Speed limit enforcement

[Jimbo]

Decades ago they used to put full size plywood cutouts all painted up to look like patrol cars by the side of the road on US 50, west of lake Tahoe. It was to slow down the weekend gamblers coming up from San Francisco. Of course, they made no difference to us locals.

IF speed limits were set by reasonable engineering standards and not arbitrary, they might be obeyed a lot more of the time. It frosts me that speeding tickets are used in some places way to much for revenue, hiding behind a "public safety" front. California has an excellent law that prevents cities from setting artificially low speed limits and using radar to enforce them.

 

[ALS]

quote:

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Originally posted by GMorg:
Park a retired cruiser in front of your house. Add a blow-up doll for the driver's seat.

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Ditto: Find a Crown Vic, put a manikin in the drivers seat. Dress in a dark blue shirt with black tie, glue a hair dryer in its hand. Point said hair dryer at the flow of traffic.

Talk about drivers changing their shorts.
I've seen it done on the Internet with small towns. They say it works.

 

[CBDFrontier06]

There are some 3 lane frontage roads in Dallas that are actually 35 MPH. That's nothing but a speed trap. I find it rediculous to have to slow from 65 to 35 when you exit..and forget about getting a running start to get on the highway.

We also have 6 lane arterial roads through town that are set at 35....again, speed trap.

 

[MADMIKE]

If the speed limits were reasonable, enforcement wouldn't be required. The limits are almost universally 10-15 MPH or more below what would be considered a safe, reasonable speed by safe, responsible drivers. (called the 80th percentile speed by traffic engineers, the speed at which 80% of the traffic is in compliance) When there is less than 20% compliance with the posted speed limits(that's what most traffic studies show)it becomes obvious that something is wrong with the law! (bad laws hurt all laws)

 

[Pablo]

35 mph here is reasonable - driving 45-60 in a housing zone is NOT. The law is fine, jerks on cell phones with their thumbs in their anuses while driving aren't.

 

[labman]

Mike, you nailed it. We would still need enforcement, but the cops could concentrate on the few that actually are the problem and save lives, not raise money.

Problem is, the public will neither support raising the limit, or enforcing the existing ones.

 

[Kestas]

What frosts me is the cops that sit by the side of a lightly traveled road looking for speeders, when the real danger is the aggressive jerks who take chances with my life in heavy traffic. Cops sit by the side of the road 'fishing' because it's easy.

What they should be doing is embed themselves (unmarked) in traffic and catch the idiots that are a REAL danger to the driving public. It is harder to do than 'fishing', but this would serve the public much better.

Becuase of this 'fishing' I mentioned, I am now conditioned to go somewhat faster (keeping up) in medium traffic than I would on the open road. I know my chance of getting caught in medium traffic with the guy next to me going faster is considerably less than getting caught on the open road.

 

[Drew99GT]

Here, they tried using the speed bumps in residential neighborhoods (especially mine). By the way, every street is 25mph that does not have a posted limit.

The speed bumps are worthless. Guys with big trucks speed up to get air over them and guys with snowplows drop them and plow the things out of the way! They make you slow down to go over it, then you get a little aggravated, and speed up to a pace faster than before the speed bump.

What works here is SATURATION by bike cops, especially on the interstate. I've seen upwards of 20 bike cops at a time, with one officer as the dedicated radar gunner (darn near standing out in traffic to get people.) It works though! They also hide along the center divider in these little cutouts. You can not see them until you are passing them. It looks like they made the concrete divider specifically for that purpose!

 

[Laminar Lou]

quote:

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Originally posted by eljefino:

This isn't directed at anyone here, but it frosts my cookies when some new couple in town buys a great cheap "starter" house on a major highway then tries to lower the speed limits or put that "traffic calming" junk in. This adjuncts my issue with peaceful cul-de-sac dead-end developments that dump traffic onto one arterial... that goes in front of someone else's yard.

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Just in case the person you weren't directing the comment was me

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In my case, I live in a master planned community. Meaning that it was completely conceived before it was even graded. Now the intelligence behind that master plan is often at odds with simple logic, but I digress.

