Earlier this week I received a driving award for a speed typically tolerated on open stretches of highway, in the HOV lane. Ticketed for 15 over 65 M.P.H.
Speeding is speeding, but enforcement is up and the "slop" ceiling is dropping. So be aware!
Heck even my 64 year-old mother got a seatbelt ticket on a small road a little while back.
Anybody else noticed an uptick? The LA County Sheriff has a new beat on Friday mornings, down on Flower Street in DTLA. There's a transit-only left turn (that frankly should be opened to regular traffic) that is fertile ground for citing violators.
Let's remember that L.E.O.s are people too - so let's keep it civil. Heck, if you're an L.E.O. in SoCal, your opinion is welcome!
I don't think that the "wiggle room" has gotten smaller. I would have ticketed you for 15 over no matter what. Most LEO's that I know will not ticket for anything less than 10 over. Go over 10 over and you are getting a driving award.
That does not mean that you will not get one for going 6 over, just that most LEO's I KNOW won't do it. Personally, I try to not go over 5 over.
I haven't spent much time in AZ, if that's where you are. Out here round Los Angeles and environs, 80 seems to the be the absolute upper limit, but when everybody in the 1 and 2 lane is doing that...how do you decide?
Anyway, I sped, I'm paying up. Life goes on.
[image: View Post]Crash1973, on 09 April 2010 - 07:29 PM, said:
I don't think that the "wiggle room" has gotten smaller. I would have ticketed you for 15 over no matter what.
The wiggle room actually has gotten smaller.
I heard about it on CNN last night.
They said that due to budget crisis, many municipalities have instructed their POs to not tolerate any infractions what so ever.
No kidding.
they actually said it straight out.
I don't know that doing 80mph in a 65mph carpool lane here in NoCal would ever be tolerated if there was a CHP around. I try to keep it to 70-75mph max and have been ok with that, even passed by a biker CHP at that speed several times.
My friend is a LEO around Austin, TX. The official line is 11 is the limit, 12 over gets you a ticket. My speedo is not THAT accurate.
I travel a lot, 35K to 40K miles a year, every year, company car. On the road, I set the cruise control at 9 over, never been bothered. Got one smart a$$ LEO in Waxahachie that sits on the interstate, town is 10 miles from there. He flashed his lights and blipped the siren, but didn't budge. Had faster fish to fry.
Yep, budgets are tight, and in town, ALL MC LEOs do is write tickets, officially.
I got a ticket in my car for doing only a few over. Just at the city limits, precisely where the speed is reduced from 55. It was the end of the month and an obvious speed trap, anyone who had gone by would have gotten a ticket.
It's indiscriminate ticket writing like that that gives a bad name to all LEO's. Being too busy making the budget to worry about public safety. Thankfully officers like that are the exception and not the rule, for what little comfort that is....
Anyway, the point is that you can't count on not being ticketted at 9 mph over. 4 or 5 is a safer bet.
I will say, a guy got knocked off his bike by a car changing lanes, I came upon him during my commute home on the 110 northbound in the middle of Downtown LA, about a minute after it happened. This was about two years ago. He was facedown, but alert and breathing. Scared....
First people (besides me) to show up and help out were CHP motorcyclists, who got it on the dispatch, I suppose, and parked in the southbound lane and bounded over, then down the 8' barrier difference, to help out. They were there to take care of somebody, nothing else.
[image: View Post]vfrrider, on 09 April 2010 - 09:24 PM, said:
...Yep, budgets are tight, and in town, ALL MC LEOs do is write tickets, officially.
...
I live in a smaller town about 40 miles NE of New Orleans, and I've noticed a huge increase in LEO presence.
I perform property inspections and insurance loss inspections for some of the larger mortgage companies, so I drive about 40,000 miles/year. All local miles too. Lately I've gone through MANY seat belt checks at intersections both rural and in towns. I'm always good on the seat belt checks, but now the popo seem to be grasping for straws. I was stopped last week at a seat belt check point so the cop could test the darkness of my window tint-good with the tint too.
I guess if they get you for one thing they'll try to figure another reason to cite you to get your $$!
"Enforcement" is up. I just got a driving award for 16 over. First award in 10 years. Not doing anything different -got picked out of traffic all moving at the same speed and same direction in the cage. I try very hard not to stick out -a clean camry in subdued color -nothing fancy and no bumper stickers or anything to make me the prey of choice for the wolves. I guess I was just in the wrong place at the right time when the predators were hungry.
http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/pissed.gifLeave it to our feckless leaders. When the economy is in the tank, unemployment is through the roof, and people are hurting financially, what do these geniuses do? They raise taxes and increase revenue generation any way they can. Brilliant. Just brilliant. How about we just fire them all and use the money saved for some useful purposes?
I was going 43 in a 40 zone (speedo is off I guess) But the catch was a school zone speed limit of 25 while children were present. Well I was picking my daughter up from school, school lets out at 2:45PM, I was pulled over at 2:36 PM, School hadnt even let out yet and No children were present, so I faught it and the judge found me guilty cuz cop said there was children present. What a crock of shit if you ask me! I cant even get a job as a truck driver becuz its over 15 mph ticket. I havent had a ticket in 13 years. But the fine did go down from $380 to $200.
I'm hearing some whining here about how enforcement is up, but isn't that like saying "Well, I used to slip jewelry in my pockets at this store and walk out with it all the time, but the dam socialists went and got a security guard now!"
Give me a break. Here's a thought: if you don't want a ticket, don't speed. :idea3:
All the strategy, camouflage, and radar detectors in the world can't keep you from getting a ticket if you speed long enough. Me, I speed habitually and got my first ticket in about 20 years last month. It happened, not because the number of cops on patrol is up around here, but because I wasn't paying attention and had my mind on getting a tire mounted. Big whoop. I'm taking the class, moving on, and trying to be smarter next time. :warranty:
Without being too specific, I spent the last year working as a law clerk for one of the District Attorneys in south eastern Louisiana. In traffic court I have seen the speed margins for tickets decline (lots of stuff for 5 over) and a significant uptick in improper equipment (IE) citations (rigid enforcement of brake tags, window tint, wheels sticking out too far without mudflaps, etc). The DAs reduce everything but the most severe offenses and DWIs to IE charges(are not moving violations so they do not affect your driving record or insurance rates)if you ask them, however the fines are the same. From my prospective, traffic enforcement is the Parish piggy bank.
I have to say that I feel badly for a lot of the LEOs that I meet because they don't much care for doing traffic enforcement either.
[image: View Post]vfrrider, on 09 April 2010 - 11:24 PM, said:
My friend is a LEO around Austin, TX. The official line is 11 is the limit, 12 over gets you a ticket. My speedo is not THAT accurate.
I travel a lot, 35K to 40K miles a year, every year, company car. On the road, I set the cruise control at 9 over, never been bothered. Got one smart a$ LEO in Waxahachie that sits on the interstate, town is 10 miles from there. He flashed his lights and blipped the siren, but didn't budge. Had faster fish to fry.
Yep, budgets are tight, and in town, ALL MC LEOs do is write tickets, officially.
Larry
VFRrider
My wife's dad is a trucker, and has told me about Waxahatchie...and when we went over to Gladewater to buy her bike, she kept bugging me to go lower than the +9 I was doin...watch out for those guys
End of thread · 18 posts recoveredWayback Machine snapshot 12 Apr 2010