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What's sickening is this attitude, that anything that says that you might have to accept the consequences of your own choice to speed MUST be about revenue generation. It's indicative of a failure to accept responsibility for the consequences of one's own actions and a need to blame those consequences and actions (but, Mooooommmmm, everybody's doing it!) on anyone, everyone, else.
Those cops were most likely addressing an area where speeding (and perhaps accidents) is known to be a problem and by pulling over as many as they could (since they couldn't possibly pull over everyone), discouraging future speeding in that area.
That's because this isn't "speeding". If speeding causes crashes in a high crash area, then that means that the drivers cannot handle a certain rate of speed. However, if a certain velocity isn't causing crashes and everyone is driving it, yet is above the actual speed limit, that means that the speed limit is inappropriate. And that is wrong and has to be changed.
Many speed limits are completely inappropriate. This is why I-10 & I-35 in Texas are 75 mph instead of 70 mph as before, to bring the speed limit closer in line with reality.
The vast majority of drivers do not get into accidents or crashes. Perhaps the vast majority of drivers might know precisely what their abilities are and just how fast they can handle a drive, eh?
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Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady
Okay, all of you "It's not my fault that I got stopped for speeding (never mind I actually WAS speeding), it's the nasty cops generating revenue!" folks.
What exactly WOULD it take to make you obey the traffic laws and/or take responsibility for and accept the consequences of your own decision not to do so if you make that decision? Since speeding tickets apparently are just somebody being mean to you?
Or is that simply an outrageous thing to expect of you?
(Let me make all my own decisions about what's safe and what's not on the public roadways does not constitute a reasonable answer, just so we get that out of the way up front.)
That's because it ISN'T our fault if the speed limit is completely inappropriate and instituted for reasons other than safety. It IS the cops' fault and more specifically, their employers' (the municipality's) fault for wanting to generate revenue and look like they're working on crime instead of actually fighting crime.
Yes, traffic stops are an excellent tool for crime-fighting on drugs, DUIs, etc., but that is not an excuse to stop people who shouldn't be stopped since they are driving at an appropriate rate of speed. It is not an excuse to have inappropriate speed limits. Not in the least.
Disgusting.
What would it take for us to follow traffic law? Having appropriate traffic law, that's what. But too many people make too much money and look like they're actually doing something with the current system, which is why it won't change at all. Sad.
That's because this isn't "speeding". If speeding causes crashes in a high crash area, then that means that the drivers cannot handle a certain rate of speed. However, if a certain velocity isn't causing crashes and everyone is driving it, yet is above the actual speed limit, that means that the speed limit is inappropriate. And that is wrong and has to be changed.
Many speed limits are completely inappropriate. This is why I-10 & I-35 in Texas are 75 mph instead of 70 mph as before, to bring the speed limit closer in line with reality.
The vast majority of drivers do not get into accidents or crashes. Perhaps the vast majority of drivers might know precisely what their abilities are and just how fast they can handle a drive, eh?
That's because it ISN'T our fault if the speed limit is completely inappropriate and instituted for reasons other than safety. It IS the cops' fault and more specifically, their employers' (the municipality's) fault for wanting to generate revenue and look like they're working on crime instead of actually fighting crime.
Yes, traffic stops are an excellent tool for crime-fighting on drugs, DUIs, etc., but that is not an excuse to stop people who shouldn't be stopped since they are driving at an appropriate rate of speed. It is not an excuse to have inappropriate speed limits. Not in the least.
Disgusting.
What would it take for us to follow traffic law? Having appropriate traffic law, that's what. But too many people make too much money and look like they're actually doing something with the current system, which is why it won't change at all. Sad.
Agreed. I say they make the speed limit, like 80 or something, on highways and as long as the driver is driving safely not ticket will be issued. Reckless drivers would be ticketed and even one mile per hour over 80 would be ticketed (no driver should be driving over that limit). Now, there should be stricter speed limits on residential streets. Anything over that is a danger, and poses a threat to citizens.
Speeding tickets are a risk I am willing to take. Just stay out of the left lane if you are moving slower than the rest of us.
This. I have no problem with an occasional speeding ticket if that's the price I pay for faster driving. I don'tddrive within tolerance on the highway.
I got a ticket in May and paid a $185 fine. It hasn't affected my driving at all.
This. I have no problem with an occasional speeding ticket if that's the price I pay for faster driving. I don'tddrive within tolerance on the highway.
I got a ticket in May and paid a $185 fine. It hasn't affected my driving at all.
But it's wrong. We shouldn't be fined at the hands of revenue generators for doing something that does not put anyone at risk!
Driving at 80-85 mph on an American highway in minimal traffic? Doesn't deserve any "fines".
Driving at 120-150 mph, on the other hand, may be a different story. Not because the driver may not be able to handle it, but because the speed differential at that velocity is just too great and American drivers are too irresponsible and too undisciplined to handle that speed differential like the Germans do.
