School bus tickets seem like a scam that scream corruption

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

What's your solution to the both problems?

There is no help for the 20% of the citations going out for non violations.

The passing the school buses isn't stopping because of these cameras. Violations are still continuing and children are still in danger. Other jurisdictions have real solutions that are actually stopping cars from passing school buses. But that's the same force as you posting on an anonymous forum and saying "stop it." Sure.

Automated traffic enforcement works. Does it stop 100% of violations? Nope. However, it sure reduces the number of violations.

Banning cars would stop drivers from passing stopped school buses, too, but you probably wouldn't go for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is more of a local politics issue.

It’s kind of both.

It is only a school issue very tangentially as a safety issue, but it very much is a political issue.

OP, stop passing school buses when the lights and arm and engaged.

Students getting run over (or not) on their way to/from school is very much a school issue.

Then you should support cameras!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

What's your solution to the both problems?

There is no help for the 20% of the citations going out for non violations.

The passing the school buses isn't stopping because of these cameras. Violations are still continuing and children are still in danger. Other jurisdictions have real solutions that are actually stopping cars from passing school buses. But that's the same force as you posting on an anonymous forum and saying "stop it." Sure.

Automated traffic enforcement works. Does it stop 100% of violations? Nope. However, it sure reduces the number of violations.

Banning cars would stop drivers from passing stopped school buses, too, but you probably wouldn't go for that.

No it doesn't work. The fines are not being paid by half the people and violations are not down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm with PP on this one. My husband got one of these on a six lane road with a nearly 50 MPH speed limit. He was in the farthest most right lane, bus was farthest lane opposite side. There were FOUR LANES of traffic moving between them. We watched the video. The bus stopped just as he was passing on the opposite side. He would have a) had to have been looking completely perpendicular to the road to see the bus through, again, FOUR lanes of moving traffic on dangerous road that buses have NO business stopping on in the first place and then SLAMMED on his brakes going 45 mph. That sounds like a safe scenario! The craziest part was to fight it he would have had to go to Annapolis and apparently if you lose the fight they can double the ticket.

It takes some doing to not see a school bus, especially since the driver flips the yellow lights on first.

So are you in the habit of looking sideways going 50 on a six lane urban road?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm with PP on this one. My husband got one of these on a six lane road with a nearly 50 MPH speed limit. He was in the farthest most right lane, bus was farthest lane opposite side. There were FOUR LANES of traffic moving between them. We watched the video. The bus stopped just as he was passing on the opposite side. He would have a) had to have been looking completely perpendicular to the road to see the bus through, again, FOUR lanes of moving traffic on dangerous road that buses have NO business stopping on in the first place and then SLAMMED on his brakes going 45 mph. That sounds like a safe scenario! The craziest part was to fight it he would have had to go to Annapolis and apparently if you lose the fight they can double the ticket.

It takes some doing to not see a school bus, especially since the driver flips the yellow lights on first.

So are you in the habit of looking sideways going 50 on a six lane urban road?

If you have to look sideways while driving 50 mph to see a school bus whose driver just flipped the yellow lights on, then you are not passing a stopped school bus in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm with PP on this one. My husband got one of these on a six lane road with a nearly 50 MPH speed limit. He was in the farthest most right lane, bus was farthest lane opposite side. There were FOUR LANES of traffic moving between them. We watched the video. The bus stopped just as he was passing on the opposite side. He would have a) had to have been looking completely perpendicular to the road to see the bus through, again, FOUR lanes of moving traffic on dangerous road that buses have NO business stopping on in the first place and then SLAMMED on his brakes going 45 mph. That sounds like a safe scenario! The craziest part was to fight it he would have had to go to Annapolis and apparently if you lose the fight they can double the ticket.

It takes some doing to not see a school bus, especially since the driver flips the yellow lights on first.

So are you in the habit of looking sideways going 50 on a six lane urban road?

If you have to look sideways while driving 50 mph to see a school bus whose driver just flipped the yellow lights on, then you are not passing a stopped school bus in the first place.

But those drivers are getting video citations from this private company. They review the video in their offices in Virginia and send tens of thousands to the two police officers to review. Under the contract the company is allowed to forward citations that are not collectible at the rate of 20% of the total. They claim to have ticketed 100,000 vehicles which means 20,000 of those citations would be in the not collectible category and can get passed on to drivers whose only recourse is to go to court. It is in the best interest of the vendor to forward as many citations as possible as they are collecting 100% of the revenue.

