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It seems they're in place in certain states to make it legal to go above the speed limit if it's safe and prudent to do so. I'm thinking it's probably in place when there are certain roads where nearly everyone speeds and someone driving at the speed limit would pose a hazard - in that case they'd be fine going with the speed of traffic. Conversely, that person who is doing the speed limit on a road where traffic flow is 10 mph above the speed limit can be ticketed for posing a danger.
its common sense in most states that officers will use. If the traffic is moving and not causing wrecks, they will let it slide to a degree. Just dont go passing cars like your in NASCAR and get your self notice. Now some states, looking at you KY!! will pull you over for doing 1mph over around a corner. Ticket 250$ for 1mph!! in a 55mph state.. i fought it and manage to get it down to 50 bucks, via over the phone court system. Its a joke for sure in that state. Just sad we still have 55mph/65mph states with these speeds on the INTERSTATE! while rest of the country is 70+ and doing just fine.
its common sense in most states that officers will use. If the traffic is moving and not causing wrecks, they will let it slide to a degree. Just dont go passing cars like your in NASCAR and get your self notice. Now some states, looking at you KY!! will pull you over for doing 1mph over around a corner. Ticket 250$ for 1mph!! in a 55mph state.. i fought it and manage to get it down to 50 bucks, via over the phone court system. Its a joke for sure in that state. Just sad we still have 55mph/65mph states with these speeds on the INTERSTATE! while rest of the country is 70+ and doing just fine.
NJ has a 65 maximum and I get blown by going 85-90 on the turnpike. But they are lenient when it comes to pulling you over it seems.
its common sense in most states that officers will use. If the traffic is moving and not causing wrecks, they will let it slide to a degree. Just dont go passing cars like your in NASCAR and get your self notice.
That's my modus operandi - drive at about 10 mph over, don't switch lanes constantly, no tailgating, and be as inconspicuous as possible. I drive regularly in 7 states and 1 province for work and have yet to be stopped.
Accidents are caused by speed differential. As such, everyone driving at close to the same speed is the safest scenario. Artificially low limits result in a large speed differential, which in turns results in people weaving, tailgating, etc. Most police officers know this and will leave you alone if you're traveling the same speed as prevailing traffic - even if you're going faster than some arbitrary number posted on a sign on the side of the road.
its common sense in most states that officers will use. If the traffic is moving and not causing wrecks, they will let it slide to a degree. Just dont go passing cars like your in NASCAR and get your self notice. Now some states, looking at you KY!! will pull you over for doing 1mph over around a corner. Ticket 250$ for 1mph!! in a 55mph state.. i fought it and manage to get it down to 50 bucks, via over the phone court system. Its a joke for sure in that state. Just sad we still have 55mph/65mph states with these speeds on the INTERSTATE! while rest of the country is 70+ and doing just fine.
This is what Illinois drivers do when driving in WI.. rarely do you see them not going 85 darting from lane to lane like they are about to have a baby and need to get to the ER. Better that than someone doing 65 and causing a big traffic jam from everyone having to pass them. Slow drivers are not safer, they are more hazardous. If you are going slower than semi traffic and have semis all passing you, you should not be on the interstate unless it's for some specialized need (moving, hauling a mobile home, military, etc)
Like the above poster said, speed limits should be set based on average traffic speed, not by what some snowflake city council or residents living along that road who don't like the noise want to see done with the speed limit. You decide to move along a busy artery, deal with the noise. It would be like asking farmers not to have cattle when you decided to move next to a cattle farm. Driving through downtown Milwaukee which I'm not used too as I live in eastern South Dakota, it's bumper to bumper with a speed limit of 50 and everyone is going 65-70.. if you are going 50 you are going to get run off the road and make things quite dangerous. I go with the flow of traffic for the most part though where I live there often is no traffic. Aside from interstates the most common place I see people speed are county roads outside of city limits where they set the speed limit at 35 when it should be 45 and everyone including myself will go 50. The residents along these roads likely asked for it but I don't much care.. their choice to move there like I mentioned.
I live in KY and do admit its terrible here, although on the expressway police tend to be pretty lenient, I rarely see state or city/ county police speed trapping on the expressways, there are exceptions though, just last week I saw Boone county police had 6 cruisers out along a 10 mile stretch of I-275, pulling people over left and right, but from what I saw, they were mostly pulling tractor trailers over.
We also have 25 mph limits on many city streets. In all honesty, 25mph in a car is hardly moving. I think they post these limits knowing they can write a bunch of tickets if they ever need to.
On the other hand I have an uncle that is a city manager for one of the largest KY cities in my area and he claims majority of cops despise writing traffic citations and most will avoid doing it and they will only pull people over for speed when they suspect something else is going on. A good example is I-471, leading into Cincinnati, they pull younger people over all the time on this stretch because its the route many drug addicts take when they are going to buy drugs. They even had a newspaper article on this, the local police stated they did look for cars full of young people to target, speeding was one excuse they used to pull them over, in order to get a closer look.
So, I can find websites that describe prima facie speed law as "You're not necessarily guilty if you exceed the number on the sign - you have the right to try to prove to a judge or jury that you were driving safely."
My question is simple: is this statement REAL in any way? Texas has prima facie speed law, but every officer I have ever encountered completely behaves as though the law is absolute - that number on the sign is the end all and be all. Realistically speaking, can one ever successfully prove that that their speed was safe if it was above the number? How would one argue this? Would any judge ever listen? Are officers trained about the "not necessarily guilty" thing, or do they actually believe that the number is the only thing that matters?
This just seems like empty words to me - if officers in the field aren't prepared to actually make effective judgements, then what's the point? I've been cited for driving 8 over on a wide open, empty country road, on a beautiful day with absolutely no hazards anywhere in sight, in a sports car that is ABSOLUTELY capable of operating safely at that speed.
Which raises a related point. If safety is the primary criterion for guilt, then different vehicles are safe at different speeds. A huge bubba pickup truck can't operate safely at as high a speed as say a Porsche Cayman or a Corvette. Those vehicles are designed to operate at higher speeds.
Up here in New England everybody goes at least 10-15 over.
Yup. Not uncommon to get on the highway and cruise for an hour or so at 80MPH and get passed by a few cops on the left who don't even blink an eye.
It would be perfect, except you then get the nascar drivers who change lanes 9 times in order to get 50 feet ahead over the distance of 2-3 miles.
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Aside from interstates the most common place I see people speed are county roads outside of city limits where they set the speed limit at 35 when it should be 45 and everyone including myself will go 50. The residents along these roads likely asked for it but I don't much care.. their choice to move there like I mentioned.
