I ask the question because i’ve lived in Southern California for two years now and, like most other drivers, i spend most of my time on the freeways going 75-80 mph, despite the fact that the speed limit is 65.
In this part of the world, anyone who actually does 65 (except in rush hour traffic, of course) will be passed by virtually everyone else on the road. 70 seems to be the minimum for most people, and the vast majority of traffic travels between 70 and 80, or even 85. I’ve had the CHP cruise by me while i was doing 80, and they didn’t even look at me.
Despite this, i frequently see cars pulled over at the side of the freeway, with a cop standing there writing a ticket. Presumably, many of these tickets are for speeding. What i want to know is, how fast does one actually need to be going to get one of these tickets? Do they ever write them for someone going 70 or 75? Have i just been lucky? Because for all the talk about police writing tickets just to raise revenue, it seems to me that, if this were really the case, they could make a lot more revenue by enforcing the actual speed limits on the freeways around here.
I’ve seen a few drivers on the freeways who i thought deserved a ticket, usually for a combination of speed and dangerous driving; people clearly traveling over 90 and weaving in and out of traffic without indicating. Maybe it’s people like this who get pulled over.
Anyway, if you’re a frequent freeway driver, especially in SoCal, have you ever received a ticket for speeding on the freeway?
My guess is that the clowns that get pulled over are the ones who are weaving in and out of traffic and otherwise calling attention to themselves. Just booking along at 80 doesn’t seem to get the chippies too excited anymore.
I caught the tail end of a news bite just the other day about a speeder clocked at over 180mph. They said the fine was going to be a record $800,000 or so. Figured that had to be SoCal. Sound familiar?
Very few individual speeding tickets are given for public safety. If safety was an issue, it would be a reckless driving AND a speeding ticket.
It’s all about revenue, baby. Why do you think they make it so hard to find out how to fight a ticket?
You’ve been lucky so far. If the cop wants to give you a ticket, it will happen even if you were going 1 mile over and everyone else was doing 80. He just didn’t like your car/looks/bumper sticker/etc.
82 in a 60, I-35, Mission, KS (suburban KC, no argument here - deserved it)
82 in a 70, I-435, Edwardsville, KS (It was Mother’s Day, there was no other traffic, and for some reason, the cop thought I might be drunk, which I wasn’t)
70 in a 55, US 12/18, Madison, WI (Motorcycle cop on the Stoughton Road overpass)
81 in a 65, I-39 south of Rockford, IL (Passed one cop, thought I wouldn’t see any more for a while… Thought wrong)
I’ve never driven in California, but if they’re anything like Georgia drivers, I can see why the cops would have other priorities. I once got passed by a GHP car going through downtown Atlanta on I-75, and I was going 90! I followed him all the way to the south side of Atlanta. No lights or sirens. Just eager to get home, I guess.
But if it’s all about the revenue, why don’t they pull over and ticket as many people as possible of the thousands that drive over the speed limit every single day around here? As i said, i’ve had the CHP cruise by me when i (and just about every other car on the road) was at least 10 over the limit.
Actually, it was Switzerland. Like a few other European countries, Switzerland calculates speeding fines based on a combination of your speed and your income. So, a rich guy (most people who own 180-mph cars are pretty wealthy) who speeds outrageously will cop a hefty fine.
I was doing 85+ on a long, straight stretch of I-5 in northern California. This was around 7AM with no other cars on the road as far as I could see. But, checking my rearview mirror, I could see flashing lights, way off in the distance, heading my way. Busted! I pulled over and had my license and registration out before the CHP officer reached my window. He only gave me a ticket for 72 in a 65, which saved me a bit of money vs what a ticket for 20mph over the limit would have cost.
Like you I always wondered what the pulled over people we doing since I’ve gone through speed traps and such at 10 miles over the limit and never got a nibble. Once I got pulled over for doing approx 85 in a 70. But I was on a motrocycle, and some lane weaving was involved because the tackheads in the fast lane wouldn’t get over, and when you passed on the right you had to speed up a little so as not to get trapped in the slow lane. Since I was on a bike I think the cop just wanted to make sure I wasn’t some punk ass kid. Once I took off my helmet and he saw I was 40ish (and on my work at 0700) he let me off with a verbal warning.
