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One Red Seat · 05-12-2008, 08:59 AM

I agree with JHB. The "enforced" speed limit is what most drivers adhere to, and an arbitrary and unannounced change in the enforced limit doesn't do anybody any good. That said, you aren't going to get law enforcement on record stating that the "enforced" limit is any different than the actual limit. Maybe an individual officer willl communicate that, but you'll get no policy confirmation. Also, to think this variation is the result of personal bias, as Thumper suggested, is a bit naive. The have regular shift meetings to discuss policy before they patrol the roads. A change in the enforced limit is a change in policy.

Here in Orlando, they employ another common enforcement technique that I can't stand, and my wife was ticketed recently by it. They like to set up at known areas of speed limit change and mass-ticket drivers. In her case, the change occurs at the bottom of an off-ramp from the freeway. The freeway limit is 55 mph, and it feeds onto a 35 mph secondary road. The secondary road receives little traffic other than those exiting the freeway, and about 500 yds from the entry point the secondary road merges into the right lane of a primary road with a 45 mph limit. The officers took advantage of this 35 mph zone, and pulled over an entire group of 7 drivers that were all moving at the same speed, including my wife. They wrote the 7 tickets, set back up, and repeated the procedure. A similar thing happened to me as a teenager in VA. There was a road on the way to school that terminated at another road. To the left, there was one house and then the other road dead-ended at a railroad track. Because of the house on the left, there was a stop-sign. Most drivers making a RH turn onto this road came to a rolling stop to see if there was a car coming from the deadend side with the one house (very infrequent). Around the corner, hidden by the trees on the right side of the road, there were 3 Fairfax County Police officers pulling the offenders over to write them a ticket.

What I hate about this is that it is such a transparent money grab, and it isn't doing anything to make our roads safer. I'll witness at least one reckless act of driving on my daily commute (each way), and I never see an officer on patrol to catch the offender. Apparently, it's more important to maximize revenues through fines than it is to catch the people who disturb the natural flow of traffic (which is what causes bad accidents). Every officer has regularly scheduled "court" days where they need to be in court as the officer who wrote the summons. I've been told that it is frowned upon if their day in court doesn't have a full docket. Sad, really.

05-12-2008, 08:59 AM	#9 (permalink)
One Red Seat I've got the Penske file Join Date: Jun 16 2005 Posts: 13,446	Re: Speed Limits I agree with JHB. The "enforced" speed limit is what most drivers adhere to, and an arbitrary and unannounced change in the enforced limit doesn't do anybody any good. That said, you aren't going to get law enforcement on record stating that the "enforced" limit is any different than the actual limit. Maybe an individual officer willl communicate that, but you'll get no policy confirmation. Also, to think this variation is the result of personal bias, as Thumper suggested, is a bit naive. The have regular shift meetings to discuss policy before they patrol the roads. A change in the enforced limit is a change in policy. Here in Orlando, they employ another common enforcement technique that I can't stand, and my wife was ticketed recently by it. They like to set up at known areas of speed limit change and mass-ticket drivers. In her case, the change occurs at the bottom of an off-ramp from the freeway. The freeway limit is 55 mph, and it feeds onto a 35 mph secondary road. The secondary road receives little traffic other than those exiting the freeway, and about 500 yds from the entry point the secondary road merges into the right lane of a primary road with a 45 mph limit. The officers took advantage of this 35 mph zone, and pulled over an entire group of 7 drivers that were all moving at the same speed, including my wife. They wrote the 7 tickets, set back up, and repeated the procedure. A similar thing happened to me as a teenager in VA. There was a road on the way to school that terminated at another road. To the left, there was one house and then the other road dead-ended at a railroad track. Because of the house on the left, there was a stop-sign. Most drivers making a RH turn onto this road came to a rolling stop to see if there was a car coming from the deadend side with the one house (very infrequent). Around the corner, hidden by the trees on the right side of the road, there were 3 Fairfax County Police officers pulling the offenders over to write them a ticket. What I hate about this is that it is such a transparent money grab, and it isn't doing anything to make our roads safer. I'll witness at least one reckless act of driving on my daily commute (each way), and I never see an officer on patrol to catch the offender. Apparently, it's more important to maximize revenues through fines than it is to catch the people who disturb the natural flow of traffic (which is what causes bad accidents). Every officer has regularly scheduled "court" days where they need to be in court as the officer who wrote the summons. I've been told that it is frowned upon if their day in court doesn't have a full docket. Sad, really.