Heads UP: Think You Can Exceed The Speed Limit By 5 To 10 MPH? Maybe Not

[imurhuckleberry]

snip>
Basically, to make up for lost revenue because a weak economy has cut into tax collections, state and local governments are encouraging officers to be less forgiving.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/03/speeding_tickets_economy_cushi.html

[ixion]

1. Which proves it has nothing to do with the common good, and everything to do with

a revenue stream for greedy, corrupt politicians.

[newportdadde]

4. It is always about the money which is why you can pay your way out of any real harm.

Speeding ticket? Go get a lawyer and for 150 or so for them and a doubling of the fine.. ie a bribe you can get that ticket changed to vechile malfunction. No points its all about the money.

[MajorChode]

37. It costs much less in many areas

The standard lawyer fee around here is $100. Some of them get the fine cut in half or you pay the basic fine amount at most. You don't have to go to driving school. You don't get any points on your license. You don't get a higher insurance premium. The lawyer does all this with a 5 min phone call.

[kestrel91316]

6. In the case of Los Angeles, because we are nearly bankrupt from the plummeting

business tax revenues (ask me how I know), it's to keep our streets paved/potholes filled, keep libraries and parks open, and pay fire and police.

But do carry on with your utterly nonsensical RW TALKING POINT.

[ixion]

7. Saying that pols are corrupt and greedy is now a RW talking point?

Who knew? :eyes:

[kestrel91316]

8. Whining about having to pay a SPEEDING TICKET because pols are

"greedy and corrupt" sure is. Dems know that cities have to have income to pay for the services they provide, and are acutely aware that if we don't get it through taxes, then we have to get it via fines/fees.

Seeking to evade responsibility for one's misdeeds is increasingly a RW trait also.

[ixion]

9. According to the GOP: "Greed is good"

so your argument is ridiculous.

Made ever moreso by the FACT that the article ADMITS that money is the motivating factor.

Call me a RW'er again and we take it to the mods.

[Gman2]

22. What a dumbass, what happens when far too many lose their driving privileges?

Our ecomony tanks. That is unconstitutional, to balance the budget on ruining peoples, and families lives. I had a fucking crooked cop, and judgew make up laws whole cloth. I ruined their crooked fucking asses. Sure they got even with me. Four cops with guns in my face, insisting on bursting into my home at midnite.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

10. So we should be speeding since the fines go to good causes?

What would happen if all of us obeyed the law, would those items go away for lack of funds?

Seriously, long term required services should not be supported by sin taxes or penalties since the behavior that generates that revenue is intended to be changed by the taxes and fines. An example of this is using cigarette tax money to fund non-smoking related health care. When smoking goes away or is seriously cut back, the health care will still need to be funded and there will be no revenue to support it.

[Romulox]

11. Speeding tickets are *supposed* to be issued in the interest of public safety

If LA needs more revenues, it should tax its wealth residents, rather than issue regressive and petty speeding tickets!

[ixion]

13. Precisely

It amounts in this case to taxation w/o representation.

[Romulox]

17. Cops *love* to issue tickets as "out of towner" taxes. I had my CC swiped by the side of the road

in North Dakota. It was either that, or go directly to the court house. 5 mph over.

[TheMadMonk]

12. It's both. Simple solution as mentioned downthread: Don't Speed!

Where I come from we don't just have to deal with smokeys hiding behind billboards but unmanned speed cameras at clearly signposted locations.

And yet many of these cameras still manage to bring in millions off dollars a year each. Yes it is revenue rasing, but I'm all in favour of it. Anything which taxes stupidity is all good in my books.

The rule is: Do not exceed speed X at any time. Not: Do not speed if someone is/might be watching.

[ixion]

14. 5 miles an hour is a reasonable buffer

and busting people for 5 mile variance is petty and stupid and ultimately counter productive.

[TheMadMonk]

24. 5 MPH is 9% or more. Our allowable buffer is 3 kph. (2MPH)

And there's talk of dropping that to 2 kph.

9% (up to 20% in lower speed limit neighbourhoods) is a pretty large leadfoot allowance.

The difference between an impact velocity of 5 kph and 30+ kph at maximum braking is only 5kph at 60kph.