There aren't any accidents at highway speed. They are so rare, that no kind of enforcement could have any significant impact on the incidence of accidents. An overwhelming majority of accidents occur on urban streets, where speeding is rarely monitored or observed or ticketed, except in notorious speed traps. And even urban accidents are rarely caused by speeding substantially over the posted speed limit.
In the last 100,000 miles that you have driven, how many times have you come upon an accident scene on a well-designed rural highway or an interstate? Accidents are virtually zero risk in those driving environments, no matter how fast or stupidly drivers are going. There is simply no need for routine speed enforcement at all on rural high-speed highways.
This is why it has nothing at all to do with safety and everything with revenue generation. Al the vehicles were safe in driving at a constant flow of traffic. The punk cops didn't care about the maximum safety being exercised. They just cared about their tickets & self-preservation of their pathetic employment/ existence. Absolutely sickening.
the law is the law, and if the cops decide to enforce the law, and you are in fact going over the posted speed limit, they will nail you. if you dont like the law, the work to get it changed to one that you will like. otherwise you will have to put up with being pulled over for speeding, or other violations from time to time. we are a nation of laws, and breaking those laws have consequences like it or not.
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Originally Posted by CountryCarr
Back in the days of CB radios, I did a lot of traveling in my car and always found convoys of trucks to travel with at high speeds, usually in the rocking chair position, but sometimes front or back door. In those days, everyone had CBs, and everyone was alerting each other of cops and speed traps and no one ever seemed to get pulled over, unless you were really doing something stupid or were a danger to everyone else. Now everyone is so caught up in their own little cell phone worlds that the highways are again a dangerous place, with no one sharing info or watching out for each other. If I pass a hidden radar trap and flash my lights to warn oncoming cars who are speeding, most don't know or have never heard of that being used as a "cop ahead" signal.
Cops are like lions, they pick on the easy targets first. If you are speeding by yourself, remember that cops have forward and backward looking radar and if you look like an easy pull over for some quick cash and a ticket towards his quota, you are going to get it. There is no rule that you can go up to xx miles over the limit and you will not get stopped, it is just a random chance of opportunity if you get nailed. Don't be the weak, easy target lone wolf driver, you will not survive....Me, I still have a cb, but no one has their ears on anymore and it seems to be just an empty wasteland...that needs to change for all of our benefit..
dont forget that sometimes the cops also had CBs in their cars, so they would listen in on what everyone was saying. there were those that would bait the truckers to pad their statistics.
This is why it has nothing at all to do with safety and everything with revenue generation. Al the vehicles were safe in driving at a constant flow of traffic. The punk cops didn't care about the maximum safety being exercised. They just cared about their tickets & self-preservation of their pathetic employment/ existence. Absolutely sickening.
Yeah, but I bet you won't feel the same way if you life is in danger and you need to call someone for help. Funny how we suddenly LOVE cops when we need them to help us. Try to imagine what this world would be like if there were not people willing to put their lives on the line every day and deal with criminals that most of us can't even begin to imagine the ruthlessness of.
I don't like speeding tickets any more than anyone else, but I have to take responsibility that I was doing something illegal. We can't have it both ways.
I just made a trip this week end of approx 300 miles. Along the course of my trip I saw several little crosses with flowers beside the roadway at several rural locations. Facts say that most fatal accidents involve excessive speed. Those who say speeding any where is OK and blame cops for enforcing the laws need to take a driving class.
I thought I'd ask as I am not sure. I drive a lot and as I leave right before rush hour traffic people are driving over speed limit not one or two but the entire flow is 10-15MPH over the speed limit. I drive with flow in right lane but that is again at time 10-15MPH over. I also see sometimes cops out there with radars. My question is do they pull someone who is going like slightly faster than the flow or they can randomly pick anyone as everyone is going way above speed limit? Anyone with experience or who knows better about this? Thanks
You could get a ticket for 1 over, or you might do 15 over every day for decades without getting a ticket. I'm sure it depends on local custom. On the upstate expressways around the Chicago area, troopers will typically allow traffic to flow at up to 12-15 over the stupid 55mph speed limit before they start randomly picking people out of the pack. But if traffic is moving at 8 over and you're the only idiot weaving in and out doing 12-15 over, they'll nail your ass. So in other words, what they're most interested in around here is safe and orderly traffic flow and not necessarily strict adherence to a specific number. I had one trooper tell me on a back two-lane highway downstate, "at 20 over, I start writing." That's more than fair, especially on an undivided two-laner.
I'm confident there are many jurisdictions where troopers are unrepentent hardasses. Ohio comes to mind. I won't do anything more than 4 over in that state unless my life depends on going faster than that. Fortunately that's been made a little less painful now that they've bumped the limit up from 65 to 70.
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Funny how we suddenly LOVE cops when we need them to help us. Try to imagine what this world would be like if there were not people willing to put their lives on the line every day and deal with criminals that most of us can't even begin to imagine the ruthlessness of. 
