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Nope. Not everybody speeds, though quite a few people do.
Sorry but you are living fairytale world. Everybody breaks traffic laws. Everybody speeds. Not quite a few, everybody. It's impossible not to. As soon as you spot a lower speed limit sign, and start to slow down, you are speeding as so as you pass the sign. Even if you slow down to the lower limit immediately, you were still speeding when you passed the sign. Any competent driver will drive with the flow of traffic. Because thats the safest speed. Which is normally 5 - 10 miles over the speed limit. Which means they are speeding.
Any honest cop will tell you that he can pull over any car he wants to. By simply following the car until the driver makes the smallest mistake. And every driver will do that eventually. Because nobody is perfect.
I have found that the best way to handle tickets is just to accept the idea that you might get them, not worry about it, and drive however you want. I do not feel I drive unsafe, but I always put aside money for a "ticket fund" and have been doing so for years, so I finally just don't worry about the greedy cop following me hoping he can squeeze some cash from me if I make the slightest error. It is no different than saving for vacations or anything else, now I can drive certain cars in the way they were intended to be driven with few fears... We all know law enforcement is not about law, it is all about the money....why do you think cops are in such a gleeful hurry to write tickets at accident scenes, even if they have to go to the hospital and deliver them to people who may have other worries.
Sorry but you are living fairytale world. Everybody breaks traffic laws. Everybody speeds. Not quite a few, everybody. It's impossible not to. As soon as you spot a lower speed limit sign, and start to slow down, you are speeding as so as you pass the sign. Even if you slow down to the lower limit immediately, you were still speeding when you passed the sign. Any competent driver will drive with the flow of traffic. Because thats the safest speed. Which is normally 5 - 10 miles over the speed limit. Which means they are speeding.
Any honest cop will tell you that he can pull over any car he wants to. By simply following the car until the driver makes the smallest mistake. And every driver will do that eventually. Because nobody is perfect.
There's a difference, and you know it (or if you don't you shouldn't be driving as you're not competent to operate a motor vehicle) between habitual intentional driving over the speed limit and being a mile or two over the limit as you pass the speed limit sign. By the way, when I see a speed limit sign lowering the speed, I start slowing down immediately and gradually, not insisting on driving the current speed limit right up to the last possible second, and as a result I've found that I have plenty of time to reduce my speed to the new limit without slamming on my brakes OR speeding "of necessity" once I get there. I've yet to find a place where the signage is such as to force me to speed because the speed limit has lowered. Similarly, when I see that the speed limit is going up, I don't press down harder on the pedal until I get to that sign. Yes, this forces me to (horrors!) drive a few miles an hour under the speed limit for the period of time it takes me to get up to the new higher limit, but I can live with that without feeling that my masculinity is somehow threatened. (Helps, of course, that I'm a woman.)
As for "with the flow of traffic", I've asked repeatedly, and it's avoided and weaseled around every time - why all the whining and crying and gnashing of teeth when traffic as a whole is going BELOW the speed limit for some reason? Isn't that then the flow of traffic and, just as you say people who are law abiding should speed because other cars are doing so and be happy about it, shouldn't those who are saying that about slower drivers be just as content to drive with the slower flow of traffic without fretting about it and complaining about it? Wouldn't that be the safe thing to do?
Okay. My goodness gracious. Everybody, I do believe that this thread has been derailed. I didn't mean for us to discuss speed limits, I wanted us to discuss this crazy, ridiculous law and the deceptive manner in which it is carried out. And believe you me, it is deceptive.
TexasHorseLady, you are correct, speed limits are there for our safety. They are a guideline with which we can accurately gauge the condition & design of an unfamiliar road. In the case of a familiar road, however, WE ourselves are the best judges of appropriate speed, since we have been driving those roads over & over again for ages. This is precisely why speed limits have to be appropriate: so that those who regularly drive the road & those who are new to the road can meet together at an appropriate speed.
That being said, your assertion of "the law is the law" is naive. You seem to act as though just because it is the law, it is correct & just and that we have no right to complain. That we shouldn't whine about getting ticketed and fined, at cost to our wallets, "filled" with our own hard-earned money. This is wrong.