<10% over the limit = the difference between getting sworn at (or doing the swearing) and causing serious injury or death.

[ixion]

28. in general, I'm talking about aterials and up

not residential neighborhoods.

[TheMadMonk]

34. Even in general you're talking at least 7% for fast roads and that 9%...

...for the average open road. Running with traffic, the average driver maintains speed to within a couple of percent. Asking to be forgiven an "error" 3-4 times larger is a trifle rich doancha think?

[ixion]

35. No, I don't think

5 mph has been an acceptable buffer. I'll not give it up lightly.

[Xithras]

29. Historically, the 5MPH cushion had nothing to do with police courtesy.

It was implemented because old mechanical speedometers were inexact and were generally only accurate to within 2-3MPH of your actual speed. When you added in other variables such as tire wear, inflation, and temperature, they are regularly off by up to 10%. As the vehicles aged and the speedometers wore, their accuracy could vary even more. Police writing tickets to people who were 1-5MPH over the limit were constantly defending those tickets against challenges by people who claimed that their speedometers were inaccurate, and who could get dealerships to certify to those inaccuracies. The tickets usually just got tossed or were downgraded to a fix-it, which generates little revenue.

Todays police know three things. 1) Modern electronic speedometers are far more accurate than their predecessors from 20-30 years ago, which limits the legal wiggle room of drivers wanting to challenge tickets. 2) Judges are less lenient about these things than they were in the past. 3) Traffic court is a huge hassle, and most people nowadays aren't going to bother challenging them anyway.

[Winterblues]

15. Pretty simple fix for that....obey the law...

:shrug:

[Upton]

2. Simple solution.....

obey the speed limit..

[Love Bug]

3. But.. but.. but.. I thought the speed limit was like the Pirate Code: guidelines

[jayfish]

5. For The Past Few Years I've Actually Been Going...

5mph below the speed limit(70mph)on the highway. It saves me anywhere from 2-5 miles per gallon.

FSH

[SocialistLez]

26. Same here

When I'm in a 70 mph zone, I try to go 65.
When I'm in a 60, I try to go 55 mph.

[mdmc]

16. not if you are a minority

[fascisthunter]

19. it's always been this way for minorities, now whites will have to pay more attention

and yes, you are right, because I've seen it too many times personally and it sickens me!

[fascisthunter]

18. in my neighborhood we have a fucking stop sign at the end of almost every street

it's unnecessary, and a fucking waste of tax dollars. If it were an intersection, that would be one thing, but at the end of almost every street? That's just stupid!

As for this, I am not surprised, but also dumb. The speed limits around here are too low already!

[NNN0LHI]

20. Around here its parents with little kids who demand them

Kind of can't blame them.

Don

[fascisthunter]

21. people should not be stopping for a sign, but for the child.

People are supposed slow down to almost a stop at the end of any street. You'd have to be blind not to see the child, and at the end of a street that isn't an intersection, makes no sense at all. I don't know too many people who continue at the same speed when getting to the end of any street to make a turn. It's dumb...

intersections are fine with me, but not at the end of a street... it's useless.

[cherokeeprogressive]

27. What drivers are supposed to do as opposed to what they actually do is the problem.

Most people don't slow down to a stop at the end of every street. "you'd have to be blind not to see the child..." I guess there are hundreds of thousands of blind people behind the wheel then because it happens far too often.

IF, as you say, drivers are supposed to slow down almost to a stop at the end of every street, what does it hurt to actually come to a stop?

[fascisthunter]

36. It's a Waste of Tax Money, that's why...

Try continuing without stopping at the end of a street and then make a left or right turn... it's impossible without driving like you were in in Dukes of Hazard... nobody drives that way. It's a waste of tax money.

[elocs]

23. If tickets were given to everyone going 5 mph over the limit,

90% of drivers would get tickets everyday. Traffic in my city routinely moves 5-10 over the limit and the police leave them alone. Why? Because you can't stop everyone. Driving at night when you may be one of the only vehicles out there they may pick you off.