[Anonymous]

OP here, I don’t have a problem with the bus cameras although it does sound like some of the tickets are not being issued properly. I have a problem with the state of Maryland giving the fines to a private corporation. The county resources (officers and courts) have to hear cases and are not receiving the fine revenue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm with PP on this one. My husband got one of these on a six lane road with a nearly 50 MPH speed limit. He was in the farthest most right lane, bus was farthest lane opposite side. There were FOUR LANES of traffic moving between them. We watched the video. The bus stopped just as he was passing on the opposite side. He would have a) had to have been looking completely perpendicular to the road to see the bus through, again, FOUR lanes of moving traffic on dangerous road that buses have NO business stopping on in the first place and then SLAMMED on his brakes going 45 mph. That sounds like a safe scenario! The craziest part was to fight it he would have had to go to Annapolis and apparently if you lose the fight they can double the ticket.

It takes some doing to not see a school bus, especially since the driver flips the yellow lights on first.

So are you in the habit of looking sideways going 50 on a six lane urban road?

If you have to look sideways while driving 50 mph to see a school bus whose driver just flipped the yellow lights on, then you are not passing a stopped school bus in the first place.

But those drivers are getting video citations from this private company. They review the video in their offices in Virginia and send tens of thousands to the two police officers to review. Under the contract the company is allowed to forward citations that are not collectible at the rate of 20% of the total. They claim to have ticketed 100,000 vehicles which means 20,000 of those citations would be in the not collectible category and can get passed on to drivers whose only recourse is to go to court. It is in the best interest of the vendor to forward as many citations as possible as they are collecting 100% of the revenue.

If people are getting citations for passing stopped school buses, when they didn't pass stopped school buses, then that's a problem.

But if people are saying that it's just too difficult for them to see and stop for stopped school buses -- seriously? Stop for the bus. The end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm with PP on this one. My husband got one of these on a six lane road with a nearly 50 MPH speed limit. He was in the farthest most right lane, bus was farthest lane opposite side. There were FOUR LANES of traffic moving between them. We watched the video. The bus stopped just as he was passing on the opposite side. He would have a) had to have been looking completely perpendicular to the road to see the bus through, again, FOUR lanes of moving traffic on dangerous road that buses have NO business stopping on in the first place and then SLAMMED on his brakes going 45 mph. That sounds like a safe scenario! The craziest part was to fight it he would have had to go to Annapolis and apparently if you lose the fight they can double the ticket.

It takes some doing to not see a school bus, especially since the driver flips the yellow lights on first.

So are you in the habit of looking sideways going 50 on a six lane urban road?

If you have to look sideways while driving 50 mph to see a school bus whose driver just flipped the yellow lights on, then you are not passing a stopped school bus in the first place.

But those drivers are getting video citations from this private company. They review the video in their offices in Virginia and send tens of thousands to the two police officers to review. Under the contract the company is allowed to forward citations that are not collectible at the rate of 20% of the total. They claim to have ticketed 100,000 vehicles which means 20,000 of those citations would be in the not collectible category and can get passed on to drivers whose only recourse is to go to court. It is in the best interest of the vendor to forward as many citations as possible as they are collecting 100% of the revenue.

If people are getting citations for passing stopped school buses, when they didn't pass stopped school buses, then that's a problem.

But if people are saying that it's just too difficult for them to see and stop for stopped school buses -- seriously? Stop for the bus. The end.

You fixed it! Good work. Thanks for giving drivers magic powers to see through cars, across 6 lanes of traffic and in the opposite direction and stop with 1 second notice. MCPS can continue to drop children off at inherently dangerous bus stops, force them to run across six lanes of traffic and put their lives at risk every day because you said "The end."

[Anonymous]

Who are all of these people who are defending drivers who are passing stopped school buses?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who are all of these people who are defending drivers who are passing stopped school buses?

^^^And what six-lane roads with 50-mph speed limits are there in Montgomery County? There's Columbia Pike, and then there's...well, what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who are all of these people who are defending drivers who are passing stopped school buses?

