We live a few miles outside a small town (population 1408). The road that goes into town begins 15 miles north of here, where the speed limit is 55, but everyone does 65. Once the road reaches us, the limit drops to 45, but everyone does 65.
The past few years there have been more and more coal trucks on this road. People hate the coal trucks; they are loud, spew fumes, and tend to fly up behind you. People have tried to make the trucks take a different route, but that hasn’t had an effect.
Someone had the smart idea of slowing down, and it has caught on. When driving on this road, which I do for 1/2 mile every day, people are doing the limit (45) or less (35), which is pissing off the coal truck drivers. The guy who owns the feed store told me drivers have been complaining to him.
This morning I pulled onto the road and drove to my turn, going a steady 35 mph. A coal truck nearly rear-ended me, but that’s ok. It is kinda cute the way the community has gotten together to do the speed limit.
I’m an admitted and enthusiastic speeder much of the time, but I do NOT speed through small towns. Too many podunk police departments are their town’s primary revenue generators and I am not going to play along. I come up on a small town, I drop to 5 under the posted limit, even if it’s 10 mph.
Heh, yeah, the town definitely does that. There is one spot where they sit with VASCAR lines. I was pulled over once years ago but got off with a warning. The cop saw my address on my driver’s license and actually scolded me for not being aware that he set up there every Friday. He was there for out-of-towners.
The town doesn’t have the manpower to have a permanent speed trap. When they do set one up, I guess one truck gets nailed, then alerts the rest. The speed trap is always in the same spot when it is running.
Good thinking out of the box solution. Maybe it will work.
I drive a twisty 2 lane mountain highway. We have moose and other critters up here that you have to look out for. Not to mention it’s snow and ice covered 6 months out of the year. I go the speed limit and doofuses on vacation will often tailgate me. Idiots.
He never said they were speeding, he’s talking about driving at the speed limit or under to make the coal trucks slow down also.
I’m not very sympathetic to people driving below the speed limit or intentionally interfering with someone driving faster. I don’t see how this will make coal truck drivers any more courteous.
Can’t speak for kayaker, but the little town (~400 people) nearest me has TWO cop cars. But no cops. They just set them up to make it look like a speed trap. One even has a mannequin in it.
Ok. Did you try the direct approach and ask them, or the companies they work for? Have you petitioned your local or state government to do something, or the media? If none of that works I’d be all behind your direct intervention method. You also know your local area and I don’t, so maybe you see that it’s pointless to try other means. But I think you’d want to do this the American way and find someone else to blame for rerouting the trucks instead of getting those drivers pissed at you specifically.
TriPolar raises a good point. These drivers may be ordered by their employer to take this route, so pissing them off won’t accomplish your goal. I’m also wondering if the “alternative route” you’re urging a minor inconvenience and thus an easy switch, or are you asking them to go hours out of their way?
I have no beef with your plan in general though. Let us know what happens.
I’d wager that, if the drivers radio each other that there’s a speed trap (they just got caught in) so the rest don’t get caught, I’d assume they’d radio and tell the guys there’s a cop car but he’s not pulling people over, so zoom zoom.
That tactic could backfire-- I think if a cop sees someone driving under the speed limit, they can suspect the driver is being extra cautious because they’re intoxicated. Of course if you’re sober you don’t really have anything to worry about, but ti’s still a hassle to get pulled over on suspicion. Plus, if a small town cop has gone to the trouble to pull you over, they might seek out any reason to give you a ticket.
My strategy if I think I’m in speed trap territory is juuust a couple MPH over the speed limit. No sudden lane changes, religious use of turn signals.
My strategy is to go at maximum the speed limit or 1-2 MPH under, not trying to seem either suspicious nor ticket-worthy. If there is no one in front of me and the road is flat, I put my cruise control on even if someone is tailgating me, in case it is a cop trying to bait me into speeding. (One time a marked cop car did tailgate me through a small town, but thankfully I didn’t run the risk of enraging them because it was a 4 lane street and the passing lane was completely empty. They were probably running my plates and/or trying to get me to nervously cross the lines. I don’t think cops are stupid enough to try to bait people into speeding on empty 4 lane roads, but it takes all kinds.)
I drive the speed limit in the slow lane with my cruise control on. If somebody tailgates me, Minnesota very handily tends to list minimum speed limits. Very few people continue to tailgate when I’m going 40 mph on the freeway.
I’ve only recently heard about this slowdown plan. The locals who were bothered by the coal trucks tried talking to the cops and “town council” but were told there was nothing that could be done.
To be clear, it’s not my plan. I just heard about what was going on, saw people driving slow, and joined the crowd
Well then, the right steps were taken and your* cause is just. Hopefully it gets noticed by the town and they take the necessary steps themselves.
I am remind of the quote from a very old book on the law that described politics as “the art of having a dead horse removed from the street in front of a saloon.” You want and need a skilled politician on your side.