Oh. And this was a Kern County cop, not a CHiPpy. Probably would have gotten a ticket from a CHiPpy.
Right now CHP is running a zero tolerance citation program on cell phone use. So I would guess a lot of the cars you see pulled over are for cell phone use.
Also OG help you if you don’t have current tags on your plate, that will get you pulled over right now.
Shortly after my 18th birthday, I arranged through a friend to buy my first car. I was dropped off in South Pasadena to pick it up. I made a quick stop in Pasadena, and then headed home south on the 110 Freeway. That portion of freeway, unlike almost any other in the LA area, is 55mph rather than 65mph. And because I wanted to get around someone who was being annoying, I was doing about 68.
And…I got pulled over. Not only did I get pulled over, but the guy behind me (who was also trying to get around the annoying driver) got nailed as well. I actually cried, because I was certain my mom was going to murder me. Anyway, the CHP officer ticketed me at 60mph. I want to say the ticket was around $70. This would have been in 1993.
Since that time, I’ve had three moving violations – the last being in 1997 – but never another speeding ticket. In some ways, I’m grateful that I got nailed on Day One. I think it shaped my driving habits right away.
Thanks, friend mhendo, and my apologies for not checking myself but this was the last thread I read walking out the door and had no time to investigate further myself. My faith in the Southern California driver to maintain a velocity below 180 is now properly restored.
With plenty of speeding tales to relate from other states, my CA experiences were always in a rental so nothing to note. My loss and someday I hope to rectify that sorrowful omission.
ETA: Just clicked on your link… that is one gorgeous Benz. Who wouldn’t push it’s pedal to ze metal?
The highest I clocked my brother in law, who once claimed his goal was to get a speeding ticket in every state in the union, was 80 in a 55 zone. Saying my brother in law racks up tickets is like saying the sun comes up in the morning.
My father has miraculously avoided tickets. I don’t know why. Once he went tearing down a canyon road where the signs said 35 while doing at least 65. He wanted to make Canon City, CO, before night and I thought we would make the bottom of the Arkansas River first.
I have. I was going 80 on the Mass Pike. I don’t remember how much the ticket was. I didn’t pay it.
In my defense:
There were only 2 lanes. The right one was crowded and slow moving. The left was free and clear. The only reason I was going 80 was because of the asshole who was tailgating me so badly that I could barely see his headlights. Scared the shit out of me at night, in the rain, to have a dark colored car that close so I sped up to get away from him, pass the line of traffic in the right lane, and get in the right lane myself so he could pass me. Figures that the douche who was scaring the crap out of me was the cop who gave me the ticket for speeding.
In the glorious state of Louisiana I was caught going 81 in a 70 by a cop hiding behind a bridge. I thought I was going much faster than 81 but I guess he might’ve eyeballed it or something. I really don’t know.
$200 ticket that I paid a few days later. I would have been more than willing to attend traffic school or whatever to have it taken off my record but I live in Arizona so it would have been hard to do.
I’ve received. . . three speeding tickets since I turned 18 (well, I mean, ever, but we’ll say in the last 6 years).
The first was going 68 in a 65 (no, really- I thought there was some sort of buffer, but apparently not) and was $400. It was in Coalinga, CA and was a huge speed trap-- they were pulling over lines and lines of cars.
The second was out in the desert, somewhere in San Bernadino County-- out by Victorville maybe. I think that was 70 in a 55. (Empty desert road with literally zero road signs. I was the only one for miles and miles. . . except Mr. CHP officer. My b). $250.
The third was right outside of Bakersfield on the 58 East (right before the mountains) at about 6 AM. I think that one was 75 in a 65. $165
I was certainly speeding in all of them-- I didn’t contest any of the tickets for that very reason. I paid and went to driving school like a good person. Still, lame.
I’ve been pulled over twice for speeding of a freeway. Once, I was doing 85 in a 55 zone. The cop wrote the ticket for 75 - according to him, doing more than twenty would have gotten my license suspended. The other time, a cop pulled me over for doing 77 in a 65 zone. He let me off with a warning. This was in northern California, though.
