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This. Up north, you are required to abide by the law or else receive a ticket. Atlanta could solve all of its Marta concerns if it simply starting enforces the speed limits with tickets. They would make money hand over first. It is amazinf to me the city has never thought of simply ticketing speeders to raise money.
The sentiment against excessive speed and in support of transit expansion is understandable, but it's not that simple.
Because of problems with municipalities using their local police departments to collect much (if not most) of their revenue by preying on motorists with overzealous and sometimes/often just outright corrupt enforcement of traffic laws in the past, Georgia state law seems to significantly restrict how much local police departments can enforce traffic laws.
(...Up through the 1960's, there were many local governments in Georgia that collected much of their revenue by having their local police departments prey on out-of-state motorists driving to and from tourist and vacation hotspots in the neighboring state of Florida. Some municipalities took even that overzealous enforcement too far and setup elaborate systems of local corruption to severely financially prey on unsuspecting out-of-state motorists headed to and from Florida which became a public relations and national image nightmare for the state of Georgia, so Georgia state government cracked down on overzealous speed traps (used in municipalities like Ludowici in South Georgia and the now-defunct city of Mountain View in Clayton County, etc) back during the Jimmy Carter gubernatorial administration by putting restrictions on speed enforcement by local police departments as a way of attempting to deter and prevent police abuse of motorists which was rampant throughout many parts of the state up until the early 1970's.)
For example, Georgia state law is said to restrict local police departments from ticketing motorists for speeding unless they doing more than 10 miles per hour over the posted speed limit with the exception of school zones and maybe construction zones. Because of local/regional custom and because of a desire to collect traffic enforcement revenue from the worst offenders, many local departments (particularly in the Atlanta metro area) add to that state mandate by often not ticketing motorists for speeding unless they are doing more than 15-20 miles per hour over the posted speed limit.
Local police departments are also said to be restricted by Georgia state law from using speed detection devices (like lasers) unless they are visible to oncoming motorists for a distance of at least 500 feet.
Georgia state law also seems to require that local police departments can only conduct traffic enforcement in marked patrol vehicles (unlike in many other states where police can use unmarked undercover vehicles to conduct traffic/speed enforcement).
Georgia state law also seems to require that local police departments must submit to the state a list of roads each year where they plan to conduct speed enforcement. I've seen significant tickets for speeding get thrown out by judges because local departments did not abide by those rules. Heck, I once saw a speeding ticket to a lady for doing 64 mph in a 35 mph zone on a two-lane road get thrown out by a judge because the road that the ticket was handed out on was not on the aforementioned list of roads that the local police department submitted to the state that year.
Georgia state law also seems to restrict the percentage of revenue that a municipality can collect from traffic tickets.
With the significant restrictions that Georgia state government places on local governments and local police departments, it would be difficult for a municipal government like Atlanta to collect enough revenue from overzealous speed and traffic enforcement to fund transit expansion.
Plus, large local police departments in heavily populated areas like metro Atlanta only have so many resources and only have so much manpower that they can devote to speed enforcement. Police departments in heavily populated areas like metro Atlanta have to devote most of their resources and manpower to other concerns like crime (violent crimes, assaults, armed robberies, break-ins, thefts, domestic violence calls, disorderly conduct, mental illness, response to burglary alarms, etc).
Local police departments also often have to back-up the very-limited manpower of the Georgia State Patrol on investigating and clearing collision/accident scenes on the freeway system (particularly in and around the Atlanta metro area).
With so many other areas of concern and a limited amount of resources and manpower to work with, it's no surprise that speed enforcement might sometimes (often) fall down the list of issues to be addressed by local police departments in heavily populated areas like metro Atlanta.
For example, Georgia state law is said to restrict local police departments from ticketing motorists for speeding unless they doing more than 10 miles per hour over the posted speed limit with the exception of school zones and maybe construction zones. Because of local/regional custom and because of a desire to collect traffic enforcement revenue from the worst offenders, many local departments (particularly in the Atlanta metro area) add to that state mandate by often not ticketing motorists for speeding unless they are doing more than 15-20 miles per hour over the posted speed limit.
Schools zones are explicitly exempted from the restriction? Good to know.
Speeding isn't necessarily reckless driving. If I'm going slower than the flow of traffic in the passing lane without a care in the world as to what's behind me, then I'm driving recklessly. If I pass somebody on the left at 85 MPH and then move back into the right lane after I see the headlights of the car I passed in my rear-view mirror, then I'm not driving recklessly.
It seems very common on my commute to see cars going atleast 90mph on GA 400 and 285. Outside of Doraville Police clocking people and most taking it easy on that 2-3 exit stretch, I dont see many parts of the metro where people have any fear of being caught going 85+mph.
It would be nice if those who are going over 85+mph receive a ticket instead of people doing 70 on a 55 mph area. When I read that someone got ticketed for that, I was shocked because I see how many people doing 95/100+ and wonder how they don't get ticketed more. Let's be real, a lot of the people going over 85 are doing at least 95/100.
Either way, I don't care but just think it's crazy that people get a ticket for going 10+ mph over the speed limit in a 55 mph area. For the city of Atlanta, I can understand because the merging is shorter and the traffic is more dense but for metro Atlanta, it should really be set higher.
