# How worried should we be about this traffic ticket? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 30, 2020, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850 "2020-06-30T21:30:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850/41 "2020-07-02T12:00:18Z")
She tried to pay it, they didn’t know who she was, case closed. > [@Drum\_God](#): > > The law firm appears to be a legit law firm from another tiny town. The letter doesn’t read like a debt collection letter. I think they actually represent the city rather than own the debt themselves. I have never heard of a municipality using a law firm to collect traffic fines. That sounds really fishy to me. I would expect a letter from the court. I’m not saying it’s a scam but I’m saying I would ignore it. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850/42 "2020-07-02T12:07:16Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Wait, so you have to actually _pass_ a speed limit sign before that number applies? That’s really dumb: I always assumed it was, like your daughter, applicable once you could reasonably read it. (And that goes for when they get slower as well as faster.) I mean, when you see “SLOW: CHILDREN PLAYING” are you good to keep zooming along until you pass the sign? **Obviously not–just doesn’t seem consistent if you ask me.** In California, the limit for driving without corrective lenses is 20/40. So someone who’s vision is 20/10 is required to slow down sooner than someone with 20/40? Ideally, the “CHILDREN PLAYING” sign would be before you enter the school zone/proximity to the park or playground or residential area. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850/43 "2020-07-02T13:16:35Z")
For the record, a statute of limitations is about the time between the crime being committed and the person being charged (or equivalent). Not at all applicable in this case, where the daughter has already been charged and judged guilty (for a traffic ticket, there may be more technically correct words, but the point is still good). Now, the State of Texas may or may not have limitations on how long a municipality has to collect a fine (and I’d bet not), but it wouldn’t be called a statute of limitations. ---
**Author:** ![K2500](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@K2500](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K2500)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850/44 "2020-07-02T14:03:40Z")
If it drops from 70 straight to 35 I’d give TXDOT a call and see what they say about it. My traffic engineer friend told me once that they can only bump the limits in small increments but I dont recall what those increments were. I’m with the others, keep the documentation that she attempted to pay on hand if she returns to to the area, just in case. Besides that I’d say her part is done and the mistake is on the city. ---
**Author:** ![MissTake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misstake/32/3189_2.png) [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850/45 "2020-07-02T14:37:16Z")
I’m guessing the “Law Firm” from the nearby city is a collections company. Back when I had severe spending problems, many collection letters arrived from “Law Firms”. They weren’t. I’d contact the City Attorney, explain the situation, and if they DO still have the ticket on their books, offer to pay it. Refuse to contact the collection agency. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850/46 "2020-07-02T15:24:28Z")
Those small Texas towns are infamous for the speedtraps. They’re only supposed to be able to keep 30% of the town’s previous year’s general revenue from collecting tickets, but a lot of them just ignore that or find ways of skirting the law, knowing they probably won’t get audited. Some just flat out flout state law to hide the extent of their activities. There are a few that have been caught, like Kendleton, which underpaid the state by over $1 million and subsequently declared bankruptcy and disbanded its police force, but they bring it on themselves. They set unreasonable speed zones not to make things safer but to collect money from unsuspecting motorists. They’ll change the speed zone as fast as state law allows, which misses the point - it’s not about safety at that point but about collecting revenue. And some local cops overstate the purported speeds, sometimes by over 10mph, knowing drivers won’t be able to successfully contest it. To be honest, if I were your daughter, I wouldn’t sweat the threats from the city. The city probably doesn’t care if it made a mistake or not - a lot of them rely on ticket revenue and book hundreds of tickets a month. They deliberately make it easy to pay and hard to contest, even for legitimate errors on their part. Anyway, some articles on the phenomenon. ([1](https://www.amarillo.com/article/20140721/NEWS/307219740)) ([2](https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Small-town-relies-on-speeders-to-pay-its-bills-1842580.php)) ([3](https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-perfect-speed-trap/)) ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850/47 "2020-07-02T15:44:27Z")
US 287 in the Red River Valley has a few. Childress comes to mind. Though coming into that town they had an intermediate warning sign that the limit was about to change. US 75 (which parallels I-45) for a bit in E. Texas has a few more. That one is notable for having a speed limit that, IMHO, is too high parts of the road. (For me to say a speed limit is too high, is really saying something. I loved **Bear Nenno** ’s stories of zipping a Hellcat or the like on the autobahn. Though I’d never try driving it in those tiny ass village lanes.) Anyway, US 75 has 65-70 limits, with blind hills and driveways exiting directly onto the highway, past the crest of the hill. I didn’t feel safe going that fast. The locals love it though, I’m sure. Usually, nowadays there are signs warning of the speed zone ahead. And it’s mostly not as abrupt as she experienced. I don’t think they’re entirely absent though, not that you could ever drag me back up there to double check my memory. Not a fan of the area around 287. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850/48 "2020-07-02T16:11:36Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > Those small Texas towns are infamous for the speedtraps. The strange thing is that it is, or at least was, next to impossible to get pulled over on I-35 between Dallas and Austin. ---
