Speed Traps (Abilene, Waco, Longview: homes, safe, move)

[desertsun41]

Originally Posted by love roses

"Speed limits are for revenue generation, not safety."

I used to think this too, when I was a mere youngster, just learning to drive. My husband is a truck driver and to hear some of the gruesome stories he comes back with certainly paint a different picture.

Did you ever hear of Operation Air and Speed? It's a name given to the ultimate disrespect of we the people who drive cars. I won't mention the name or place but if you're bored you can look it up. The state govt ordered every law enforcement personal to saturate several highways and ORDERED to give out as many tickets as humanly possible for even 1 MPH over. Yes those exact words were used in a secret order to those who control us peasants.

After this filthy dirty little secret was reveled by a heads up reporter, he learned that this was ordered to close the state's budget gap in just 2 days.

Wow!! And so there it was in print. Public information. The order to give more tickets to close the budget gap. I fail to see how that is linked to safety. Probably cause it isn't.

[love roses]

Originally Posted by desertsun41

I tend to not believe you but lets say you speak truth. Would you be so kind to follow up on this accidental incident and let us know how and why he escaped the charges? And you know he will don't you? I'd bet the whole farm he beats it. In fact I bet he never sees the inside of a courtroom because his boss/Sargent will squash the summons.

I did, and NO, he had to pay the fine.

[love roses]

Originally Posted by desertsun41

Did you ever hear of Operation Air and Speed? It's a name given to the ultimate disrespect of we the people who drive cars. I won't mention the name or place but if you're bored you can look it up. The state govt ordered every law enforcement personal to saturate several highways and ORDERED to give out as many tickets as humanly possible for even 1 MPH over. Yes those exact words were used in a secret order to those who control us peasants.

After this filthy dirty little secret was reveled by a heads up reporter, he learned that this was ordered to close the state's budget gap in just 2 days.

Wow!! And so there it was in print. Public information. The order to give more tickets to close the budget gap. I fail to see how that is linked to safety. Probably cause it isn't.

I read about it. It says it was in Virginia. State Police, not State Government, was running it, and all State Troopers would be on the lookout for speeding, reckless driving, seatbelt violations...From the article I googled, it seemed as if this was told to people before it would be happening over Spring Break weekend. It was a Safety Initiative, not a money grab, although with as many tickets they issued, I'm sure they had a good amount in the bank. But really, if you're forewarned, why would you go out and speed ayway?

[TexasHorseLady]

Back in my wild and crazy days, I used to hang out with people who actually were excellent drivers and had nothing to prove in that regard. Professional race car drivers, motorcycle racers, people who went out to Bonneville to attempt to break the land speed record (sometimes successfully).

Every single one was a very conservative driver on the roads, not a one would speed on public roads, they were very careful to signal every lane change and at a time when most cars did not have seat belts, theirs did and the engine would not be started until every person, front and back, had their seat belt fastened - the car simply wasn't going anywhere until they did.

The reasons for this were at least twofold:

1. As said, they knew for a fact that they were excellent drivers, had been tested, and had nothing to prove, unlike those who think that somehow their cojones are demonstrated by how fast they drive.

2. They were well aware that most of the other people on the road could not drive as well as they did and that it just flat didn't matter how well they could drive, if they made fools of themselves on the road just to prove it, sooner or later (likely sooner) they'd come up against a situation created by other users of the roads and they'd be dead or responsible for someone else's death.

3. Because they were such excellent drivers, they knew that they had an added responsibility and if involved in an accident, they'd be held (and hold themselves) to a higher degree of responsibility (much like a black belt or professional boxer getting involved in a fight with someone who is not).

Maybe that's why I tend to doubt those who proclaim themselves to be "excellent drivers" who insist on speeding on the public roadways. Because I know better.

If you're really an excellent driver, go prove it where it matters, against other excellent drivers. Maybe you'll learn something about responsibility, at the same time.

[desertsun41]

Originally Posted by love roses

You may be a great fast driver and can drive in any situation in any condition and by the luck of the draw not have killed anyone. What if you're a great driver, going 80 or faster down a freeway, darting in and out of traffic because, darn it, everyone else is too scared or a bad driver to go as fast as you...and up ahead traffic looks to be slowing down or is going too slow and you are coming up behind someone (this is going up a hill) and you pass very quickly into the next lane, dart back over in front of the slow car and run yourself smack into the back of stopped traffic. My husband got to watch someone on a motorcyle do this. The guy was darting in and out of traffic (husband has a high point of view) somewhere behind him and ran right under a flatbed and ended up decapitated. I'm pretty sure he was confident that he was a great fast driver, but now he's dead.

