Luke ‘n’ Bill

So you may or may not have seen on Ross’s blog a while back, he got tricked by the good ol’ SFPD and more specifically  whatever company it is that they sold their soul to.

He was making a right hand turn on one of the few roads in Sioux Falls where a right on red is illegal, but instead of the usual position of the sign (on the vertical light pole above or below the signal you are watching), this sign directing you “No right on red” is placed on the horizontal beam towards the center of the street.  Not so convenient to see.  This is all done of course to improve the amount of tickets and there for revenue created by these lights for both the company that installed them and the SFPD.

Heck, even after knowing about the lights they were still able to trick me.

About a week after Ross had his run in with the traffic light, I was heading back to my hotel from a Blend gathering and for some unkown reason I decided to take a route which brought me past the afore mentioned light.  Bad choice.  I was also going to take a right and even took the time to track down the sign that Ross has complained about and noticed that it was awkwardly positioned.   However, I knew the trap was set on this light so I patiently waited as no one drove by (it was around 11:30 or so at night).  Right then I noticed a drunkerd stumbling down the sidewalk and eyeing the crosswalk signal he started across as the light turned green and the crosswalk signal read “Walk”.  So I waited for him to scurry across the sidewalk and then I proceeded to take a right turn once the crosswalk was clear.

Just as I started to roll forward I saw a bright white flash.  I knew there wasn’t any traffic coming, so I ruled out the possibility of being struck by a semi and getting a direct shot into heaven.  That and I was raised Catholic…so I have to make a pit stop in pergatory first.  So I assumed it was the traffic light and slammed on the breaks.

At this time I would like to take a short break to give kudos to all of the engineering, R&D, production line members, test team and salesmen at the company who makes the breaks for Nissan’s Altima.  You saved me a ticket.

Now back to the story.  So I hold on my breaks, look up at the right arrow and at that instant it flips to green.  I had forgot that the turn arrows stay red for another 5 seconds or so after the light turns green.  After it turns green, I continued on and recieved the next 2 flashes which of course “Busted” me going through a green light!

So for now, I haven’t recieved a ticket yet and this occured a little under a month ago.  So I’ll keep my fingers crossed that they aren’t sending anything out.

Oh and what reminded me of all of this was a picture in the daily WTF of a van being busted for speeding (while getting towed).