π
2004-02-20 15:30
by Merlin
in Cars, Ncars
Well, I didn't last a week without ranting about speed limits or enforcement thereof.
But that's not my fault, someone at work taunted me saying that one wouldn't get tickets if one drove the speed limit. Arghhhh....
So, here's the answer he got (and that I can refer to for next time):
- you can get pulled over and ticketed without violating traffic laws (I have been, by a cop driving 100mph in the slow lane, and pulling me over because I crossed it and made him slow down when I was exiting on an off ramp while properly signaling and driving 60mph)
- you may be impeding traffic while driving the speed limit (california as strange and interesting laws about those cases).
- The speed limit in cities may not actually be legal and properly supported by traffic surveys
- there are enough traffic laws that you don't know about (not counting the ones you do know) that you're most likely violating at least one every time you drive somewhere, so driving the speed limit doesn't mean in any way that you can't and won't be ticketed.
- Ticket quotas and speed traps are illegal in california, but both are practiced anyway, leaving you with the only options of fighting or paying when it happens to you.
- several studies have shown that 80mph speed on the freeway (which is what many other countries have) isn't actually a problem for properly educated drivers (actually they have a lower crash rate)
http://www.autospeed.com/cms/article.html? &A; =1234
http://www.hwysafety.com/hwy_montana_2001.htm
http://www.ibiblio.org/rdu/a-facdec.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/rdu/sl-irre0.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/rdu/sl-irrel.html
http://www.hwysafety.com/brief_mi_fptenents.htm