I got a red light ticket, at an intersection where a traffic cop guided me thru the light. i fought it with their own picture, which had the traffic cops arm in the picture - white glove and all.
At court, I was up 3rd. I explained to the judge about the traffic cop in the intersection, but the judge didn't buy it, even when I asked if he thought it was Michael Jackson.
Frustrated, I turned to the other people in the courtroom, and asked how many were here for this same ticket at the same time and place. over a dozen people raised their hands. Then I asked if anyone else had picture depicting more of the cops presence. Sure enough, NO ONE had a better picture of this cop...
I was just about to turn back to the judge and say something like - no one has a picture of this cop, but we all say he was there and waving traffic thru - when an old lady speaks up and says "I have a picture of that cop in my right turn ticket", and YES! she did!
the judge told everyone with a ticket from that intersection and that date to step up to the bench to have their tickets dismissed...
You got super lucky. I drive in NYC on a fairly regular basis and it is littered with traffic cameras. I had a couple of tickets from such cameras.
There is basically no disputing the tickets. I mean you can try, but in NYC at least they lowered the fine to $50 or so, and for the vast majority of people it just isn't worth $50 to spend a day in court... and I do mean a day.
What's really terrible is that if you actually talk to cops, they will tell you that the cameras have caused more accidents than they prevented.
The yellow lights ARE shortened to where if you're going even a little over the limit, I mean within 5-10mph of the limit, unless you have high performance breaks, and high traction tires, you're not gonna stop in time, and if you do, good chance you're gonna get rear ended.
BTW, one of the tickets I got, was in traffic, I was literally wedged between other cars. Doesn't matter that I was stuck in the spot for 10 minutes, unable to move and crawled to the middle of the intersection. Still had to pay.
The companies that run the cameras are for profit, and the cameras are a great money maker for the city. In the current economy... they are installing more and more cameras.
Bottom line, these cameras do more harm than good. I don't run red lights not because I'm worried about a ticket, but because I don't want to be hit by another car driving on green.
My $.02