Are speeding tickets worth fighting?

[javacontour]

How does what cops do impact your ability to live an honorable life?

Just because someone else is taking a short cut, does that mean you are justified?

How long until it's anarchy and chaos?

Your logic is cops cut their family members slack, so I can cheat on my taxes.

If it bugs you that the cops do this, change the police force. Run for mayor and clean house. But don't stoop to their level, justifying your shortcuts by saying "everybody" does it.

Originally Posted By: turtlevette
Originally Posted By: javacontour

I think this is part of what's going wrong with the nation. There are too many who think it's ok to game the system. To see if they can get away with it.


You mean like when cops don't write other cops or their family members? There is a wife of a high ranking cop in my neighborhood who goes like a bat out of [censored] all the time. Why? Because she knows she's ticket proof. I sat around once and listened to cops and wives of cops talk about how wasted they were driving around.

 

[javacontour]

They are facing that in nearby Ferguson and surrounding communities.

I'm fully aware, I service customers and drive in those very areas. They are well known speed traps. The solution is to stay at 5 UNDER the limit.

That way, I don't pay the fine and I don't have to compromise my ethics.

It's a 100% legally avoidable tax.

Originally Posted By: spasm3
Gaming the system? you do realize the system is not set up for safety. Its set up as revenue generation. Traffic speed limits are set up to produce income.

Can you imagine what would happen if for 6 months , no one in any city broke any parking or traffic laws? The city government would collapse and would be in a panic. So they don't really want you to obey the law because they can't afford for you to do so.

 

[Vikas]

It is always funny to read about the guy giving lecture to not drive at 90mph while he routinely drives at 80mph! I guess he is only slightly pregnant!

 

[TiredTrucker]

Speed limits, before the past 55 speed limit everywhere days, were based on the prevailing flow of traffic on a given road. I cap myself at 65 most places. Just never felt the need to race around. States keep jacking up speed limits and I just drive around 65. After all those years of 55 speed limits everywhere, when things went up, my comfort zone settled in at 65. I don't give a rip what everyone else does. I stay to the far right as much as possible and just do my own thing.

But speeding stops are not just about speeding, but many times, just fishing expeditions as a way to stop and search. I travel on the roads to the tune of 140,000 miles or more a year, and the number of these road side searches have incrementally increased to a ridiculous level. Kinda hard to justify making a family with children stand off in the ditch while some LEO rummages thru there vehicle. And then if they find something "they" think looks suspicious, like maybe $1000 in the center console, they can confiscate it under some guise of it must be drug money or something. Property confiscation without being charged is becoming rampant in the U.S. It has been allowed for some time and LE departments have discovered it as a cash cow for themselves. Several states have, or are, passing laws to restrict this kind of thing.

 

[Joel_MD]

About ten years ago I was involved in a multi-car pile-up accident on a freeway in Annapolis, and decided to fight the careless driving ticket that the trooper gave to everyone who had hit the car in front of him. I ended up sitting through about fours hours of a traffic court docket and learned a lot from the experience. This is what I learned:

- In Maryland one can plead guilty, not guilty, or guilty with an explanation.
- If you have a relatively clean driving record (no violations in ~2 years), you definitely should go to court.
- You have a slight (~5%) chance the officer will not show up, in which case you will normally be found not guilty.
- Pleading 'not guilty' or 'guilty with an explanation' tended to produce the same outcome. Those with clean records found guilty by the judge tended to get sentenced to Probation Before Judgement and assessed court costs, which was around $65 IIRC. No points assessed against the driving record.
- Those who tried to use some sort of technicality based on the police officer's radar not being calibrated, etc, were wasting everybody's time, and the judge got impatient with them.
- Those who are habitual offenders tended to get hammered by the judge, worse than if they had just paid the fine. Fine, points, court costs.


From what I understand, all judges are different and have different tendencies. If you go to traffic court I suggest you go early so you get a feel for the judge who will hear your case.

I pleaded not guilty because the officer who gave me the ticket did not witness the accident. I was found not guilty and walked away.

 

[HerrStig]

Traffic engineers use the 85th percentile (of speeds on a stretch of highway) to establish a safe speed limit. THEN the political stooges get involved.

 

[TiredTrucker]

That's what it was! Thanks for reminding me. I knew it had to do with normal traffic flow, just couldn't remember the formula.

 

[DoubleWasp]

I just hire a lawyer for $70, and they get thrown out without ever seeing a courtroom. I don't even know where the place is.

 

[4wheeldog]

Where I live (The middle of NM) if your record is clean, they pretty much toss your first citation, when you meet with the court clerk ahead of time.

But I don't know this firsthand. For some reason, my wife is the one that gets the tickets, of late. I have yet to get one in NM......Though I have 2 while traveling, in the last decade.

 

[RedVic]

Originally Posted By: greenjp
You law and order, "man up" guys crack me up. First, any time you are charged with an offense, be it a traffic fine or a criminal offense, you are entitled to work it through the justice system. Second, as other posters have said the traffic enforcement actions of our local and state governments are largely a revenue-gathering exercise, also known as a tax. It's under the guise of safety but we've seen where that goes awry in other recent threads (Civil Forfeiture, DoJ report on Ferguson, local kids here in MD being kidnapped by police & CPS, etc).

So, when you get a ticket you have a few choices: "man up" and pay it, or go to court to see if you can get away with a lesser punishment or maybe even have the charges dismissed. The former is for suckers, the latter is indeed your right as a citizen.

I have gotten 2 tickets in my 20 years of driving, one was a speeding ticket (something in the 65-70 in a 55 range) on a limited access highway, the other was failure to yield after I pulled out of a gas station and the cop thought I pulled out too closely in front of the car that was coming my way. In the first case I had it reduced to "probation before judgement" and in the second the charges were dismissed when the officer didn't show for court. So yes I think if you can swing the time, taking it to court is worth a shot.

As for the law and order types, I'd love to know what planet you live on that speeding on your local highways is not the norm. Note, I diligently obey the speed limits in residential areas and low to medium speed limit urban and suburban type streets. I have flagged down people who drive to fast in my neighborhood and I do not run red lights and whatnot.

However, on any local highway when the overwhelming majority of cars are exceeding the limit by 10-15 mph (I-270 in MD and the DC beltway around here), something else is going on. These are not all callous lawbreakers who deserve tickets every time they hit the road. These are people participating in a mass form of civil disobedience - the roads and the cars are designed for safe travel at speeds above the limit. In large part, people will drive as fast as they feel safe. When they're all "speeding", it's evidence that the limit is in fact to low. Why? I can only assume it's so it's easier to write tickets.

I would have no problem if they instituted higher speed limits and increased fines. As it stands now, a $100+ fine for 67 in a 55 on my local highways is absurd.

jeff


So much for personal integrity right?

 

[MCompact]

Pop Rivit's Mini-Me has just checked in...

 

[edyvw]

I would personally donate $200 to local police fund if they start seriously enforcing left lane law.

 

[greenjp]

Originally Posted By: RedVic
So much for personal integrity right?

So much for reading comprehension right? Do you have any actual points to make or do you just get your jollies posting sanctimonious stuff like this?