It is almost impossible to get pulled over where I live

General Discussion
21

"42 mph in a 35 mph zone, than you are to be pulled over for driving…72 mph in a 65 mph zone. "
@VDC
I have to agree with the others. It is situational as far as location and time of day. Residential areas or areas with uncontrolled entrances are much more prone to accidents and personal injury caused by speeding. One may be inherently more dangerous then another. So yes, the situation matters and cops are often instructed NOT to treat all situations the same even though technically, the speed limit may be exceeded by the same amount.The maximum speed a car can hit an object on a divided highway traveling 72 mph, is often just 72 mph. The potential combined speed of two cars adhering to the speed limit of 55 mph on an undivided highway is 110 mph. This is not to mention the increased danger of unprotected pedestrians and cars backing out of drives or pulling out of side streets. 55 mph roads with uncontrolled access is a nightmare…and deserves special consideration. Often, the same is true for 35 and 45 mph roads…that pass by businesses and houses with free access, pedestrian traffic and parking.

I also second that rush hour on expressways where bumper to bumper traffic are all exceeding the posted limit may mean that cops may think the increased danger to themselves and others, weaving in and around speeding cars , just to stop them in a situation that may actually increase the chance for an accident, is not worth it. So indeed, there may be an easier fish to fry when speeders are more isolated.

22

We had budget cuts a couple years ago and had to let several officers go as a result. I think they might be bringing 1 or 2 officers back soon, but that isn’t really enough.
Hell, for awhile, until a local citizen decided to make it known, they weren’t even really cracking down on drug pushers. When someone starts putting out signs that say our town’s economy is heroin, then police take notice… of the person making the signs.

23

What’s amazing sometimes is to see just how little law enforcement officers actually know about the laws they’re paid to enforce.

About a month ago my daughter was visiting and headed home that evening with her 10 year old son. She had to stop at a checkpoint on the highway and she was told that she was in violation of state law about her son riding in the passenger front seat of her Mustang and that he must be in a child or booster seat. She was told that to avoid a ticket she had to pull over and strap him in the rear seat, which she did. She was totally confused over this and after traveling a mile or two down the road she stopped and moved him back to the front.

The state law here says that a child 5 years old or younger must ride in a child or booster seat.
Ages 6-12 may ride in the front with the factory seat belts.

So here this checkpoint was, a 5 patrol units combination of county sheriff and highway patrol blocking an open state highway, and they resorted to this. It’s not likely harassment but sheer ignorance involved and one would think that one guy in the bunch would have said hold on a minute…

My advice to her was that if this happened again, to tell them in no uncertain terms to write a ticket as the situation stands or STFU.

24

She should print out and carry in her car the state rule that says she’s right.
Many of those age guides are accompanied with size as well. she should double check that.
( My 8 year old is mistaken for 5 or 6 )

25

I’ve been running I75 from Ohio to Florida lately and feel like an irradiated goose with all the state police nabbing speeders and apparently drug runners (you don’t need a full car search for speeding…) on this stretch. You need to be 10+ to get clipped for speeding or less if you are driving like an idiot.

26

"it’s amazing sometimes to see how little law enforcements officers actually know about the laws they’re are paid to enforce."
It’s more amazing how little the public knows about the laws they’re are suppose to be abiding. I agree with @kengreen. It’s worth being absolutely sure and regardless, when you advise your daughter to tell an officer to STFU…it could just get her into another situation to worry about, and all on the advise of dear old dad.

27

I see a mix in local jurisdictions in my area. I live in Stuart, FL, work in Jupiter, FL, and go to school in Boca Raton, FL.

On interstate 95, the state troopers have been active, but you really have to drive like an idiot to get their attention. So many people in South Florida drive like idiots that they stay busy. You can speed (85 in a 65), and if you do it smartly, there is always a bigger jerk who is going to get the troopers’ attention. Of course, the last time I complained to a friend that the state troopers were too lax, I got a ticket the following week. I think that was in 1999.

In Martin County, the deputies used to be pretty active, but we have a new sheriff now, and giving out a lot of tickets didn’t get the last guy reelected.

The Jupiter police don’t seem to enforce traffic laws at all. There are too many rich and powerful people who live in the area to make it worth their time. Stop signs and red lights seem to be optional.

In Boca Raton, you have to kill someone to get arrested, but they have red light cameras that I think have calmed things down some. As a motorcyclist, I loooooooove red light cameras. People running red lights scare me more than anything else.

The Stuart police are my favorite (which is why I live here). They keep things in control, and when someone around here gets arrested, they stay in jail. They enforce traffic the same way. They’re out and visible, but they’ve never hassled me, so I don’t think they’re overbearing. If I could find a good job in Stuart, I’d never leave.

28

My daughter was pretty sure of the law but was totally confused about being told to do what she did. That’s why she called me on the cell just minutes later and I had the state statute pulled up before she even got home.

In its simplest form here’s a cut and paste from the state highway office.

Children five (5) years old or younger must be properly restrained in either a child car seat or a booster seat appropriate for their height and weight. Children ages six (6) through twelve (12) must be properly restrained in either a child car seat, booster seat, or seat belt. Properly restrained means that the restraint system is correctly installed and being used in accordance with the seat manufacturer’s instructions.

There are no size restrictions either; per the cut and paste below.

What are the height and weight requirements by law?
Oklahoma does not have specific height and weight requirements, only the age requirements as listed above. The height and weight limits for a particular seat vary by seat manufacturer, so you should select a seat that will fit your child’s size.