Or the other guy he tells about...a coworkers story...about driving at night down a dark country 2 lane road. He sees a guy coming up fast behind him, but this person who doesn't believe in speed limits, and probably is very confident of his speeding prowess doesn't see that there is another car coming in the other lane (around a curve), goes to pass the truck and hits this oncoming small truck head on without anyone having hit their brakes either. The truck driver gets out to see if anyones alive....has his doubts because the vehicles are pretty much decimated and goes to the small truck first, slowly because he's scared of what he'll see, and what he sees sends him to seek professional help because it just horrified him so badly....a father and teenage son (he finds out later), father is obviously dead with a steering wheel through his chest and lots of blood and the teenager, stunningly still alive at the time, with his leg nearly behind him in an unnatural angle and screaming in agony and fear, I'm sure. He checked on the moron who caused the accident, and as most victims families would hate to hear, is beat up bad, but not dead. Cops get there and find the guy was stinkin drunk.

I won't say you're wrong. Because you ain't. There are bad reckless drivers everywhere. We have a whole lot of them around don't we. If there were proper driver training from day 1 would everyone be better drivers?

Why is it that us humans, by doing anything repetitiously and robotically we get better and better with practice yet when it comes to driving, people get worse and worse? Good question? We can agree on that I'm confident.

Why is it that regardless of what speed we are driving......those driving slower then us are creeping idiots but all those driving faster are freaking maniacs? That almost suggests that most people think they are bad drivers.....right? SO WHY ARE THEY SHARING THE ROAD WITH ME? The moral of the story is fast or slow, there are bad drivers. And back to the speed trap topic, the oink oinks are just extorting....oops I mean stealing.....oops damn I keep on doing that.......I mean giving tickets to contribute to your govt overspending.

[TexasHorseLady]

desertsun41, if the people are speeding, shouldn't they get tickets and take responsibility for the consequences of their actions (not somebody else's actions, not the cop's actions, their own action in breaking the speed limit)? How is that extortion? Unless you think that being required to experience the predictable consequences of one's actions constitutes extortion, of course, in which case we're talking about an entirely different problem.

[blkgiraffe]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

desertsun41, if the people are speeding, shouldn't they get tickets and take responsibility for the consequences of their actions (not somebody else's actions, not the cop's actions, their own action in breaking the speed limit)? How is that extortion? Unless you think that being required to experience the predictable consequences of one's actions constitutes extortion, of course, in which case we're talking about an entirely different problem.

Yet the same cops handing out tickets; are the one's running red lights and speeding themselves. Speeding tickets are simply a get rich scheme. I see no need for them on the freeway; well, the speed limit should be higher.

[TexasHorseLady]

As for the speed limit being higher, that's fine, get it changed - present your request and ask for a study to be done to determine what the appropriate speed limit on a particular stretch of road should be (engineering studies, etc., have to be done in order to determine that, it's not just, "I think I'm a good enough driver to go faster so make the speed limit higher." ) However, I'd be willing to bet good money that if the speed limit were raised, the very same people that say they're driving 10 miles over the speed limit because in their opinion the limit should be 10 mph higher will continue to drive 10 mph over the new limit. I don't think it's the actual speed that's the problem (having watched this happen over time as speed limits changed, it's a pretty safe bet).

Cops shouldn't be running red lights and speeding and should be ticketed, themselves, assuming that they're not on a call and don't have their lights/siren going (in which case you're supposed to pull over to the side of the road, just as for an ambulance or fire truck, something I see a lot of people ignoring these days, too, shame to them). If you see a police officer doing this snag the number off his car and call it in. You might not see anything done, but if enough people do that when they see it, instead of grousing about it online, it might actually be addressed.

That, however, is something along the lines of, "But, Moooom, Tommy's doing it so I should be allowed to do it!" Not ever really a very convincing argument.

[CMDallas]

Suburbs and towns with less than 50,000 people tend to have a lot speed traps.
I remember getting pulled over in Tolar with my father. He was wearing his Navy hat... the officer told us to have a good day... but it was a speed trap.
Farmer's Branch in Dallas also does. They hide their signs behind trees and bushes. I've never gotten stopped there, but they're pretty nasty about it... I hear.
Coppell also is pretty bad.
I suspect places like Sugarland in Houston are also not a friendly.

Cities like Irving and Carrollton arn't too bad though, notice how both have a population over 100,000.

[TexasHorseLady]

I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me how you can get trapped if you're not speeding, and how, if you are speeding, the officer is doing anything wrong in pulling you over. No matter how many people who are actually speeding get stopped.

Did it ever occur to anyone that the reason that there might be heavier enforcement in some areas than others is that people are known to regularly drive in excess of the speed limit in those locations and they're trying to put a stop to it for safety reasons? Sort of like if you were wanting to stop a bank robber, say, in the act, you wouldn't hang out at the local fishing hole waiting for one to come by?