**Author:** ![K2500](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@K2500](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K2500)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850/49 "2020-07-02T16:48:19Z")
Decatur and Estelline are worth a mention as well. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850/50 "2020-07-02T17:14:01Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > The strange thing is that it is, or at least was, next to impossible to get pulled over on I-35 between Dallas and Austin. Not too strange. Nearly all of that is patrolled by the Texas Highway Patrol, not local cops, and where the towns can issue tickets (where the highway is within city limits), they still can’t pull stunts like dropping the speed limit on I-35 from 75 to 35 over 3 or 4 city blocks. It’s no coincidence that the major speedtrap towns are not on limited access highways. ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850/51 "2020-07-02T17:50:21Z")
The town I’m referring to is on US77 south of Waco. Last time I headed up that direction, there was a billboard before Speedtrap that said “Speed trap ahead” or some such thing. in those days, my daughter had this bizarre notion that speed limits meant you could go fifteen mph faster. Now that she is older and has kids, etc., she has revised her estimate downward a bit. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850/52 "2020-07-02T20:08:19Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > New Rome, far west side of Columbus, OH. They even ticketed unmarked state police vehicles sent there to check out reports. I don’t know how you disband a town but the police department became a bad memory. Don’t know about the Mayor’s Court. Is that the town near the Columbus airport that was sending its local cops to issue speeding tickets on a one mile or so stretch of Interstate because it was technically within the city limits? And since there weren’t actually any on ramps within the town, the cops actually had to leave the town, get on the Interstate, and drive back to the section that was inside the town. IIRC most tickets went to out-of-towners leaving the airport in their rental cars who were unaware of the speed trap. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850/53 "2020-07-02T20:19:44Z")
Googling, that sounds like [Linndale, Ohio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linndale,_Ohio#Speed_trap_history), which was issuing tickets on the _422 yards_ of I-71 that passed through the town. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850/54 "2020-07-02T20:24:37Z")
You’re right, that’s almost certainly the town I was thinking of. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850/55 "2020-07-02T20:25:52Z")
This sort of shit really shouldn’t be tolerated anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850/56 "2020-07-02T20:29:39Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Googling, that sounds like [Linndale, Ohio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linndale,_Ohio#Speed_trap_history), which was issuing tickets on the _422 yards_ of I-71 that passed through the town. Well, it it’s an interstate I would venture the speed limit doesn’t suddenly drop from 70 mph to 35. So, I wouldn’t call it a speed trap. They have as much of a right to pull you over for going 75 as the state troopers. ETA: I see from the link the speed limit on the interstate is 60. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850/57 "2020-07-02T20:31:53Z")
I recall reading a few years back that these small towns that rely on speedtraps for income are extremely worried about self-driving cars taking over and eliminating that source of revenue. I guess they could just change the speed limits faster than the mapping companies can keep track… I do notice that the built-in GPS in our newer car will usually post the speed limit. I wish there was some setting that would warn me when the speed limit changes (up or down) other than having to look at the teeny little speed limit icon. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850/58 "2020-07-02T20:35:02Z")
With or without self-driving cars, these towns should find a better source of income, or dissolve. Because it’s a terrible way to make money. (And Wikipedia says that in [New Rome, Ohio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Rome,_Ohio#New_Rome_speed_trap), the money funded the police department, which did nothing but traffic enforcement.) ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850/59 "2020-07-02T20:37:14Z")
> [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > I wish there was some setting that would warn me when the speed limit changes (up or down) other than having to look at the teeny little speed limit icon. Our Tesla will tell us when we are x number of mph over the speed limit. (if we turn that feature on). I find the little speed limit icon surprisingly (but not 100%) accurate. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2020, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850/60 "2020-07-02T20:40:31Z")
> [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > I do notice that the built-in GPS in our newer car will usually post the speed limit. I wish there was some setting that would warn me when the speed limit changes (up or down) other than having to look at the teeny little speed limit icon. Some new cars have the ability to actually read the speed limit signs, so no need to rely on data from maps. I watched a review on YouTube recently of a car that could read the speed limit signs, and not only would display the speed limit in the instrument cluster, but would also show a red line on the speedometer between the speed limit and your actual speed. So with just a quick glance you could see just how far over the speed limit you were going. Unfortunately I don’t recall what car that was. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-worried-should-we-be-about-this-traffic-ticket/913850.md?page=4)