Check out the speed traps here: http://www.speedtrap.org/

My city has some on the list. Anyone can be driving 5 mph over the limit. Check out the expressways near Chicago and when they are not backed up it is usual to see traffic moving at up to 80 mph with the posted limit at 55 mph, but you will only rarely ever see anyone stopped and they are usually the ones going 90. Anyone driving 55 in that sort a traffic is a menace to other drives. On the other hand, go to the suburbs and you will find their cops handing out tickets for the 5 mph over.

However, despite what the self-righteous "well just drive the speed limit" preachers say, tickets issued at those low speeds over the limit are about revenue and not safety. It's about money.

I got a speeding ticket a couple of weeks ago. Driving at night while delivering my papers, driving exactly the same way and speed I have done for a year, I was stopped by a cop on a street where we were the only vehicles there. It was my first speeding ticket in over 29 years, the last was by a State Trooper in Florida and there I was driving with Wisconsin plates. I've got to say that getting the ticket did not really bother me much because in those 29 years I had driven over 200,000 miles and had sped the same way tens of thousands of times. I will just be careful when I am the only vehicle out there and otherwise move with the flow of traffic.

[MajorChode]

39. If enforcement were higher, compliance would be higher

Some countries have speed cameras that work in much the same way as red light cameras. I think they would be a great idea in some areas during some times of the day. Part of the reason why you have traffic problems is some people refuse to travel at the speed of traffic and they weave in and out creating backlog. If traffic moved more uniformly, it would be far more efficient.

[Jamastiene]

25. I always go the speed limit. Even cops pass me out of impatience. n/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

30. When traffic 'opens up' in LA... 5am on weekdays, people go 80 mph

[cherokeeprogressive]

31. Double the fine and stop EVERYONE who gets caught going 5mph over.

And fuck you if you think the law doesn't apply to YOU.

A habitual speeder's brake lights are on more often than a driver who obeys the speed limit because the speeder is always hitting his brakes. I don't know how many of you have ever driven in Los Angeles style traffic, but it's tight and fast. One brake light causes people to hit their brakes for a quarter of a mile behind that car and sooner or later there will be a rear end collision. All because someone has to get to their destination a minute sooner.

Speeders tailgate. Speeders pass on the right. Speeders cause accidents because too many of them do not understand the physics involved in bring a 4,000lb vehicle to a stop from speed.

Double the fine and ticket EVERYONE who gets caught going 5 over.

If you disagree with my post, try posting something that JUSTIFIES GOING OVER THE SPEED LIMIT other than your own impatience.

[MindPilot]

38. and fuck you if you believe speed limits have anything to do with safety

or the efficient movement of traffic.

It is so easy to win an argument with an authoritarian.

[cherokeeprogressive]

42. Gee. In your effort to "win an argument with an authoritarian", you neglected to state the reason

YOU should be exempt from traffic laws. Funny, that. I didn't expect that part of my post to be responded to anyway, seeing as how you CAN'T find an acceptable reason other than your own need for speed.

And gee, speed limits have nothing to do with safety? Um, okay. Here's some reading for you.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_limits#Design_speed

[MindPilot]

43. A preemptive "fuck you" to anyone who dares to question the law

along with other derogatory assumptions does not a cogent argument make. And then you link to an article that totally discredits your point.

My case rests.

[BlooInBloo]

32. Get a phone app for avoiding speed traps...

Like Trapster:

http://www.trapster.com/

[flvegan]

33. Simple solution: Valentine1.

Well, if it's legal in your state.

[backscatter712]

40. It's all about the revenue.

What, you think public safety has anything to do with speed enforcement? :rofl:

Why do you think people routinely drive 5-10 mph above the speed limit? Because it's safe to do so, because roads are over-engineered, because city governments set the limits well below the road's engineered safe speed so their cops can rake in the bucks from speedtraps!

[MindPilot]

41. Any traffic engineer will tell that 85 is the magic number.

The limit should be set at or slightly above the speed at which 85% of the vehicles are traveling. Study after study has shown that when that is the case compliance goes way up and accidents go way down. But just like installing RLCs instead of timing the lights to the way drivers actually approach an intersection, it doesn't make anyone any money.

[terrell9584]

44. I go the speed limit

When I see cops myself or when my radar detector tells me I need to.