The sentiment against excessive speed and in support of transit expansion is understandable, but it's not that simple.
Because of problems with municipalities using their local police departments to collect much (if not most) of their revenue by preying on motorists with overzealous and sometimes/often just outright corrupt enforcement of traffic laws in the past, Georgia state law seems to significantly restrict how much local police departments can enforce traffic laws.
(...Up through the 1960's, there were many local governments in Georgia that collected much of their revenue by having their local police departments prey on out-of-state motorists driving to and from tourist and vacation hotspots in the neighboring state of Florida. Some municipalities took even that overzealous enforcement too far and setup elaborate systems of local corruption to severely financially prey on unsuspecting out-of-state motorists headed to and from Florida which became a public relations and national image nightmare for the state of Georgia, so Georgia state government cracked down on overzealous speed traps (used in municipalities like Ludowici in South Georgia and the now-defunct city of Mountain View in Clayton County, etc) back during the Jimmy Carter gubernatorial administration by putting restrictions on speed enforcement by local police departments as a way of attempting to deter and prevent police abuse of motorists which was rampant throughout many parts of the state up until the early 1970's.)
For example, Georgia state law is said to restrict local police departments from ticketing motorists for speeding unless they doing more than 10 miles per hour over the posted speed limit with the exception of school zones and maybe construction zones. Because of local/regional custom and because of a desire to collect traffic enforcement revenue from the worst offenders, many local departments (particularly in the Atlanta metro area) add to that state mandate by often not ticketing motorists for speeding unless they are doing more than 15-20 miles per hour over the posted speed limit.
Local police departments are also said to be restricted by Georgia state law from using speed detection devices (like lasers) unless they are visible to oncoming motorists for a distance of at least 500 feet.
Georgia state law also seems to require that local police departments can only conduct traffic enforcement in marked patrol vehicles (unlike in many other states where police can use unmarked undercover vehicles to conduct traffic/speed enforcement).
Georgia state law also seems to require that local police departments must submit to the state a list of roads each year where they plan to conduct speed enforcement. I've seen significant tickets for speeding get thrown out by judges because local departments did not abide by those rules. Heck, I once saw a speeding ticket to a lady for doing 64 mph in a 35 mph zone on a two-lane road get thrown out by a judge because the road that the ticket was handed out on was not on the aforementioned list of roads that the local police department submitted to the state that year.
Georgia state law also seems to restrict the percentage of revenue that a municipality can collect from traffic tickets.
With the significant restrictions that Georgia state government places on local governments and local police departments, it would be difficult for a municipal government like Atlanta to collect enough revenue from overzealous speed and traffic enforcement to fund transit expansion.
Plus, large local police departments in heavily populated areas like metro Atlanta only have so many resources and only have so much manpower that they can devote to speed enforcement. Police departments in heavily populated areas like metro Atlanta have to devote most of their resources and manpower to other concerns like crime (violent crimes, assaults, armed robberies, break-ins, thefts, domestic violence calls, disorderly conduct, mental illness, response to burglary alarms, etc).
Local police departments also often have to back-up the very-limited manpower of the Georgia State Patrol on investigating and clearing collision/accident scenes on the freeway system (particularly in and around the Atlanta metro area).
With so many other areas of concern and a limited amount of resources and manpower to work with, it's no surprise that speed enforcement might sometimes (often) fall down the list of issues to be addressed by local police departments in heavily populated areas like metro Atlanta.
If we put unmarked police cars in metro ATL, im pretty sure that would cut down on much of the wreck less driving problems.
But most of your post seem to highlight all these laws Georgia make seems to be more like they dont want to get caught themselves than for the safety of the people. If they allow unmarked cars, speed cameras and more to deter dangerous driving, their family and themselves would get caught and it woulndt be beneficial to them. I guess as a law maker, you can push for laws to be beneficial to you, kinda like the whole ban guns in high crime areas when citizens have no way of protecting themselves agaisnt criminals, while the safe areas where the law makers live can have 10 guns per home lol.
I did see Alpharetta police use a plain white Chevrolet Malibu to pull someone over on GA 400 a couple weeks ago, so maybe a few department are allowed unmarked cars.
I did see Alpharetta police use a plain white Chevrolet Malibu to pull someone over on GA 400 a couple weeks ago, so maybe a few department are allowed unmarked cars.
Unmarked cars are against the law in GA. Pretty sure, it came out of the 90's when women were being pulled over in unmarked cars. The ticket could easily be thrown out of court.
That's why a lot of departments have cars with no light bars and the wording on the side is unable to be read unless you are right beside them.
I did see Alpharetta police use a plain white Chevrolet Malibu to pull someone over on GA 400 a couple weeks ago, so maybe a few department are allowed unmarked cars.
I bet they used that really tricky paint scheme where the lettering is only a few shades different than the rest of the car. I saw a trend of this years ago, haven't seen many since.
I bet they used that really tricky paint scheme where the lettering is only a few shades different than the rest of the car. I saw a trend of this years ago, haven't seen many since.
Conyers had a slightly lighter scheme similarly to this one but I can't find it.
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