1_j31pd5b wrote

risk/reward for the driver prob makes sense. The risk/reward for the pedestrian you're endangering by going over speed limit prob disagrees.

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ArmSpiritual9007 t1_j358b9d wrote

That would be a good point, however no one in this entire country walks anymore. Drive down any road and you will see the sidewalks empty. Providence, short of a few select streets, is dead. I regularely run outside on sidewalks with my son, and I feel the machine apocalypse has already happened. No one is outside anymore. You are furthermore under the assumption that a driver does not see pedestrians, nor do they slow down if they feel the need to. You are perhaps under the assumption, that a "speed limit driver" in the right lane of the highway is a better driver simply due to speed, despite the fact that a speeder might move over for a disabled vehicle.

I might make the case that a speed limit driver becomes over confident in their safety and begins checking their phone since they dont need to pay attention to their snail pace.

Actually, the speed limit driver must be unattentive to the road as they are too busy attending to signage rather than getting an instinctive feel for the road. They are more concerned about following arbitrarily picked numbers on white signs than attending to what is in front of them. They stare at the spedometer. I wonder what other random signage they are paying attention to, such as city skylines and other non-important driving details on the road.

You are also arguing that a particular speed is dangerous, when that is not true. RI has massively slower roads than MA. RI has no problem throwing 25 MPH signs on two lane road that should be 45 MPH. Route 1A is a great example of this, the minute you cross into RI the speed limit drops to something unreasonable with speed cameras all over the place. This is particularly frustrating, since speed limits do not scale with the amount of traffic: Roads after 7:00 PM are vastly more empty, and therefore safer to drive on at higher speeds.

So let me ask you this: Given that 1A is roughly the same commecial density in MA as it is in RI, does that mean MA drivers are worse than RI drivers?

Consider 2 streets completely identical in all ways. If the one is MA is 45 MPH, and the one is RI is 25 MPH, are the two drivers equal?

I would actually argue that RI drivers are far worse and incapable than faster drivers, since fast drivers get more experience on the road year over year.

Actually, using my prior argument, fast drivers literally have more time to drive and practice defensive driving because they save time in their lives, making them more experienced because they can literally do more year over year.

Now, for those older folk who think I hate slow drivers, I don't. I have no problem with older slower reaction people driving an inconvenient 35 in a 35 if they can not drive faster. We all will be that age. I do have a problem with people projecting their incapacities on to me, and limiting what I am fully capable of doing.

I am not going to convince you, and it really doesnt matter to me. The signs on the road control how much of your life you live, and you choose not to live it. The speed limit drivers are going to contribute to unnessary traffic by driving the speed limit (which, even in the middle lane causes issues, since all the 70 MPH drivers go into the right lane 80 MPH lane, which causes backups where there otherwise would be none). That ultimately slows down the entire flow of traffic, for the average speeder and safe driver, causing delays for a wide swath of people who want to get home and spend approximately 3 more minutes daily with their children every day. And while those 3 minutes dont sound like alot, that is 13 hours over the year that a father might get to spend tossing their child up into the air when they return home, and yes, yhise 3 minutes are important. The vast majority of people don't actually drive the speed limit, they feel the road, and speed limit drivers are contributing to road danger because they are overly zealous in following signs rather than paying attention to the road.

As the roads become more and more filled and delayed by slow drivers, we can all enjoy the additional destruction of the forest, since our existing capacity will be filled at 60 MPH, where 80 MPH may very well alleviate the traffic issues.

For anyone upvoting me: My own personal protest to speed cameras is avoiding businesses that include driving near speed cameras, and driving down what otherwise would have been quiet side streets. I dont want to deal with staring at my spedometer making sure my needle is exactly at 20, because any less and the driver behind me may get frustrated and cause a road rage incident. I hope others follow my protest, as this needs to start hurting businesses so that the government does something to fix this. I can tell you, some local business have lost thousands in my business because of this.

Enjoy the final point, as I won't be writing back: I have more important things to do with my time, but you may want to reconsider what you do with yours.

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anemonemometer t1_j37jsdk wrote

that’s a very long reply to begin with an incorrect first sentence.

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ArmSpiritual9007 t1_j380ndt wrote

If you think I am wrong, kindly go to google maps satellite view and show me pedestrians walking on the sidewalk.

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anemonemometer t1_j388rqs wrote

I walk to work every day. Sure, there are more cars than people. But I’m not the only one waking out there. Lots of people walk.

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jconti1233 t1_j3701rw wrote

> important things to do with my time, but you may want to reconsider what you do with y

honest recommendation: if you want to save time driving, just drive less miles.

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ArmSpiritual9007 t1_j3a0ko5 wrote

You know I think you are trying to be honest and trying to be kind to me so I'll be honest with you.

While you have a point, That I think what you really mean is for me to simplify my life. Boy would I love to do that. However unfortunately simplifying my life isn't that simple.

Even with the benefits that I could hypothetically work remotely directly from my home that's not possible. You'll notice that I'm subscribed to a number of autism Forums. I am a special needs parent.

I visited my son's neurologist today to discuss my 3 year olds progress. My son entered the doctor's office, and began flipping chairs. He dumped a number of boxes on the floor, and continued to flip a lightswitch on and off. He was trying to tell me that he didnt want to be there, but my son is speech delayed and does not have the same capabilities as a normal 3 year old. The neurologist watching him was concerned about his behavior.

