# Watch for speed traps in school zones as school starts **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 29, 2018, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461 "2018-08-29T11:46:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461/21 "2018-08-29T16:23:20Z")
Right near the school by me the speed limit drops from 45 to 35 so even without the school they have a lot of speed traps setup there to catch people who don’t notice the change. From what have seen people who don’t let their kids walk to school are not mostly worried about speeders. They are worried about the kids being assaulted , especially girls. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461/22 "2018-08-29T16:27:00Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Right near the school by me the speed limit drops from 45 to 35 so even without the school they have a lot of speed traps setup there to catch people who don’t notice the change. At schools near me, they leave the carcasses of dead horses in the road as speed bumps to slow drivers down. I see frustrated drivers stopping to flog them all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461/23 "2018-08-29T16:34:04Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Getting hit by a car is also a crime. Pedestrians have right-of-way in any civilized country. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461/24 "2018-08-29T16:38:22Z")
Yanno, speed limits drop in lots of places, not just at schools. On my commute to work, there’s a stretch that goes from 50 to 40 to 30 because it’s narrow, winding, and hilly. Or maybe it’s just a speed trap. There’s another drop from 50 to 40 going thru an area of shopping centers and restaurants - or maybe that’s just a speed trap. And again about 10 miles south at another shopping area. I’ve seen people get tickets in all these areas, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just for revenue. I suppose I could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461/25 "2018-08-29T16:46:17Z")
I live across the street from an elementary school, and it gets so crowded in the morning that speeding isn’t a problem. Blowing through a stop sign is. Double parking parents is. Parents who tell their kids to cross in the middle of the block are. The high school has a bigger problem with speed. We could use more enforcement. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461/26 "2018-08-29T16:54:12Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Right near the school by me the speed limit drops from 45 to 35 so even without the school they have a lot of speed traps setup there to catch people who don’t notice the change. You mean bad drivers who deserve to get a ticket? ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461/27 "2018-08-29T17:17:12Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Cops around here love to give tickets now that school is starting up. It must make it easy to hit their quotas. Thanks so much for posting this. Could you please give me a heads up when the cops start backing off again so I can resume zooming around school buses and through pedestrian crosswalks at illegal speeds? mmm ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461/28 "2018-08-29T17:55:45Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Right near the school by me the speed limit drops from 45 to 35 so even without the school they have a lot of speed traps setup there to catch people who don’t notice the change. If people don’t notice the change, then they are inattentive drivers. If someone is scatterbrained enough to not notice a big black-and-white sign by the side of the road, a traffic citation is a perfectly reasonable way to teach them to pay attention. [Here’s a novel idea (or at least it was novel back in 2010):](https://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/speed-camera-lottery-wins-vw-fun-theory-contest/) > [@NY Times](#): > > Mr. Richardson’s winning idea is comparably low on novelty but high on behavioral science. Leveraging traffic-camera and speed-capture technologies, his Speed Camera Lottery device would photograph all drivers passing beneath it. A portion of the subsequent fines levied against speeders would be pooled in a lottery, with a random winner periodically drawn from the group of speed-limit adherents. > > The concept’s Stockholm demo, which concluded in November, produced compelling results. According to Volkswagen, average speed before the installation of the Speed Camera Lottery sign on a multilane street was 32 kilometers an hour. That figure dropped to 25 kilometers an hour during a three-day test, despite the device’s inability to issue financial penalties. Set this up at every school zone, and I bet a lot fewer people will blow through at dangerous speeds. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461/29 "2018-08-29T18:08:32Z")
I try aiming for the little bastards, but they keep jumping out of the way. Must be the training from video games. We oughta outlaw one or the other. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461/30 "2018-08-29T18:18:58Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > I meant to add I have not been ticketed for this but I have seen people get caught every day this week. Someone getting caught speeding in a school zone on the first day of school is something I can understand. People getting caught speeding in a school zone AFTER school has been back in session for a week is just stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461/31 "2018-08-29T19:26:14Z")