What they did was build a road that is 45 MPH and 4 lanes with a traffic signal with no houses on it(expandable to 6 lanes). The problem is that my street runs parallel to that street (for the most part), and people think that they can save time by cutting through my nieghborhood at 45MPH because they think that it will save them time. It actually doesn't, but they think they are beating the system and they are so smart.

I agree with your point, though. If I were a commuter on a main thoroughway that was being petitioned for a speed reduction because they choose to live on a main thouroughway, I'd be irritated too. In my case (and I know you really didn't direct this at me - I'm just yanking your chain), it's more the commuter that is being dangerous and inconsiderate.

What changed is they installed a traffic light on that main road because too many accidents were happening (probably from the same jerks that are speeding through my neighborhood). That's really not my fault, so I think they should fix it by putting up speed humps. The county is lowering my property value by creating a trafic problem on my street. Maybe I should sue

. I mean I am in the "sue me state" right?!?

 

[jmacmaster]

A hidden unit that uses radar to record the speed and a camera that takes a picture of every speeding vehicle that's good enough to read the license plate. The person the vehicle's registered to is sent a ticket. Radio and newspaper adds to inform the public that this program is in place, which include the number of tickets sent out each month. Move the units to different locations every few days.

 

[TheTanSedan]

quote:

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Originally posted by CBDFrontier06:
There are some 3 lane frontage roads in Dallas that are actually 35 MPH. That's nothing but a speed trap. I find it rediculous to have to slow from 65 to 35 when you exit

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But each exit ramp has a posted speed limit, often the same speed as the service road.

Right-of-way is NOT automatically to the person exiting the highway, only when the two are neck-and-neck at the point of intersection. Otherwise the leading vehicle has ROW.

I find there are few posted speed exit ramps where the limit is actually detrimental, such as southbound 75 onto Northwest Highway; ought to be two stages of speed in this instance.

As I recall, most service roads are 45 mph, posted or not. Bringing the highway speed down to that or lower is obvious, as they are now entering another roadway.

One must be at or below the posted limit before passing the exit ramp speed limit sign.

 

[pscholte]

quote:

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Originally posted by moribundman:
I live at an intersection in a residential area with a 25 mph speed limit. This is what happened two weeks ago. Click for larger pictures:






That jerk bent our mailbox, and he pushed the red Civic into parked cars. That's the fourth accident of this type in the past three years.

PS: The fog sneaks up on you within minutes in SF!

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mori,
I believe I may have driven on your street...but I NEVER hit your mailbox.

 

[Auto-Union]

I can drive the speed limit in snow, safely...it's set too low. I could probally do it in reverse in snow. I think, knock on wood, it takes 80 mph in the 65 to get pulled over here. Functional cruise control takes care of that for me. I tell the kids, at least KNOW what the speed limit is. When I drive with them, I quiz then by asking "what did that last traffic sign say?". lol, it did not say "duh".

 

[MarkC]

I agree with kestas.
And I'd also like to know why people who want to take the exit off the freeway as I'm trying to enter the freeway will always speed up, cut in front of me and exit, rather than slow down and let me on as they are going off?

 

[moribundman]

quote:

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I can drive the speed limit in snow, safely...it's set too low.

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That coming from a guy who filled at least one (several?) gallon milk jug with gasoline and transported it on his backseat, I'll take further statements with more than a grain of salt.

 

[Auto-Union]

Umm, I don't see the connection. Transporting gas in portable containers seems to be a common practice. I have yet to wreck in snow at 25k a year and iirc, you don't even get snow in your parts there Mori.

 

[Win]

Fine the few people that get caught out the wazoo.

Brute Force is hardly an ideal solution, but around here, respect for the law and others safety is not much of a deterrent to this bad behavior.

 

[buster]

So the government should be telling me how fast I should be driving? I thought you guys were the anti-government crowd?

 

[Gary Allan]

pscholte

Err ...is that haze in the second image indictive of what you're breathing? ..or was there a steam cloud from radiator destruction

 

[The_Jeff]

quote:

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The fog sneaks up on you within minutes in SF!

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