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I recently took the Illinois driver's test, because I moved here from out of state. I studied up a bit, in case there were some questions that I couldn't easily guess the answers to, and I remember that it's illegal to flash your headlights to tell people it's OK to go or pass. I wonder if that's because so many people use that signal to mean different things. My father-in-law flashes them to show he's ticked off, and I guess some people use them as warnings, not just for speed traps. There's not much you can do to warn oncoming traffic about stuff like rockslides, accidents, or road hazards. Plus it's the way to tell people to turn their headlights on or that they're using their brights. Maybe Illinois outlawed all of it because people were misreading the flashes.
"Why did you tell me it was OK to turn? That car smashed into me!"
"I was telling that guy he had his brights on."
Wait ... what? You'd slow down for a guy with a sign warning you about a speed trap but not a school zone sign warning you that kids and pedestrians were around? I imagine the cops were there because stupid people insist on driving like maniacs through school zones, despite posted signs and flashing lights. They deserve whatever tickets they get. A kid at my daughter's school was hit by a car in front of their school just last week.. hit by a parent who was going too fast.
I've never gotten a speeding ticket in my life and never plan to. I appreciate what some of you are saying about slowing down for safety, and that's changed my mind a bit about warning others, but I get the feeling that the warnings are frequently given not to admonish others to slow down but to stick it to the cops. They're welcome to their opinions, but I have no such motivation. I have very little pity for speeders who get tickets.
The guy with the sign was just another deterrent not to speed, like the cop and the presumed speed zone signs with or without flashing lights. It is not "sticking it to the cops" when they don't have to do any work. I do slow down to within 5 to 8 MPH of any posted speed zone, no matter how puke inducingly low they may be. But sometimes even that is not enough to avoid a ticket.
That guy with the sign would get me all the way down to that 25MPH. Why punish him, he can't stand there all the time with that sign lowering the risk for kid's (such as those at your daughter's school) from getting hit. Teaching a kid at age 4 to "look both ways before you cross the street".....works alot better than telling someone to drive 5 or 10 MPH less than they normaly would. Maybe they could hand out a ticket to any kid caught running across a street without looking for traffic first. Now when I actually see kids ahead playing games near the street, I will go slow thru there (no matter what the zone is). But if their just walking along the sidewalk along a 40MPH road, I keep my eyes on them going whatever speed the other traffic is.
Location: Still in Portland, Oregon, for some reason
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I did for the first few months I was driving but then I realized that everybody though I was flashing for their high beams being on. I stopped and never started again.
The guy with the sign was just another deterrent not to speed, like the cop and the presumed speed zone signs with or without flashing lights. It is not "sticking it to the cops" when they don't have to do any work. I do slow down to within 5 to 8 MPH of any posted speed zone, no matter how puke inducingly low they may be. But sometimes even that is not enough to avoid a ticket.
That guy with the sign would get me all the way down to that 25MPH. Why punish him, he can't stand there all the time with that sign lowering the risk for kid's (such as those at your daughter's school) from getting hit. Teaching a kid at age 4 to "look both ways before you cross the street".....works alot better than telling someone to drive 5 or 10 MPH less than they normaly would. Maybe they could hand out a ticket to any kid caught running across a street without looking for traffic first. Now when I actually see kids ahead playing games near the street, I will go slow thru there (no matter what the zone is). But if their just walking along the sidewalk along a 40MPH road, I keep my eyes on them going whatever speed the other traffic is.
Your answer to my question, then, seems to be yes. You wouldn't ordinarily slow down in a school zone (well, maybe just 8 mph over), but a guy with a sign would motivate you to do so. And you justify speeding through residential neighborhoods and school zones--if you simply can't see kids--with the premise that kids should look both ways, so it's their own fault if they get hit.
Yes, it might be their fault, but I'm not so cold-hearted that I wouldn't care if I hit some little kid running into the street, or someone's cat or dog. The reason you're supposed to slow down is because sometimes kids and animals run out into the street, right in front of cars.
I still don't get why a guy with a sign would motivate you into slowing down, but not a cop, not a sign, not flashing lights, not the law, and not the fear of killing or maiming some child. A sign telling you that cops are around the corner, so watch out and don't get a ticket. Awesome.
Goodness NO! I drive the speed limit, ALL THE TIME, and I think that other people should also. If they are speeding and get a ticket it is their own fault. I certainly would never dream of supporting that kind of behavior.
Perhaps more people would drive the speed limit if the limits were set properly. Have they ever heard of the 85% percentile rule. We need traffic engineers to set speed limits, not politicians trying to fill the city coffers or responding to soccer moms who want low speed limits and more stop signs to apply to everyone but them in their minivans. I actually heard of this situation occurring in my area. Some mom got a ticket for speeding in a school zone and explained to the cop '...that I know what a safe speed is, I have a kid myself'. She got a ticket anyway. I wonder how far a BS excuse that I could come up with while driving my Corvette would go.
There is a time and place for speeding. Use common sense and have a good radar detector.
truckers flash me when a cop is hidden and thats how I learned to do it. I sometimes dont if I dont realize it until too late or if Im right next to the cop but I try to. I usually only flash to tell people to turn their lights on.
Perhaps more people would drive the speed limit if the limits were set properly. Have they ever heard of the 85% percentile rule. We need traffic engineers to set speed limits, not politicians trying to fill the city coffers or responding to soccer moms who want low speed limits and more stop signs to apply to everyone but them in their minivans. I actually heard of this situation occurring in my area. Some mom got a ticket for speeding in a school zone and explained to the cop '...that I know what a safe speed is, I have a kid myself'. She got a ticket anyway. I wonder how far a BS excuse that I could come up with while driving my Corvette would go.
There is a time and place for speeding. Use common sense and have a good radar detector.
I respectfully disagree. Laws are laws and good citizens obey them regardless of whether or not they happen to agree with them. Yes there are times, when there is no traffic, the road is straight and the weather good when I feel like I should be able to drive faster safely. But I do not because the law is the law and in my mind thats all there is to it. I would no sooner speed than break into someone's house to take something because "they aren't using it".
Perhaps more people would drive the speed limit if the limits were set properly. Have they ever heard of the 85% percentile rule. We need traffic engineers to set speed limits, not politicians trying to fill the city coffers or responding to soccer moms who want low speed limits and more stop signs to apply to everyone but them in their minivans. I actually heard of this situation occurring in my area. Some mom got a ticket for speeding in a school zone and explained to the cop '...that I know what a safe speed is, I have a kid myself'. She got a ticket anyway. I wonder how far a BS excuse that I could come up with while driving my Corvette would go.
There is a time and place for speeding. Use common sense and have a good radar detector.
Excellent post - roads are engineered for high speeds, but speed limits are sometimes lowered to enable ticketing. These days with local municipalities in need of revenue, ticketing is on the rise as law enforcement is relied upon for revenue generation. A speed limit in a school zone, residential neighborhood, or city grid should be low because of the need to be safe, but open road, highways, and uncongested areas are specifically targeted for speed traps.
A study that just was released correlated the number of speeding tickets to the economy - in 2001 when the economy was going great, speeding tickets were at their lowest in 20 years, but have risen markedly since the economy has tanked.
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Excellent post - roads are engineered for high speeds, but speed limits are sometimes lowered to enable ticketing. These days with local municipalities in need of revenue, ticketing is on the rise as law enforcement is relied upon for revenue generation. A speed limit in a school zone, residential neighborhood, or city grid should be low because of the need to be safe, but open road, highways, and uncongested areas are specifically targeted for speed traps.