Here's an example, I was driving North on Rockville Pike in the far right lane. A school bus was in the far right lane going South. It stopped and put it's sign out just as I passed. From my perspective, I couldn't tell if I needed to stop or not. There were cars all around going 35mph and I couldn't even see the bus's sign coming out. I never got a ticket for it but I couldn't tell if I was supposed to stop since I couldn't see if it was next to the medium or after where the turn area is. I don't think they could have got my license plate anyway since I was surrounded by cars but buses shouldn't be stopping on Rockville Pike. They should be going into the apartment parking lot and letting kids on/off there like every other school district in the country would do. Here's where I was when the bus put out the sign. I had no idea it was going to stop.
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.0722579,-77.1331632,3a,75y,329.65h,73t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sDbRXeRJtfqbcmViLaJgiwg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who are all of these people who are defending drivers who are passing stopped school buses?

Here's an example, I was driving North on Rockville Pike in the far right lane. A school bus was in the far right lane going South. It stopped and put it's sign out just as I passed. From my perspective, I couldn't tell if I needed to stop or not. There were cars all around going 35mph and I couldn't even see the bus's sign coming out. I never got a ticket for it but I couldn't tell if I was supposed to stop since I couldn't see if it was next to the medium or after where the turn area is. I don't think they could have got my license plate anyway since I was surrounded by cars but buses shouldn't be stopping on Rockville Pike. They should be going into the apartment parking lot and letting kids on/off there like every other school district in the country would do. Here's where I was when the bus put out the sign. I had no idea it was going to stop.
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.0722579,-77.1331632,3a,75y,329.65h,73t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sDbRXeRJtfqbcmViLaJgiwg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

This isn't an automated enforcement issue. This is an issue of your not knowing the law.

Here's the law:

(a) If a school vehicle has stopped on a roadway and is operating the alternately flashing red lights specified in § 22-228 of this article, the driver of any other vehicle meeting or overtaking the school vehicle shall stop at least 20 feet from the rear of the school vehicle, if approaching the school vehicle from its rear, or at least 20 feet from the front of the school vehicle, if approaching the school vehicle from its front.

(b) If a school vehicle has stopped on a roadway and is operating the alternately flashing red lights specified in § 22-228 of this article, the driver of any other vehicle meeting or overtaking the school vehicle may not proceed until the school vehicle resumes motion or the alternately flashing red lights are deactivated.

(c) This section does not apply to the driver of a vehicle on a divided highway, if the school vehicle is on a different roadway.

Now you know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who are all of these people who are defending drivers who are passing stopped school buses?

Here's an example, I was driving North on Rockville Pike in the far right lane. A school bus was in the far right lane going South. It stopped and put it's sign out just as I passed. From my perspective, I couldn't tell if I needed to stop or not. There were cars all around going 35mph and I couldn't even see the bus's sign coming out. I never got a ticket for it but I couldn't tell if I was supposed to stop since I couldn't see if it was next to the medium or after where the turn area is. I don't think they could have got my license plate anyway since I was surrounded by cars but buses shouldn't be stopping on Rockville Pike. They should be going into the apartment parking lot and letting kids on/off there like every other school district in the country would do. Here's where I was when the bus put out the sign. I had no idea it was going to stop.
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.0722579,-77.1331632,3a,75y,329.65h,73t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sDbRXeRJtfqbcmViLaJgiwg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

This isn't an automated enforcement issue. This is an issue of your not knowing the law.

Here's the law:

(a) If a school vehicle has stopped on a roadway and is operating the alternately flashing red lights specified in § 22-228 of this article, the driver of any other vehicle meeting or overtaking the school vehicle shall stop at least 20 feet from the rear of the school vehicle, if approaching the school vehicle from its rear, or at least 20 feet from the front of the school vehicle, if approaching the school vehicle from its front.

(b) If a school vehicle has stopped on a roadway and is operating the alternately flashing red lights specified in § 22-228 of this article, the driver of any other vehicle meeting or overtaking the school vehicle may not proceed until the school vehicle resumes motion or the alternately flashing red lights are deactivated.

(c) This section does not apply to the driver of a vehicle on a divided highway, if the school vehicle is on a different roadway.

Now you know.

I knew this already. Either I didn't write clearly or you didn't read everything.
1. I could not see the bus well because of vehicles near me. I drive a car, large SUV's make visibility 7 lanes over tough.
2. I could not see the bus until I was passing it.
3. After I passed it, I still could not tell if it was stopped at the divided highway portion of Rockville Pike or adjacent to the turn lane because 7 lanes of traffic were blocking my view.
4. I did not get a ticket so either it was stopped at the divided highway part or they couldn't get my plates because of all the SUV's next to my car.

[Anonymous]

Rockville Pike is a divided highway.

And, even if it weren't - if you can't see the bus, then the camera on the bus can't see your license plate.