So this brings up the obvious question of why 5 state troopers and sheriffs deputies can’t or won’t understand the above.

29

I-35 between Austin and Buda TX sometimes has more flashing blue lights than K-mart.

30

Here in SF Bay area (Calif) it’s very common to see folks getting pulled over. I’m all for road safety, and want the other drivers to have an enforcement reason to obey the law, as that makes it safer for me and my loved ones to share the road. But it seems to me a lot of time the violations here in the San Francisco Bay area are about something minor. Like a rolling-through right hand turn at a red light. Nobody’s perfect after all. And is it really equitable to give someone earning middle class income and a growing family and huge house payments a $500 fine for such a minor offense? This is a hot topic here, read more in the link below, an article recently published in the main San Francisco newspaper, …

31

Around here, the local county cops really don’t pull people over for speeding unless it’s pretty exceptional (20 MPH over). The state troopers on the other hand are pretty zealous about doling out speeding tickets.

32

True, true…three friends of mine, Moses & Jerome Horowitz and Louis Fienberg tried to get pinched and couldn’t.
They even kicked a cop in the rear and did not get thrown in the pokey.
My friends are pretty famous and you may have heard of them.
Can you name them?

33

@B.L.E., yeah, that’s been my experience in Texas, that they actually enforce traffic laws in that state.

@GeorgeSanJose, is it really that hard to stop at a red light before you turn right? That happens to be one of my pet peeves, (people running red lights and stop signs). I’m glad to see someone is taking this seriously.

34

Meaneyedcatz–Soitenly!

Those are the real names of the original Three Stooges, otherwise known as Moe, Curly, & Larry.
(I grouped Moe & Curly together, because they were brothers, with the same last name.)

35

" is it really that hard to stop at a red light before you turn right? That happens to be one of my pet peeves, (people running red lights and stop signs). I’m glad to see someone is taking this seriously."

+1
I wouldn’t even be that concerned if people actually made a rolling stop before turning right on a red light, but,
in my neck of the woods, most drivers don’t even slow down one iota before whipping a right turn on a red light. The Beemer drivers around here seem to have a competition to see who can make a right turn on red at the fastest speed, and the result–inevitably–is going to be some really bad accidents caused by these overly-confident junior Parnelli Joneses who did not correctly estimate the speed of the cars that actually have the right of way.

A couple of days ago, I narrowly missed being hit by a young woman who blew through an intersection where the light had been red for at least a minute already. The speed limit on that stretch of road is 45, and I would estimate that she was probably going around 50-55 mph when she just blew past that red light. I had a green arrow for my right turn, but–thank God–I looked at the traffic approaching from the left before making my legal right turn.

This was not a case of somebody thinking that she could get through on an amber light and miscalculating. And, I should point out that this intersection was modernized a few years ago, and it has three individual red lights scattered across the intersection, apparently in the hope that people will see the need to stop. She clearly did not even see any of these lights, based on what I observed a few moments later.

After completing my turn, I noticed her parked on the shoulder, about 1/4 of a mile ahead of me. Because there was no traffic in back of me, I thought that I would stop next to her, roll down my passenger side window, and point out that only caution on my part averted an accident where she would have been fully at fault. However, when I pulled up next to her, I observed that her eyes were closed, her hands were in a praying position, and she appeared to be bowing her head in prayer. I thought it best to not interrupt her, and I simply drove on, without saying anything to her.

My theory is that her passenger pointed out her mistake right after she blew through that red light, and that she was giving thanks to God that an accident had not taken place. With any luck, she will be much more alert to traffic signals in the future, but, unfortunately the “high-speed right turn on red drivers” will probably continue to do what they are doing until they either cause an accident, get a ticket, or have a very close call.

36

“Stop signs and red lights seem to be optional”

That’s called Driving Southern. My daughter went to school at USC (the real one :P) and she said that’s what they call it in Columbia. There’s a busy intersection at a T and every time I sat through a light cycle, all the cars turning right (across traffic) kept going until all turned right - even after the light turned red; 5, 10 cars!

37

@Whitey …

is it really that hard to stop at a red light before you turn right? That happens to be one of my pet peeves, (people running red lights and stop signs).

No, I agree it isn’t hard to come to a full stop. But it isn’t particularly difficult to roll through at 2 mph either. I have no complaint about the police giving a traffic ticket to a young family earning $21K annually for doing it either, but a $500 fine for turning a corner at 2 mph? When there was no indication that doing so presented a safety hazard to others? That’s more than a week’s pay to that family. Everyone needs to obey the law, and so should that family. But I just don’t think that amount of fine makes much sense for such a minor offense.

38

If a ticket that expensive isn’t enough of a deterrent to get them to stop, they should raise the fine.

39

Whitey, makes me remember of that Seinfeld show, when Kramer goes golfing and his opponent picks the ball up to clean the mud from it … lol … ok, ok, you’ve got a good point. Everybody would be safer if we all strictly obeyed the traffic laws.

40

I really don’t like the idea of fines as punishment. A fine that’s devastating to a single mom working at a low pay job is pocket change to a rich attorney. That’s likely why the people in expensive German luxury cars speed so much, they can afford the fines.
In some European countries, the fines are indexed to your income, maybe we should consider that, or consider punishing traffic offenses by means other than fines. A day spent in a safety course or picking up litter costs a rich person just as much time as it does a poor person.