Day or night, beware! The cameras don’t take a break.
Many people who come to San Diego for business or vacation often rent a car. Therein lies a potential problem, one that can be very expensive. My job, should I choose to accept it, is to tell you about this problem.
It’s called red light cameras.
The City of San Diego and a few suburban cities have installed red light cameras at certain intersections. Prior to installation of the cameras, the chosen intersections had a lot of accidents. I don’t know whether or not that’s true, but that point is moot. The red light cameras are there now, and that’s all you need to know.
If one of these red light cameras catches you running a red light, the cost is as high as $480, depending on which city you’re in. Mamma mia! That’s 120 margaritas during happy hour at On The Border! If you choose to fight it, well, you’ll be coming back to San Diego at least once and, quite possible, more than once, depending on where you wind up on the traffic court docket and how fast the docket moves each time. Most people pay the $480.
For your beat the red light camera pleasure, here are the top intersections for tickets from red light cameras, ranked by number of tickets registered in 2011:
-
North Harbor Drive and West Grape Street – 4,672 tickets
-
Aero Drive and Murphy Canyon Road - 3,170 tickets
-
Genessee Avenue and North Torrey Pines Road – 2,900 tickets
-
Garnet Avenue and Mission Bay Drive – 1,895 tickets
-
Mira Mesa Boulevard and Westview Parkway – 1,311 tickets
-
Camino Del Rio North and Mission Center Road – 1,130 tickets
-
Camino Del Rio North and Qualcomm Way – 1,042 tickets
-
Cleveland Avenue and Washington Street – 1,035 tickets
-
10th Avenue and A Street – 766 tickets
-
Nimitz Boulevard and Rosecrans Street – 516 tickets
-
Clairemont Mesa Boulevard and Convoy Street – 507 tickets
-
Mira Mesa Boulevard and Scranton Road – 281 tickets
-
Del Mar Heights Road and El Camino Real – 148 tickets
-
10th Avenue and F Street – 130 tickets
-
Balboa Avenue and Kearny Villa Road – 64 tickets
Number one on the list is particularly problematic because you’ll get a ticket if you’re in the middle of the intersection when the light turns. That’s often the case. North Harbor Drive and West Grape Street is a major intersection coming from the airport and heading to north or south Interstate 5. Traffic on West Grape Street is often backed up by one red light, and just two blocks up West Grape Street from North Harbor Drive are the train tracks for Amtrak, BNSF, and the San Diego Trolley. Day or night, there is going to be traffic. Beware!
There is an attempt to tell you about these red light camera intersections by placement of certain signs at the intersections. Sometimes they are on the traffic signal pole, sometimes they are at the street curb. They look like this:
Day or night, beware! The cameras don’t take a break for after hours, Sundays, or holidays!
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
Posted on September 21, 2012, in Photos, SNIPPETS and tagged red light traffic cameras in san diego. Bookmark the permalink. 14 Comments.
You’ve got a big heart, Mr San Diego Reporter!
I can’t quite get my head around getting a ticket for being caught in the intersection (turning) when the light turns red. What’s a person to do? Stay there until the light turns green?
Slow to a stop when the light turns yellow instead of speed up to “catch” the light and not get caught in the intersection?
Don’t just willy nilly follow the car in front of you. Look beyond to see what traffic is like and if it’s stopped just on the other side of the intersection, don’t go out into the intersection. It might mean you actually having to wait until the next green light but a few minutes at a traffic signal is far better than a $480 ticket.
120 margaritias hahahaha!
It helps to put things in perspective………..lol
Cant see any of my streets there but the bloody bastards are here in Aussie too and there a real pain in the bloody arse.
Aussie Emu
Your advice “Don’t just willy nilly follow the car in front of you…” works for me. How ’bout Zoey? Is she a backseat driver, helping ya to stay out of trouble?
Blessings ~ Maxi
Oh, yeah. She’s the most talkative cat ever when she’s in her transport cage in the back seat. From what I can understand of cat talk, though, she keeps saying, “Go back home! Go back home!”
That is almost 20,000 tickets! 20,000 X $400 = $800,000 No wonder there are so many cameras.
And more arrive each year! However, I have not heard of the police force being cut but it seems like eventually we won’t need any traffic police. Cars will drive themselves (some already do; California just passed a law allowing the driverless cars like Google uses) and those who still have old cars and speed or run traffic lights will get caught by cameras or GPS systems in cars. Big brother is here.
I just realized that your math is off! 20,000 x $400 = $8 million!
What is a zero here or there between friends? But you should stop paying taxes; sound like they got you covered.
LOL – that is why I rely on the public transportation system whenever I’m in SD. I also carry extra cash for a taxi, just in case.
Thanks for the tip. Phoenix also installed some red light cameras many years ago when I lived there and I saw people getting their photo taken when in the middle of an intersection when the light turned, which is definitely not fair.