If you're speeding, and you roll in to a speed trap, is it stupid to hit the brakes .... or is it stupid to keep going at the same speed as if you're doing nothing wrong.Originally Posted by TCinVA
If you're speeding, and you roll in to a speed trap, is it stupid to hit the brakes .... or is it stupid to keep going at the same speed as if you're doing nothing wrong.
When I drive past radar I just keep driving. I don't usually go anything more than 5 over the limit. On the 70 MPH sections of our roads here in the Commonwealth I usually never go above 73 unless I'm trying to get away from someone who is an idiot.
I don't bother with hitting the brakes. If the dude wants me, he'll pull me over. Once you see the cruiser it's too late anyway. The radar or laser system already has you and whatever speed they've got up is what they're going to cite you for.
For the ones writing for speed, they write on the speed...so the fact that you're driving perfectly between the lines with an appropriate amount of space behind the car in front of you (assuming there is one...the two times I've been issued a ticket it was when I was the only dude on that stretch of road) won't matter. You're either got or your not and nothing you can do in the 1/2 second where you become aware of the cruiser's presence (short of maybe flipping the guy the bird or something) is going to make any difference.
The funniest incident I ever had was on 58/220 heading towards Danville. I was going around a turn and naturally there was a trooper in one of the many hidey-holes they have on that road for revenue enhancement. (Boone's Mill is a speed trap thinly disguised as a municipality. Like Chuck said, poor accountability...there's a ton of ol' boy's network in Virginia) I passed, saw him bite (saw his CVPI lurch as he put it in gear) and pulled over immediately around the turn. The dude actually passed me trying to catch up to me and had to turn around a ways ahead while I waited on him. The look on his face while he zipped by me gunning his engine to catch up was priceless.
3/15/2016
Try calling 911 about it. I have been told numerous times to basically mind my own business and don't call about it until something has happened. Apparently swerving towards cyclists, motorcyclists, and pedestrians is not serious enough.
Think for yourself. Question authority.
Like anything else, quality is highly variable.
Some departments are run by solid people like my friend Alan or Chuck or JLW. Meanwhile the sheriff's department in my area was run by a guy who isn't a sheriff anymore because he got pulled over one time too many for drunk driving. And that was but the cherry on top of the sundae of issues in this guy's career.
As I've said before, islands of competence and professionalism being continually assailed by oceans of mediocrity. That seems to be the case in pretty much every profession.
3/15/2016
Thanks for another great post, Gardone.
This is a topic near and dear to my heart. It's what I do for a living. I've heard every excuse out there at least a hundred times. They don't get better with age.
Just to throw a broom handle into the spokes of the discussion I'll just toss this out there: You guys realize it costs upwards of a million dollars to prosecute a murder trial and fight the appeals. Nearly that much for complex white collar crimes with lots of experts testifying. Guess where that money comes from; yep, misdemeanor fines, including traffic citations. In nearly every community I'm aware of, funding for felony prosecutions comes almost entirely from misdemeanor fines. Our law enforcement officers don't get to use your speeding ticket money to fund their summer barbecues. They don't get new microwaves if they fulfill a ticket quota.
Is this arrangement fair? I don't know. But it is what it is. Every time you see someone pulled over (or are pulled over yourself) it's not only making the roads just a tiny bit safer for the folks who aren't speeding through school zones and what not; it's making our communities even more safe by allowing us to put the more serious criminals behind bars. And the great part of it is, it's entirely voluntary. Don't want to pay this "tax," just slow down. Easy as that. The alternative, I suppose, is to cut back on road safety enforcement so we can all drive however fast we want, whenever and wherever we want, and just raise taxes by the amount of lost court fine revenue to operate the criminal justice system. Your choice. Call your legislators.
Last edited by threedogdad; 10-17-2014 at 08:10 PM.
I don't think speed kills, I think going faster than you can manage existing obstacles (including other drivers) kills.
Unfortunately the average person thinks that he's a significantly above-average driver, and will overestimate his abilities by a similarly significant amount.
Here's what I really want to know, though:
What kind of hillbilly yokel stands at the side of the road videotaping traffic? There's a stack of people there, recording mid-90s mustangs as they slightly exceed the speed limit on what appears to me to be a straight stretch of highway. Does that seem like fun to anyone?
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This is a thread where I built a boat I designed and which I very occasionally update with accounts of using it, which is really fun as long as I'm not driving over logs and blowing up the outboard.
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....ilding-a-skiff
Well, they are Mustang people... They like those cars so I'm sure their view of fun is skewed from the rest of the world too.
Think for yourself. Question authority.
Sadly, holding politicians accountable is easier said than done. Over the past 40 some years I have almost never voted for a winning politician in a local race, and during that time the politicians in power have been--among many other essentially corrupt things--turning our local police forces into revenue generating machines. They do that because they have already spent every cent of our tax money, raised taxes to the maximum they can get away with, borrowed everything they can, and are still desperate for revenue to pay for a government that does less and less for the average citizen.
Unfortunately, you can't hold politicians like that accountable when they distribute goodies to a large part of our local electorate and are able to follow our charming local custom of handing out "walking around money" to more than a few voters on election day. They keep winning elections and pushing us closer to bankruptcy. Personally I think they've been watching Detroit's game films.
But I agree with your basic point. Turning cops into revenue generators is a political thing. It doesn't come from the cops, it comes from the local politicians. Maybe when my state goes broke it might stop--but I doubt it.
I think you'll find those people in the "trashy indulgence" thread
Fairness leads to extinction much faster than harsh parameters.
Now I'm just hoping nobody answered "standing beside a road videotaping domestic cars" and is super offended.
Sent from my SGH-I317M using Tapatalk
This is a thread where I built a boat I designed and which I very occasionally update with accounts of using it, which is really fun as long as I'm not driving over logs and blowing up the outboard.
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....ilding-a-skiff
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