Speeding tickets are about revenue

[Archetype]

Nothing more. And now it's in print. Safety is secondary, otherwise they'd post larger and more visible signs. This is from my local newspaper regarding a 40mph zone on a 4 lane highway about 15 minutes north of here in Carrollton/Limestone, NY. The hilarious part about it is that the 2 lane part of the highway just past the 4 lane area is more densely populated and is 55mph. The 40mph area is pretty much abandoned.

[Memorex]

This is why after red light cameras work to the point of people no longer getting tickets, they inactivate the cameras. Then people get complacent and they turn them back on. Safety is a small portion of the reasoning in these things, unfortunately.

[Archetype]

Right on. Revenue is one thing, but those speeding tickets fuck with insurance policies and peoples' driver's licences too. $200 is $200, but the long term consequences are ridiculous. Why don't they just have an upstanding member of that community sit by the road and do some panhandling?

[verslibre]

$200 for speeding? Not in Californi-ayyy!

Over here, ANY traffic violation that does not involve speeding is now $238. That's right. I made a left-hand turn (followed a bunch of other cars) into a parking lot and whammo! The cops were there with a really convenient, no-effort sting operation. They ambushed every one of us with a $238 ticket. They wrote dozens of them, no doubt. The two officers easily made their quotas for the month. I asked the cop to cut me a break, I can't afford it, blah blah blah. No dice. There is NO left hand turn sign posted on the opposite side of the street. They fucked all of us in the ass because it's "a school zone." It turned out somebody almost hit a kid, so they decided to make a bunch of us pay for it. A 10MPH left-hand turn (that I've made many times over a period of three years) cost me $238. I've never seen the cops there again because they knew it wouldn't work twice.

And forget fighting it. The judge won't throw it out. Not here, anyway.

Speeding violations start in the neighborhood of $400-odd dollars. MINIMUM. We're fucked!!!

[Voyager]

$200 for speeding? Not in Californi-ayyy!

Over here, ANY traffic violation that does not involve speeding is now $238. That's right. I made a left-hand turn (followed a bunch of other cars) into a parking lot and whammo! The cops were there with a really convenient, no-effort sting operation. They ambushed every one of us with a $238 ticket. They wrote dozens of them, no doubt. The two officers easily made their quotas for the month. I asked the cop to cut me a break, I can't afford it, blah blah blah. No dice. There is NO left hand turn sign posted on the opposite side of the street. They fucked all of us in the ass because it's "a school zone." It turned out somebody almost hit a kid, so they decided to make a bunch of us pay for it. A 10MPH left-hand turn (that I've made many times over a period of three years) cost me $238. I've never seen the cops there again because they knew it wouldn't work twice.

And forget fighting it. The judge won't throw it out. Not here, anyway.

Speeding violations start in the neighborhood of $400-odd dollars. MINIMUM. We're fucked!!!

How can anyone afford to live in that state?

[Boomchild]

How can anyone afford to live in that state?

By growing POT.

[verslibre]

$200 for speeding? Not in Californi-ayyy!

Over here, ANY traffic violation that does not involve speeding is now $238. That's right. I made a left-hand turn (followed a bunch of other cars) into a parking lot and whammo! The cops were there with a really convenient, no-effort sting operation. They ambushed every one of us with a $238 ticket. They wrote dozens of them, no doubt. The two officers easily made their quotas for the month. I asked the cop to cut me a break, I can't afford it, blah blah blah. No dice. There is NO left hand turn sign posted on the opposite side of the street. They fucked all of us in the ass because it's "a school zone." It turned out somebody almost hit a kid, so they decided to make a bunch of us pay for it. A 10MPH left-hand turn (that I've made many times over a period of three years) cost me $238. I've never seen the cops there again because they knew it wouldn't work twice.

And forget fighting it. The judge won't throw it out. Not here, anyway.

Speeding violations start in the neighborhood of $400-odd dollars. MINIMUM. We're fucked!!!

How can anyone afford to live in that state?

Let me get back to you on that.

[Archetype]

$200 for speeding? Not in Californi-ayyy!

