Cops and ticketing quotas

[MechAg94]

When a town drops the speed limit from 55 to 30 for a road that is 50 yards wide with no schools or buisness close on the road, you know they are just trolling to revenue.  There is little or no reason to even low the speed limit in that town.  I have responded by bypassing the town altogether when I drive that way.   

[Jocassee]

And yet i've driven just over 400 k miles without a ticket.
Am i that lucky?

damn phone

You're probably slow. And inconspicuous. I am honest enough to admit I am not that slow and neither of my vehicles is inconspicuous.

[Balog]

And yet i've driven just over 400 k miles without a ticket.
Am i that lucky?

damn phone

Your experience is, once again, not a universal reflection of how things are for everyone everywhere. It's been many years since I got a ticket too, what's your point? All I said was that if a cop wanted to pull you over (because he needed to make quota, because he thought you looked like a promising asset forfeiture candidate, because you're young and you're black and you're hats pulled low, whatever) then he could find a way that you're violating traffic laws.

Kinda like how the average American committs three felonies a day, even though most folks on here can probably point at many years of living and no felony charges.

[AZRedhawk44]

So what will your argument be, in your jury trial?  

[Nick1911]

When a town drops the speed limit from 55 to 30 for a road that is 50 yards wide with no schools or buisness close on the road, you know they are just trolling to revenue.  There is little or no reason to even low the speed limit in that town.  I have responded by bypassing the town altogether when I drive that way.   

I've taken to being a pedant in these situations, braking swiftly before the sign, slowly coasting through exactly on the speed limit, then zooming back up at the next speed limit sign.

People behind me are often annoyed about it, but all I'm doing is following the law.  I've saved a few from getting a ticket themselves.

[Jocassee]

So what will your argument be, in your jury trial?  

Still working on it but primarily it depends on charming the sweet southern church ladies who I envision will be on the jury.

Seriously though I don't have any good ideas. I plan on asking for the calibration records of the radar, if he was using radar. I don't know if SCHP uses Lidar and if they do if there are any loopholes.

[AZRedhawk44]

He didn't use radar, according to what he said road-side with us.

He passed us while we were taking pics of that meadow and mountain range about 2 miles earlier, and probably was in the act of turning around on a side road to establish a speed trap and saw us go by.



Then he passed me at triple digits with his siren off but lights on (when I was just about to pass a little pickup truck between you and me, scaring the bejeezus out of me in the process), put his siren on for you, pulled you over and then instructed me to join you guys.

I was more than a bit irked by the way he passed me.

[Jocassee]

He didn't use radar, according to what he said road-side with us.

He passed us while we were taking pics of that meadow and mountain range about 2 miles earlier, and probably was in the act of turning around on a side road to establish a speed trap and saw us go by.

Then he passed me at triple digits with his siren off but lights on (when I was just about to pass a little pickup truck between you and me, scaring the bejeezus out of me in the process), put his siren on for you, pulled you over and then instructed me to join you guys.

I was more than a bit irked by the way he passed me.

I'll call you later.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Slow? Have you been following me?

I learned my lesson when they took my license for 17 years. The first 10 of which i continued to drive.
Not recommended particularly in va

damn phone

[lupinus]

So how about the stretch of highway running through Jocasseetown that you will quite likely cause an accident by following the artificially slow speed limit, and if you get a ticket your just hte unlucky SOB they decided to ping that day?

[Balog]

Interstates were designed for safe travel at what, 70-75? And that was at a time when the best sports cars in the world had such poor handling they get spanked by a modern mini-van. Speed limits are set so ridiculously, artificially low solely because they know most folks will ignore them, and any time they want some extra revenue all they have to do is mosy on out and collect some unofficial taxes.

[charby]

Interstates were designed for safe travel at what, 70-75? And that was at a time when the best sports cars in the world had such poor handling they get spanked by a modern mini-van. Speed limits are set so ridiculously, artificially low solely because they know most folks will ignore them, and any time they want some extra revenue all they have to do is mosy on out and collect some unofficial taxes.

I didn't know your were an actuary or an expert in traffic analysis.

[charby]

So how about the stretch of highway running through Jocasseetown that you will quite likely cause an accident by following the artificially slow speed limit, and if you get a ticket your just hte unlucky SOB they decided to ping that day?

Because there are selfish people who feel that speed limits do not apply to them.

[Balog]

I didn't know your were an actuary or an expert in traffic analysis.

 

Oddly enough you aren't either, and yet your opinion on the exact same subject is somehow more valid than mine. Strange that.

Whatever, I'm sure the .gov has nothing but our good in mind, so I'm terribly, terribly sorry for daring to question their benevolent wisdom. Please forgive me for impugning the heroes in our local revenue generation thin blue line of self less and impartial protecting people from themselves.

