Driving unreasonably fast (ticket rant)

[Darrin Drader]

If people obeyed the speed limits then there would be no "victims of circumstance" now would there?

Yes, there would be, because most people will never obey the speed limits. Suppose you have a freeway. The posted speed limit on that freeway is 60 MPH. Nobody on that freeway ever goes under 70 or 75 on that stretch of freeway. Its nice and straight, its flat, and there are almost never any accidents there that don't involve one person not checking their blind spot when merging into the other lane. Now you have an officer on duty who has a ticket quota to meet. He sits in an inconspicuous spot and starts radaring people. Fortunately the vast majority of people manage to spot him, so they slow down before he can get a reading on their speed. In the far left lane, you have a guy doing the same speed everyone else was five seconds before, who couldn't see the cop sitting there because of the semi in the right lane. The cop clocks him at 70 and gives him a ticket. That is a victim of circumstance, and crap like that happens all over this country on an hourly basis.

Sounds like you've got one too many speeding tickets and plenty of points on your license and insurance...but hey I don't blame you! It's THEY'RE fault for you getting a speeding ticket right!

You know what they say about assuming. Actually my driving record is cimpletely clean. It isn't that I never speed, I've just gotten really good about spotting cop cars.

So the next time you're driving down the road with a loved one and some car comes out of nowhere doing about 90 MPH and slams into you killing whoevers with you...you wouldn't be upset would you? Shouldn't, because according to you they aren't doing anything wrong.

That wouldn't be a speed issue, now would it? That would be a case of someone not watching where they're going, or not having good enough control over their vehicle to drive safely at that speed. Speed is not to blame. The other driver, who apparently doesn't know his own or his vehicle's limitations, is. If he "came out of nowhere" maybe I wasn't paying enough attention to the other cars on the road, or maybe he's on drugs, or maybe he blew a tire. There are a thousand other variables other than speed that could play into the accident. Besides, with regards to speed, the best rule is to go with the flow of traffic. If he was driving 90 and everyone else on the road was going 70, then he's guilty of reckless driving - not because he's breaking some arbitrarily set speed limit, but because he's trying to go faster than the flow of traffic.

 

[ph34r]

You know what they say about assuming. Actually my driving record is cimpletely clean. It isn't that I never speed, I've just gotten really good about spotting cop cars.

Then what's the problem? You've never got a ticket but you complain about speed limits even though you don't obey them anyway?

Also, Krieg I wasn't talking to you, but nice to know what you think....

 

[johnsemlak]

Couple of points

Isn't one of the reasons spead limits are needed is so offenders who cause accidents partially because of speeding can be procecuted for it?

I certainly agree that most people would drive at prudent speeds without posted speed limits, but it only takes a small amount of bad drivers to ruin someone's day.

 

[Darrin Drader]

Then what's the problem? You've never got a ticket but you complain about speed limits even though you don't obey them anyway?

I didn't say that I've never had a ticket. I merely said that my record is completely clean. In Washington state, tickets only stay on your driving record for 3 years.

Isn't one of the reasons spead limits are needed is so offenders who cause accidents partially because of speeding can be procecuted for it?

That may be true in theory, the reality is that most speeding tickets are not given because an accident has occurred. In fact, in the case of an accident, unless an officer was at the site of the accident when it occurred, they have no way of proving that the offending driver was speeding, so speeding tickets are normally not given in such cases.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I think the REAL problem here is simple.

No flying cars.

Its past the year 2000 now, and we still don't have flying cars! If we had those, speeding would be the least of our problems!

 

[Krieg]

Also, Krieg I wasn't talking to you, but nice to know what you think....

My apologies, apparently I was under the mistaken impression that this was an open forum.

Its past the year 2000 now, and we still don't have flying cars! If we had those, speeding would be the least of our problems!

Yeah I just can't wait until you have to worry that your 16 y/o's first fender bender requires that you extricate the vehicle from someone's second story bedroom.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Yeah I just can't wait until you have to worry that your 16 y/o's first fender bender requires that you extricate the vehicle from someone's second story bedroom.

At least a week's worth of grounding depending on the damage done.

 

[Michael Morris]

I didn't say that I've never had a ticket. I merely said that my record is completely clean. In Washington state, tickets only stay on your driving record for 3 years.



That may be true in theory, the reality is that most speeding tickets are not given because an accident has occurred. In fact, in the case of an accident, unless an officer was at the site of the accident when it occurred, they have no way of proving that the offending driver was speeding, so speeding tickets are normally not given in such cases.

Don't count on that. Newer cars have black-boxes that track the speed and other engine stats. The automakers put them in to protect themselves from liability - too many folks suing them for "mechanical failures", and they've countered by engineering a means to prove you're a bad driver. This system is usually wired into the airbag system and can't be removed or the main processor will prevent the vehicle from starting.

 

[Aeolius]

Been awhile since my last ticket, as well. Granted, I never go more than 5-10 over the posted limit. No one is in that much of a hurry.

I do drive aggressively, however, when someone is acting like an idiot. When someone zooms up behind me in a school zone, I will cut them off in a heartbeat. When someone tailgates me (read that: I cannot see their headlights in my rearview mirror), first I will slam on brakes, speed back up, then slow down to 5-10 mph.

And let’s not even get into people who park illegally in handicap spots. The fine for that should be $5,000 AND 90 days in jail.

In short, I have no issue with drivers who obey MY rules.

 

[IronWolf]

What really gets my goat though are split speed limits. These are demonstrably dangerous, yet juristictions continue to pass them.

Yeah, Ohio is one of these with split speed limits. All it does is lead to people moving in and out of traffic because the semis are supposed to be going 55mph while everyone else is going 65mph. Just makes no sense to me, just leads to more weaving in and out of some of the biggest things on the road!