Over here, ANY traffic violation that does not involve speeding is now $238. That's right. I made a left-hand turn (followed a bunch of other cars) into a parking lot and whammo! The cops were there with a really convenient, no-effort sting operation. They ambushed every one of us with a $238 ticket. They wrote dozens of them, no doubt. The two officers easily made their quotas for the month. I asked the cop to cut me a break, I can't afford it, blah blah blah. No dice. There is NO left hand turn sign posted on the opposite side of the street. They fucked all of us in the ass because it's "a school zone." It turned out somebody almost hit a kid, so they decided to make a bunch of us pay for it. A 10MPH left-hand turn (that I've made many times over a period of three years) cost me $238. I've never seen the cops there again because they knew it wouldn't work twice.

And forget fighting it. The judge won't throw it out. Not here, anyway.

Speeding violations start in the neighborhood of $400-odd dollars. MINIMUM. We're fucked!!!

Fuck that. Here in Pennsylvania, the most common ticket is "Failure to Obey Traffic Control Device." It's $111 out the door, including all fees and costs, and has no points. Ok, maybe not the most common, but it's always what I plead my speeding tickets down to

They get their money, I don't get any points and everyone "wins."

That speed trap I originally posted is in New York, about 10 minutes north of me (I live a 30 second walk from the border) They have that blatant bullshit speed trap and others like it AND they fuck you just about as hard as California does. They won't plead anything down either, because their sole purpose for even having that 40mph zone on a 4 lane is for revenue. There hasn't been a single time I've driven through it and someone wasn't pulled over. Usually Ontario plates or otherwise people not from the area, as the signage saying that it's a 40mph zone really sucks.

But don't worry, it's for safety! It's dangerous to go 55mph in a 4 lane in the middle of nowhere. Save that 55mph driving for the windy 2 lane part of Rt. 219 just a few minutes past it! It gets you by all the houses faster, thus creating a safer environment.

I'm so fucking glad that the mouthbreather Ralph Bottone slipped up and admitted in public that it's purely a revenue trap. Some attorneys in the area are looking into what can be done about it.

[KenTheDude]

I love Texas. Everday when I drive to and from work, I pass up the cops on the side of the road doing 85+ MPH in a 65 MPH zone. It's a toll road and it's EZ Tag only (no stopping to pay tolls), so the cops are only waiting to pull over cars that don't have an EZ Tag.

[Rick]

I love Texas. Everday when I drive to and from work, I pass up the cops on the side of the road doing 85+ MPH in a 65 MPH zone. It's a toll road and it's EZ Tag only (no stopping to pay tolls), so the cops are only waiting to pull over cars that don't have an EZ Tag.

Same in the DFW area. I worked with a guy that was a part time, volunteer? police officer. The speed limits around here, on the freeways is 65, and I asked him what speed they generally pull people over, and he said "We usually give them 80". Debbie (wife) got a speeding ticket the other day though, 55 in a 40. It was $140.

[verslibre]

I love Texas. Everday when I drive to and from work, I pass up the cops on the side of the road doing 85+ MPH in a 65 MPH zone. It's a toll road and it's EZ Tag only (no stopping to pay tolls), so the cops are only waiting to pull over cars that don't have an EZ Tag.

Same in the DFW area. I worked with a guy that was a part time, volunteer? police officer. The speed limits around here, on the freeways is 65, and I asked him what speed they generally pull people over, and he said "We usually give them 80". Debbie (wife) got a speeding ticket the other day though, 55 in a 40. It was $140.

I remember those days. In CA it's now another $300 on top of that $140, easy. A real shit sandwich.

[Rick]

I love Texas. Everday when I drive to and from work, I pass up the cops on the side of the road doing 85+ MPH in a 65 MPH zone. It's a toll road and it's EZ Tag only (no stopping to pay tolls), so the cops are only waiting to pull over cars that don't have an EZ Tag.

Same in the DFW area. I worked with a guy that was a part time, volunteer? police officer. The speed limits around here, on the freeways is 65, and I asked him what speed they generally pull people over, and he said "We usually give them 80". Debbie (wife) got a speeding ticket the other day though, 55 in a 40. It was $140.

I remember those days. In CA it's now another $300 on top of that $140, easy. A real shit sandwich.

That's just ridiculous.

[AR]

My profession is transportation planning and I've always found these things all about revenue and not about safety.