So, my friend told me to drive with this on so I can avoid red light tickets
 

Pretty hilarious, but does anyone recall the story where some guy was wearing a mask and kept running red light for tickets, but claimed it was not him?

The thing my friend was talking about:
http://hypefind.com/shop/accoutrements-horse-head-mask/

The one time I accidentally ran a red in front of one of those I ducked. Someone got to see a picture of a car driving itself through a red.. I never got the ticket though!

No points can be issued if the driver is a horse. Horses do not get a driver's license.
Also, if the driver was not a horse, the 'no points' statement made depends upon the state in which the infraction occurred.

"Accidentally" can many times mean 'accident' or death... and "accidentally" means nothing to a law enforcement officer..

Here in Los Angeles County, the red light cameras have been abandoned because they became unprofitable. This is mainly because the majority of owners hide their faces, or the offenders went a foot or 2 ahead of the line. The city lost case after case. The city never took down the cameras though.

Same in Chicago. A lot of them are being taken down due to not generating enough money. Plus, if the camera cant see your face.... even if you get a ticket in the mail you can dispute it. You have a right to face your accuser directly in court. You cannot face a robot and have it defend its actions. Worked for me. Twice. Know your rights!

Thank you for that, very helpful. The situation was completely risk free and it was ran at under walking speed only due to my visibility of the turn arrow being blocked.

Yep, so long as everyone fights their tickets, it's no longer a profitable business for the city and they'll be removed.

I've been hit twice by these lights but never got any tickets. Maybe they haven't captured the plate enough either way I don't worry about these anymore

You could just not run red lights? v0v

Its a little tougher on some of the camera intersections. They have studies and graphs that show that as they shorten the yellow interval revenue goes up. In some cases they are able to get juridictions to change the timing of the intersection. the redlight camera compaines recommend short yellow and a delayed green for oncoming/crossing traffic as the ideal.

It is controversial whether they have improved safety at all as they quote statistics that include the delayed green (which is probably what reduces collisions more than the threat of a ticket). the companies keep about half the take so it can add up fast. they keep it a non-moving violation due to the enforcement issues mentioned by others and to encourage people to just pay and not fight it. they even have studies of how much they can charge in each area; they try to get as much as they can without hitting a threshold where people start to fight their tickets.

its a bizarre form of taxation by a for profit public private partnership that probably needs a bit more scrutiny but in the end isnt much different than small infamous cities that vary speed limits on thoroughfares to generate speeding ticket income (Emporia VA)

Not only are they not profitable for the jurisdictions where they are used (most of the profits go to the camera maker) but they've been shown to be unconstitutional time and time again.

That's why they're going the way of the Dodo Bird.

BTW, as someone briefly mentioned, most of the cameras are left and and even operational (just with no film) so one that's no longer being used for tickets could still flash at you and make you think you'll be ticketed. Bastards!!!