I live in Florida, and, while the city police [Jacksonville] are usually pretty lax (one let me off without even an official warning last month-with the exception of the separate Beaches branch), the troopers are pretty by the book and will rarely cut you a break either before or after they pull you over. Luckily I know the spots on my commute where they are likely to lurk. The people in the other thread said that the Ohio ones are the worst-2 MPH over? :eek::mad: [former Ohioite tho I moved out years ago when I was 11]
In Alabama nobody worries about the State Troopers, with the budget mess they have been cutting back steadily, so seeing one on the highway is a rare happening.
Kentucky can be tough to drive in, I see a lot of troopers out and they have been known to do those tag-team activities (one car checks speed and 4-5 are in line waiting to go after the next speeder).
But 2 MPH high? I usually go 5MPH over the limit and have never been stopped.
Coloradan here. The state patrol is stricter than either the local sheriff’s office or the city. A patrolman once gave me a ticket for 4mph over the limit.
I’ve been pulled over a total of 4 times. Twice I got a ticket–both times from the state.
I understand the doubts regarding speed enforcement in Ohio but it wasn’t just selective memory, I’ve actually seen some of the tickets my acquaintances got. Based on those you don’t get the usual 5mph allowance in Ohio.
“Of course you know certain skeptics note that perhaps 10,000 of the nations’s most elite highway patrolmen are out there waiting for us after we start, but let’s stay positively: Think of the fact that there’s not one state in the 50 that has the death penalty for speeding… although I’m not so sure about Ohio.” - The Cannonball Run
I love the state of New Hampshire but they do not like my Massachusetts plates. The only ticket I have gotten in the past 15 years was driving into New Hampshire to meet up with my kids on Christmas morning at their grandparents’ farm. I got stopped on 1-93 by a New Hampshire trooper for going 10 MPH over the limit. I thought I would get some grace because I had a perfect record, it was a goodwill holiday and I was delivering obvious presents that he could see but no such luck.
I was so irritated by it that I fought the ticket every way I could through mail for well over a year and then went to court over it. I thought it would get dismissed because the New Hampshire state police wouldn’t even bother to show up but the same officer I had been inconveniencing for all that time did show. He was obviously irritated but offered a plea for me to take it down to the absolute lowest level speeding infraction and keep it from being reported to my insurance company as long as I paid $60 (I also had to drive 140 miles round trip and take the morning off work). I took it and made a note to pay much better attention to what state I am in from now on.
Massachusetts State Troopers seem to be happy if you keep it under 100 mph and don’t cause many fiery crashes around you. I drive 60 miles round trip to work mostly on I-495 and drive over 80 MPH in 65 MPH zones every single day and have never been stopped on that route. In fact, State Troopers often sail right by me in the fast lane and every single driver around is going well over the speed limit. The only time I got stopped on I-495 was farther north during a traffic sting. I was going over 90 and I was sure I was about to be in big trouble for once. Nope, I just got a verbal warning and a “Have a nice day!”. I guess they were really looking for other things.
My home state of Louisiana is generally lax for residents but there have been many cases of them being much more strict with people with out of state plates on interstate highways because of the possibility of drug busts. The same is also true if you are a Colorado resident that drives into Nebraska. They are thinking “Pot smuggling!” and will look for any excuse to pull over those rogue vehicles.
My car has fully tinted windows, which are technically ilillegal without a prescription in MI. Now I’ve had this car for a long time, upwards of 12 years. In that time, I’ve only been pulled over and hassled by police two times. Both of those times involved state police. If you get pulled over by a state cop, you’re getting a ticket.
I’ve lived in Florida for over half my life, unfortunately, and I’ve never gotten a ticket for speeding. The only time I’ve even been stopped for speeding is when I was going 14 over in a 70 zone and the cop was pissed that I cut him off when he was going 82, but I got let off with a warning…cause he was going 82 in a 70, plus he was a deputy who wasn’t on traffic patrol.
in Miami more than once I was going more than 80 in a 70 when I belatedly saw a cop coming up on in at high speed, only to have them overtake me at a large speed differential.
Florida is a low tax state that can’t afford lots of speed cops. (that said, Jacksonville is on or close to the deep south, so I only go 5 or 7 over instead of 9!)
In Louisiana, you can ignore them, unless you have Texas plates, as Shagnasty reports. Texas is the only southern state with a front plate, and the strategy of choice for Texans is to take off their front plate when crossing the line into Louisiana, so the police can;t see them coming.
Tickets for 2-5 over aren’t normal in Ohio. I’m not saying they never happen, but they’re more likely from village speed traps than the patrol.
I think Ohio’s (deserved) reputation comes from not having a state police department. Most Ohio troopers are doing traffic stuff for their whole shift, because they’re not state police officers like they would be in the surrounding states. They don’t have any local police responsibilities like in Pennsylvania. (There is a “Highway Patrol Police” division, but all it polices is state property in Columbus.)
Currently a MA resident, and I’ve both lived and driven extensively throughout most of New England. Shagnasty has it pretty much on point: MA state police don’t blink an eye at anything under 90, regardless of whether you’re MA or from somewhere else. And CT, NH, and RI are all more at-risk for attention now with MA plates than they were in the past with CT or RI plates.
(Even with the generally lenient approach, they pretty much always find someone to pull over, whether it’s for going 95 or for obvious texting or other idiocy. Which is a pretty good argument that pulling people over for going 5-10 over is a less-than-optimal use of their time.)
Back in the early 70’s when the 55 mph limit was being widely adopted, Ohio was known for its state troopers writing tickets for going 56 mph – one over the limit.
Boy, if that’s the case, things have really changed since I lived in Massachusetts (I moved out of the state in 1999). Back then, they would regularly run speed traps on the Turnpike, and if you were 10 miles over the limit, you’d be likely to get pulled over. Of course, the cops themselves drove at 100 mph in the passing lane, but hey, they were above the law.
Ohioan here. I have never ever gotten pulled over on highways, in spite of going 65-70 (or more) on a regular basis. But I’ve gotten a ticket about every 5 years or so, on local 25 mph streets. Lots of local speed traps around here.
I wonder how many of them were the cop being nice; as in, “You were going 66 but I’m only going to write it for 56”.
The driver gets a break on fine/points while showing his buddies a gen-u-wine 1mph over ticket (while selectively forgetting the other 10 mph) & the cop still gets credit for writing a ticket so as to stay in good with the brass.
This hasn’t been my experience since I got pulled over doing 82 on 495 a few years back. I was stupid enough to admit how fast I was going and of course since it was my first offense I got a ticket. What pissed me off was the fact that there were 5 or 6 cars in the right lane all doing 75 tailgating each other and blocking anybody from getting on at the rest area the statie was hiding at.) IE the reason I got the ticket was I was the easiest one to ticket and mine would be the most, not because I was actually the most dangerous driver on the road. (I didn’t bother to fight it since I admitted to doing it and because right at the same time a bunch of people got killed on 24 that had nothing to do with speed so of course they jacked up speed enforcement. No it doesn’t make sense.)