I think **BijouDrains** ’ point is that it’s _unsportsmanlike_ on the part of the cops, to ticket people at a high-target location. Sort of like setting out bait when you’re deer-hunting. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461/32 "2018-08-29T19:54:36Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I think **BijouDrains** ’ point is that it’s _unsportsmanlike_ on the part of the cops, to ticket people at a high-target location. Sort of like setting out bait when you’re deer-hunting. It would be a fair point if we were trying to regulate a sport. But driving isn’t a sport, and the purpose of traffic enforcement isn’t to give drivers a sporting chance at evading sanctions for dangerous driving; the purpose is to limit the number of people who get injured, maimed, and killed every day by shitty drivers. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461/33 "2018-08-29T20:12:39Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I think **BijouDrains** ’ point is that it’s _unsportsmanlike_ on the part of the cops, to ticket people at a high-target location… You mean like a _school_? Where young children might dart into traffic? Those cops are not playing fair. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461/34 "2018-08-29T20:17:50Z")
My mother, not paying attention, got caught going the regular speed in a school zone ONCE. She was horrified. (At the school she worked at too. Jesus fucking Christ, Mother! :smack:) The cop let her go with a warning. > [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Speed trap just means they are making a concerted effort to catch speeders, at least to me. That’s not the only way they catch speeders but a lot are caught that way. In this case, GOOD. They _deserve_ to be fucking caught if they’re speeding in a fucking school zone. > [@](#): > > I live right across from a middle school and very few kids walk there. Around 90% take the bus or ride with parents. Most of the kids who walk are on the same side of the major road as the school so they don’t have to cross 5 lanes. For elementary schools here they all have a crossing guard who helps kids cross the street. A lot of parents are worried about kids walking to school so they don’t let them walk even if it’s a short walk. For example I know a guy who won’t let his 16 year old daughter walk a mile to school. If all a lot of drivers in the area have your attitude, I can see why they’re NOT allowed to walk to school. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461/35 "2018-08-29T20:25:34Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Getting hit by a car is also a crime. In fact, I’d much rather have my house broken into than have my kid killed by a speeding driver. Watch out for burglary traps. Cops love to patrol residential neighborhoods and arrest thieves just to meet their quota. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461/36 "2018-08-29T20:59:18Z")
It is absolutely horrifying how some people expect their children not to get hit by cars in front of schools. Ridiculous! In my day, we just dodged traffic, like frogger. It kept us nimble and spry. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461/37 "2018-08-29T21:07:14Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > It is absolutely horrifying how some people expect their children not to get hit by cars in front of schools. Ridiculous! In my day, we just dodged traffic, like frogger. It kept us nimble and spry. Political correctness gone mad. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461/38 "2018-08-29T23:24:20Z")
A speed camera caught me speeding in a school zone. I was guilty. I paid it. But it rankled me a little bit because while I was speeding, to me, it didn’t seem like I wasn’t going crazy fast (27mph doesn’t feel wildly reckless.) Also, because it was a speed camera - they had film. And there were no children anywhere around me & my car during the time I was speeding, so I wasn’t endangering any students. It doesn’t feel like I was caught for doing something wrong; it rankles. Still, I don’t go over 20 anywhere near that area, no matter what time of day or year it is. And I piss off other drivers when I slow to a crawl. So I guess it works. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461/39 "2018-08-30T00:27:26Z")
My city has a school where there’s a school zone for the fenced-off back side of the school property, but not for the pedestrian crossings that anyone would use to get there. Feel free to run the kids down, but don’t you dare hurt the fence around the football field. ---
**Author:** ![pabstist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e99b99/32.png) [@pabstist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pabstist)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2018, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461/40 "2018-08-30T03:02:02Z")
Last year I almost t-boned a guy who stopped for a stop sign, and then pulled out right in front of me. So I honked as I slammed on the brakes. The school crossing guard pointed at me and yelled at me to slow down. Why is there never a cop around when you need one? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watch-for-speed-traps-in-school-zones-as-school-starts/820461.md?page=3)