Do you really think driving on an empty eway at 5 over late at night is a safety issue. I did not say driving 120. Speeding starts at 1 over. I had a friend who claims he got a 2 over in Ohio, There is NO safety issue involved in going 5 or 10 over on an empty street.
I’m with them for breaking the speed limit, occupants not wearing seatbelts and cracked windscreens, they’re all likely to lead to death or injuries. Just because the police make money (profit!) from catching people doing these things, doesn’t mean the people caught shouldn’t be punished. I’m not sure why this is up for debate.
and I disagree. I’m not claiming that the risk is hugely different, but it sure ain’t zero. Other cars are not the only possable hazard - animals, small and large, potholes, ice patches, other objects in road, etc. Even driver error doesn’t magically only occur at high speeds.
“I have a friend who claims he got a 2 over in Ohio” - wow, now there’s no arguing w/that.
Do you ever speed?. I do not and it has pissed my kid off for years. he always pointed out how many cars were passing us. For me it is not a safety issue. Going 5 or even 10 is not all that more dangerous. I just don’t want to put up with cop attitude when I get pulled over.
Going to give me a ticket. Just do it and save the sermons. I have heard it all before.
Most jurisdictions do not ticket until you hit 10 over. The crackdown is supposed to ticket at a lower level than is typical. I always wear a seatbelt. My wife does not. She will lose 75 bucks for it .
High school tassels from mirror. Very dangerous. Has caused an epidemic of fatal crashes. We must crack down on that.
Do I ever speed? what’s that got to do with anything? You’ve (attempted) to establish some sort of debate based on an email hoax.
The issue I answered was
and I reiterate that speeding, even on an empty road can be dangerous. You live in Michigan. I live in Michigan. where I live, at certain times of the day/night, you have to worry about deer leaping across the roads. And, of course, the pot holes. gack. Your claim that there’s no safety issue for empty roads and speeding is false.
I also don’t have a problem w/ the issue of the red herring about ‘revenue’.
Cops don’t get commissions for their ticket writing, you know. Fines/fees/etc all go into the pot of ‘government $$’. It’s not really the same as a ‘for profit’ business. Government costs what it costs. They get the money from taxes, fines, fees etc. Any reduction in one component necessitates an increase in another.
They may not get commissions, but they can be given quotas or norms for ticket writing, and be punished in some way if they do not hit them. The end result is the sme - the cop writing more tickets not because objectively he found more reason to, but because some directive from on high pushed him into it.
No, she won’t. There isn’t going to be a crackdown. The e-mail is a hoax. We seem to have some kind of disconnect here.
If nothing else, this should tip people off:
A ticket every ten minutes? Not possible. I’ve had a handful of tickets in my life, and it has never taken less than fifteen to twenty minutes. And these were for extremely minor, non-dangerous offenses (e.g., I was a week or two late getting my tags renewed).
Yes she will. Not because of this. They have seat belt crackdowns often.
So, now it boils down to you want your wife to be able to break the law with impunity. This is a debate?
Well, the zone of clemency is 70 to 75. Anything outside of 75 would be strictly enforced.
It pisses me off?
A road may look empty but other cars many enter the road at any time, sometimes just past a blind corner. And even on a truly empty road, it can be a safety issue in poor road conditions, or in case of animals or debris on the road.
The question is whether we should trust each driver to judge these safety factors and drive below the speed limit when necessary, or just set speed limit where it’s reasonably safe under most conditions. Considering the consequences of traffic accidents and the competence of the average American driver, I’d prefer the latter.
We should lower the speed limit everywhere and all the time ,with that logic. Express ways would be much safer with a 40 mph limit. Every side street should be 15 . 25 is just too dangerous. What if a kid ran out. Lets cut the limit in half. Justb vthink how much safer we would be.
IMHO periodic speeding enforcement is an application of the Fixing Broken Windows theory to traffic safety. There’s controversy about FBW theory, but some evidence to indicate it works…and very little else seems to work.
Sailboat
Yes, we really should do that, if safety was all we cared about. But it’s a compromise between safety and convenience. The US has made a decision that 40,000 deaths per year is an acceptable cost, and are setting speed limits accordingly.
And zero caused by a guy driving 5 over on an empty expressway. That would not be a safety issue. It is an exercise in enforcement. Money and power. Not safety.
care to prove that? (I’m sure there’s data wrt to causes of accidents, I’m certain that one factor is speed, but I rather doubt that it’s broken down to how much over).
And, again, you cannot ever know in advance that any road is empty, free of debris, free of obstructions, free of other traffic, free from wandering animals. The speed limit is determined by a number of factors, as has been noted. Such factors include relative safety balancing with convenience.
I rarely see anyone charged with impeding the flow of traffic in my court. When I do, it’s almost always someone who was at a complete stop in the middle of a city street, where the officer suspects the driver is shopping for drugs or hookers.
If anyone were charged with impeding the flow of traffic simply for going no faster than the posted speed limit while in the curb lane, I would of course acquit him or her. You can’t break the law by obeying the law.
If someone were charged with impeding merely for obeying the speed limit in the passing lane, I suppose I could see why the officer might write a citation. You should drive reasonably and responsibly at all times, and you shouldn’t remain in the passing lane while you can see other traffic backing up behind you. Get past whoever you need to, then get in the curb lane yourself. I’ve never seen such a case in court, though.
It’s a fairly rare charge here, too. It’s one of the no point infractions, which makes it a popular one to plead down to. I’ve pleaded to it myself more than once.
Agreed.
Yes. That’s the idea.
How do you get up enough nerve to drive.?