Many speed limits are wrong. Why did the speed limit go from 70 mph to 55 mph to 65 mph to 70 mph in a few short years with NO change in road design & little (over the short-term 3-5 years) improvement in vehicle safety? Speed limits are complete and total bunk if they're just set according to the whims of random people who may or may not be qualified to set them. I repeat myself: if speed limits are not set according to sound road engineering principles, THEY ARE COMPLETE & TOTAL BUNK.
Since they are complete bunk, having them enforced has one reason only: revenue generation. It's really simple. If speed limits are to be taken seriously as a safety measure & not as a cash cow for incompetent municipalities, they would set ALL speed limits to the 85th percentile speed. This has been demonstrated time & again as being the safest speed limit in terms of driver comfort & traffic flow to minimize speed variance & maximize safety for everyone.
Of course, that would also massively decrease revenue generation by said incompetent municipalities. Case in point: I-35 between San Antonio & Dallas and I-10 between San Antonio & Houston were both all-70 mph Interstate highways. A couple of years ago, major sections of both were bumped up to 75 mph. What I have noticed is one thing: there are significantly fewer traffic police units belonging to those small towns on the highway. The reason is simple: the speed limit more closely reflected the speed that drivers were comfortable with, thereby there were fewer "speeders", even though the average speed had not changed at all. So they just stopped "enforcing" the revenue generation.
This is what incenses me. This is what flabbergasts me. This is what disgusts me. Absolutely NOTHING changed in the design or condition of the road! Little has changed over the last 3 years in terms of car safety! (Yes, safety is continually improving, but the improvement is gradual over time) And yet the same act resulted in monetary damages 3 years ago whereby today it will not. It's pathetic. It's all a lie. It's a charade. And it is absolutely disgusting that this occurs in the United States of America.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CountryCarr
I have found that the best way to handle tickets is just to accept the idea that you might get them, not worry about it, and drive however you want. I do not feel I drive unsafe, but I always put aside money for a "ticket fund" and have been doing so for years, so I finally just don't worry about the greedy cop following me hoping he can squeeze some cash from me if I make the slightest error. It is no different than saving for vacations or anything else, now I can drive certain cars in the way they were intended to be driven with few fears... We all know law enforcement is not about law, it is all about the money....why do you think cops are in such a gleeful hurry to write tickets at accident scenes, even if they have to go to the hospital and deliver them to people who may have other worries.
While this seems pragmatic and it no doubt is in the current situation, it is disgusting, sad & wrong that you (and most likely others, as well) feel the need to do this. It's not just a precaution, it's a NEED. This is wrong.
Speed limits across the nation must be set by proper engineering guidelines in an effort to maximize safety. Because that is what truly matters on the road. Of course, Georgia prefers to ignore it.
Now, TexasHorseLady is right about one thing & one thing only. The law is the law. However, just because it is law does not mean it is correct. Not in the least. What would you say if the speed limit were 25 mph on I-10, I-40, I-95, whatever? That seems grotesquely inappropriate, doesn't it? Now make it 60, 65 or 70 mph where it's still lower than the 85th percentile speed? It may be "less inappropriate", but it is inappropriate nevertheless. We "shouldn't complain about being cited & fined when we break this (inappropriate) law"? Uh....no. If the law is inappropriate, we have EVERY SINGLE RIGHT to complain about this! Say some moron suddenly legislated that we are not allowed to wear red pants on Wednesday. Wearing red pants on Wednesday automatically subjects us to a $107 fine, plus court costs. How would you react to that? It's the exact same thing here! A nonsensical rule legislating that we adhere to an unreasonable standard under penalty of being fined.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady
As for "with the flow of traffic", I've asked repeatedly, and it's avoided and weaseled around every time - why all the whining and crying and gnashing of teeth when traffic as a whole is going BELOW the speed limit for some reason? Isn't that then the flow of traffic and, just as you say people who are law abiding should speed because other cars are doing so and be happy about it, shouldn't those who are saying that about slower drivers be just as content to drive with the slower flow of traffic without fretting about it and complaining about it? Wouldn't that be the safe thing to do?