The neurologist asked me how he can help. My specific words to him were "I have reached my global maximum, and there is nothing more I can do". He understood, but let me tell you, without experiencing an autistic child, it is impossible for anyone else to truly understand.

I have marginal "help" from my wife, and I am constantly "debating" her over my son's special needs, while she is busy being unhealthily addicted to her phone and instagram, basically leaving all parenting responsibilities to me. She is extremely controlling and will not do anything I suggest. my son is seeping at 8:30 today, becase he did not get the 2 hour mother neglect nap that he normally gets when around my wife all day. This is because I have forcefully enrolled him in ABA, despite my wife trying o keep him out of it for no explicable reason. She would, and does, yell at me for allowing him to stay up until 10:00 or 11:00 we I fully explained that the 2 hour naps are causing this and she needs to be more involved. I had explain this to the neurologist as well. Today, he understood. I explained it to him 3 months ago, and last time he visited he thought I was the problem.

My time is fully saturated. You may laugh at my calculations, but when you only have 30 minutes a day at 10:30, any time savings are critical. As I write this, I am duel functioning as a scratching post for my son. I am incapacitated, and if I don't allow him to scratch me, he wont drink his milk and will start throwing things and screaming. I allow him to do this because with an autistic child, you must pick and choose your battles.

Regarding driving, I have no further optimizations I can make. I have no time to call people. I have no time for myself in general. I cried driving to my son's ABA therapy, because your post came to mind that I should "simpify my life", when you don't know the living hell that every day is. The reality is, I am so busy, I am now missing work because I need to raise my son and bring him to appointments. I can't trust my wife with my son because she explodes a him, and when she isn't doing that she's on instagram and TV is raising my son, which is especially bad for autistic children.

I told, very confidently to the neurologist, that there is nothing anyone can do for me. He knew not to challenge it. Unless you can recommend some sort of force multiplier so that I can become at minimum 5 of myself, then there is literally nothing you can do me. I mean the genuinely, if you have something for me, send it my way. There is no one I can count on to provide me a break.

Now, you don't care about my sad sob story, but I assure you there are other people like me, and there are other people with equally challenging problems. And, those people are also probably driving too.

But to go back to driving, my son may literally throw a hotwheels cars at me, or be screaming incredibly loud and unconrtollable in the truck. I might literally miss a 25 MPH sign because I am attempting to pay attention to the road. Is that fair? Are you going to say I shouldn't drive? What if I need to go to a neurologist appointment that has no bus or train stop?

Now, to meet you half-way: My "beef" isnt with the speed cameras, it is that they are too inhuman and inflexible. My recommendation instead would be to change them so that these stupid 25 MPH zones trigger at 39.5 MPH, and the resultant bill someone receives is something like $500. The other option would be to train an AI to distinguish asshole drivers from average drivers. People break laws all day, your probably breaking on right now that you are unaware of.

For whatever it is worth, I hope you have a good evening. If you see someone struggling with their child, it might not be a bad parent. If you see the child going especially crazy, you might even try to redirect the child with a puppy you have (2 strangers have done so for me). Go be nice to some random stranger, and if someone asks you to "break the rules" and they have a 3 year old with you, for the love of god just look the other way. Your kindess will probably make someone cry.

And just so you know that there's a human on the other side of this, I'm probably going to go cry in the shower mulling my life over.

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jconti1233 t1_j3ia2gz wrote

Damn dude. Fwiw, it sounds like youre doing the best job possible. I'm embarrassed to admit that if I were in your situation Im not positive I'd be strong as you, i could cave-in just like your wife. I feel for you though, wife and I have a 2 month old but you're right that I can't truly understand how rough it's been for you and your wife. But in my world my wife and me's teamwork has been pivotal. Your son will always have autism but you could work on the teamwork in your marriage. Easier said than done, I know, but at least, cut yourself some slack. You're doing a bangup job, better than most people could.

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Status_Silver_5114 t1_j31fx4h wrote

This. Ffs people it’s a school zone and you are actually speeding if the camera goes off. By quite a margin.

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tads73 t1_j308ig6 wrote

I believe a clear lacquer spray paint on a license plate will decrease its ability to reflect

−4

TheGreyVicinity t1_j30vdqs wrote

reflective spray. https://amzn.to/3Cpkf36

Alex Jones used to talk about it on his show and my dad listened to him everyday on the way home from school… my dad bought some from infowars and it worked, it was this but w/ an infowars label

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tads73 t1_j31ud32 wrote

They would probably mask the plate to the camera/ flash, putting a clear lacquer would mute the reflection of the paint on the plate. Put a flashlight on a license plate in the dark, you will notice it's reflective paint glows and makes it easy to make out. I say my friend's ticket with the plate and it glowed. Thus glow is what might trick the camera.

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OutlandishnessNo7283 t1_j30cvx9 wrote

I’ve considered buying the hydraulic jaws-of-life tool, just in case my car is ever booted again. How are we letting our governments getting away with all this unconstitutional bs?

I was a poor student at the time and was extremely lucky to have some extra cash on hand for the $600 in tix that had basically quadrupled over a few years of unpaid tix. But what if I was a single parent who relied on my car for work? Woulda been fucked!

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Dopey-NipNips t1_j315d6x wrote

There's nothing in the constitution that says we can't be surveiled by the government

I hate surveillance and I hate the government but I also hate that you do 10+ mph over the speed limit in a school zone.

There's no reason a single parent can't maintain a safe speed in a school zone

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