[Balog]

Because there are selfish people who feel that speed limits do not apply to them.

Remember kids, doubting that Big Brother only wants the best for you (and knows the best way to live your life) is selfish selfish hate thought.

[lupinus]

Because there are selfish people who feel that speed limits do not apply to them.

Right.

Of course.

How silly of me

[charby]

Right.

Of course.

How silly of me

So you are fine with exceeding the speed limit and putting other people at risk? What about the person pulling out of their driveway, who is used to people doing the speed limit, sees you from a safe distance and starts to pull out but you are doing 20 miles over the speed limit and you T-bone them?

The libertarian thought isn't me, myself and I, yes it is about personal responsibility, but it also about not becoming going against the societal norms.

No different then the folks who feel the need to park in the fire lane because they are too lazy/selfish to park elsewhere and walk an extra 20 feet to run in and run out a place.

[charby]

Oddly enough you aren't either, and yet your opinion on the exact same subject is somehow more valid than mine. Strange that.

Whatever, I'm sure the .gov has nothing but our good in mind, so I'm terribly, terribly sorry for daring to question their benevolent wisdom. Please forgive me for impugning the heroes in our local revenue generation thin blue line of self less and impartial protecting people from themselves.

I'm not either but why do vehicle accidents go up when speed limits are increased? You can look at stats all over the various governmental agencies websites that show that.

[Balog]

I'm not either but why do vehicle accidents go up when speed limits are increased? You can look at stats all over the various governmental agencies websites that show that.

1. Are those the same stats that show total causes of death at around %300?
2. Well shoot, let's just make all speed limits 10 mph enforced with mandatory governors. Problem solved!

So you are fine with exceeding the speed limit and putting other people at risk? What about the person pulling out of their driveway, who is used to people doing the speed limit, sees you from a safe distance and starts to pull out but you are doing 20 miles over the speed limit and you T-bone them?

The libertarian thought isn't me, myself and I, yes it is about personal responsibility, but it also about not becoming going against the societal norms. No different then the folks who feel the need to park in the fire lane because they are too lazy/selfish to park elsewhere and walk an extra 20 feet to run in and run out a place.

Lot of silly BS in this post, but regarding the bolded part: if gay marriage is against societal norms we should outlaw it and anyone who tries it is just selfish, right?

[lupinus]

So you are fine with exceeding the speed limit and putting other people at risk? What about the person pulling out of their driveway, who is used to people doing the speed limit, sees you from a safe distance and starts to pull out but you are doing 20 miles over the speed limit and you T-bone them?

The libertarian thought isn't me, myself and I, yes it is about personal responsibility, but it also about not becoming going against the societal norms.

No different then the folks who feel the need to park in the fire lane because they are too lazy/selfish to park elsewhere and walk an extra 20 feet to run in and run out a place.

How many people have driveways coming out into a highway with a speed limit 10-15 mpf lower than the common flow of traffic?

[charby]

How many people have driveways coming out into a highway with a speed limit 10-15 mpf lower than the common flow of traffic?

Huh?

[charby]

1. Are those the same stats that show total causes of death at around %300?
2. Well shoot, let's just make all speed limits 10 mph enforced with mandatory governors. Problem solved!

Lot of silly BS in this post, but regarding the bolded part: if gay marriage is against societal norms we should outlaw it and anyone who tries it is just selfish, right?

Actually most of the polls now show that a slight majority (means over 50%) are fine with gay marriage. source: http://www.pollingreport.com/civil.htm

How about this, you decide to dump vehicle antifreeze into the storm drain because you didn't want to pay for the disposal at a resource recovery center? Is that libertarian?

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

How many people have driveways coming out into a highway with a speed limit 10-15 mpf lower than the common flow of traffic?

come for a drive with me in va.  i can show you hundreds

[charby]

Huh?

Never mind, I got what you were saying.

All over the place where I live, most highways (not interstates) in the really rural areas have at least 2 driveways per mile (at least one house on each side of the road per section of land), as it goes into more populated area, you may have a driveway every 100' or less. These are highways at 55mph, not divided interstate highways.

[AZRedhawk44]

Ick... I'm going to agree with CSD.

There are hundreds of thousands of homes in America with direct driveway access to a major rural artery or even state or US highway, between 45 and 65 mph speed zones posted.

That being said, Charby's silly groupthink post about societal norms is a pretty empty argument.

Most of those homes have such large driveways that they are practically roads unto themselves, and the homeowner or visitor to that home can enter nose-first into the driveway, as well as leave nose-first.  This gives best visibility and best acceleration to merge to responsible traveling speed.