I see the argument here, but it's based on faulty reasoning. They aren't complaining about the flow of traffic there. They are complaining about the traffic! When roads are clear & comfortable, we want to be able to drive at the fastest, safest speed. This would be the 85% speed. When roads are congested, we're complaining about the fact that they're congested. It's simple in one's mind, but difficult to explain.
"People who are law-abiding should speed because other cars are doing so and be happy about it." That's the point! That's the whole point! They are NOT speeding! They are driving at an appropriate rate for the design and condition of the road! They are only SAID to be speeding by incompetent municipalities that choose to place revenue generation above actual motorist safety.
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I will be the first to say that speed is a factor in car crashes. Yes, the faster you drive, the greater the risk when you do crash. However, preventing crashes is accomplished by having safe cars, appropriate design (this is where speed limits have to be appropriate, not too low, not too high) & most important of all, safe drivers. We motorists are better judges of what's going on around us than we seem to be given credit for. Yes, there are completely incompetent people who need to have their licenses suspended & cars taken away (since so many drive on suspended licenses) yesterday. But many, if not most of us, just want to get where we're going safely and in a timely manner, without being harassed by revenue generators. That's all we want.
Reading over the significantly derailed responses, I have not had this question answered: Is this Georgia "Super Speeder" law a form of double jeopardy and is it breaking disclosure laws that may or may not be in place?
With speed increasing on our highways, speeding is even more dangerous.
Thus there has to be some kind of a deterrent and a hefty fine system is one way to do it.
Going over 20 over 75mph is different than going 20 over 55mph.
I think you will see stiffer fines fallowing our higher speed limits.
I don't see it as double jeopardy at all.
many offenses or crimes have a jail sentence, a fine, and community service tacked on.
By the way, when I see a speed limit sign lowering the speed, I start slowing down immediately and gradually, not insisting on driving the current speed limit right up to the last possible second,
That doesn't matter. Even if you react to the sign immediately, you will be speeding when you pass the sign, and cops can and do give drivers tickets for that.
Watch the beginning of this video. Note how the cop pulls over right before the 40 mph speed limit sign. Then he clocks the driver behind him just as he is starting to gradually slow down for the sign, as soon as he passes it. Then the driver who thinks just like you, that he is a perfect and never speeds, decides to argue with the cop about it and gets tasered for it. Again any cop can give any driver he wants a ticket for speeding. 100% of drivers speed at some point.
KaaBoom, I'll take my personal experience of what I regularly do over your agenda-driven assertion that it's just impossible for me to do what I do any day of the week. The signs are placed so that you can see them ahead of time if you're paying any attention at all, and so that you can slow to that speed. (This is short of shrubbery growing up in front of them, which I have seen happen over time on roads I drive regularly and which I report when I see that it's occurred or is about to and lo and behold the shrubbery is trimmed.)
As for my stance that "the law is the law", well, yes, it is. If you think a law is inappropriate, then the thing for you to do is to work to get it changed, and that includes speed limits. The thing for you NOT to do is to just decide that you know best and to break the law and to try to justify breaking the law on the basis that you, of all the experts involved, are the one who knows best and so should be allowed to do whatever you decide is best. Which is, when you get right down to it, what you're saying, and which is the hallmark of a bad driver.
GA is pretty lenient when it comes to speeding here. You don't even get points here until you are 15 points over the speed limit.
A lot of these people are claiming they were in a 70 mph which is not true. 70 mph is the limit in rural GA, 65 in the exburbs of the cities and 50/55 in developed areas so these people are doing 20 mph over the speed limit and whining . Aww well, sucks to be them!
I don't see it as double jeopardy at all.
many offenses or crimes have a jail sentence, a fine, and community service tacked on.
yes, but they have it all tacked on at the same time as sentencing, not arriving in the mail a week or a month after sentencing. That's the issue. Charge it all at once, don't double up with a separate fine that comes later.
yes, but they have it all tacked on at the same time as sentencing, not arriving in the mail a week or a month after sentencing. That's the issue. Charge it all at once, don't double up with a separate fine that comes later.
I believe, the issue is the Super Speeder fine can not be charged until the ticket is entered into the DMVS computers here and it takes two or three months before it is entered after they get the records from each county or city court system.
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) 
. Aww well, sucks to be them!
