Random thread of the day - I got a speeding ticket this morning =(

[YarisSedan]

So I was on my way to work and get pulled over. Not sure really why. Cop says I was speeding doing 56 in a 45 and he has no radar either that was his estimation?!?! WTF I am doing the same speed as all the other cars and its kinda of a traffic commute.

Without thinking i said i was late to work i have to open the shop this morning. So he said he would make it quick as possible.

Now i think i might have ruined my chances if i try to go to court to fight it. He can just say to the judge that i admitted to speeding because i was late for work.

I have a strange feeling if i was driving a factory yaris without any mods i dont think i would have been pulled over. The lowerd car with the trd badge and trd on license plate i dont think helped my cause.

I think i am eligible to take online driving school so it wont go on my record cause i know its been awile since my last ticket. But just dosnt seem fair. I know that way i take home every day for the past year everyone goes about the same speed which is about 5-10 mph over the limit. I dont think it would be smart of me to drive 45 in the far left lane slow down traffic and potentially cause a accident so me being a smart safe driver i felt it was the right thing to do and drive the safe speed that everyone else was driving to avoid potentially putting myself and other people in harms way and i get penalized for it =(

[Yaris Hilton]

Cop says I was speeding doing 56 in a 45 and he has no radar either that was his estimation?!?! WTF I am doing the same speed as all the other cars and its kinda of a traffic commute.

Now i do speed on that road sometimes hehe but just this particular day i really wasnt. And i know on that road everyone does go about 10 mph over the limit. If you are going 45 you are going to get cut off nonstop even if your in the far right lane.
Sounds like an admission of doing about 55 in a 45 to me.

[YarisSedan]

Yeah but my opinion of speeding is if you are going faster than anyone else. If you are driving like a turtle and people are having to brake and drive around you than thats more likely to cause a accident than simply driving a safe rate of speed which is about the speed everyone else is going.

[wiirenet]

Yea.. around here it feels like the majority of people go over about 10.. or more. I try to stay a little bit under ten, and I still have people pass me up a lot.

Sorry to hear about the ticket =(

[BailOut]

Have you ever been duck hunting? Every bird in the formation is a potential target, and the hunter is left to select one. The most obvious one in this case was your car.

[YarisSedan]

From what i read online the cop who gives you a ticket without using radar/lidar they actually have to pace you a short time IE drive behind you to match the speed and look down and see how fast you are actually going.

I mean really i know they are trained but how can you from a stop position watching cars across the street judge exactlly how fast you are giong. I am here at my computer looking at cars driving by the street right now and i cant go oh that cars goign 42 oh there goes a car 46.6 heres another thast going 51. To me that seems quite impossible. Especially if all the cars are going around same speed.

I know im guilty for speeding and its the same old well i was going the same speed as everyone else. But really if someone is going across several lanes just to get you i do feel like i was singled out. If i was driving a minivan i know i would not have got pulled over.

When i used to have my 240sx years ago it was riced up big time. Big fancy stickers on the sides and on the windshield etc. I got pulled over almost every single day. One time i got pulled over and the cop asked me what iw as doing. I said uhhhh i am making a u turn?

He goes making a u turn huh and then just drives away.

Plus they seem to harass you more. I get asked questions how many times have you got a ticket before. When I say never they dont belive me till they would check my record.

[KCALB SIRAY]

Sounds like an admission of doing about 55 in a 45 to me.

agreed.

[yaris-me]

Sorry, it's your day in the barrel.:frown:

[Zaphod]

That's life man. If you're speeding and you pass a speed trap you're taking a chance of being stopped for it.

I know the deal, some times they pick the guy in the front of the pack, other times they look for a pusher in the back and then others they just pick someone in the middle just to show they can. On rare occasions they'll even patrol with multiple cars in areas where they know they can make it their while.

And yes, if you're driving a car or in my case a motorcycle that calls attention to itself you have to obey all the traffic laws or just really and I mean really pay attention to and know where the patrolled areas are.

[127.0.0.1]

sounds to me like you should stop speeding

that will solve it

[ryota]

Yeah but my opinion of speeding is if you are going faster than anyone else. If you are driving like a turtle and people are having to brake and drive around you than thats more likely to cause a accident than simply driving a safe rate of speed which is about the speed everyone else is going.

unfortunately your opinion of speeding and the laws opinion of speeding are greatly different. that's a bummer man, but if it's your first you should be okay when you go to the court. they might cut you a deal right there if you contest it and talk to the da that comes in for everyone. if they don't you can always take it to trial and pull the quarter trick... drop a quarter in front of the officer and ask him to tell you exactly how fast the top speed of it was... just make sure you have the math figured out (which you could probably find online) ahead of time to prove him wrong.

[kustom play]

i just tell them i wasnt speeding

if they tell me they have me on radar and its the right speed i know i was doing then i try to get out of it

if they make up a number i ask to see the radar to prove it

usually that gets me out with a warning

though i dont often often get pulled over anymore, the cops know my pink wheels and usually when i get pulled over its to ask me if its my sisters car lol

[tomato]

Yeah but my opinion of speeding is if you are going faster than anyone else. If you are driving like a turtle and people are having to brake and drive around you than thats more likely to cause a accident than simply driving a safe rate of speed which is about the speed everyone else is going.

That probably won't work if you say that in court. You can't have an opinion on what the rules are, lol

Look @ what's going on with the Bay Bridge lately. Nobody slows down to 40MPH at the S curve, as they're supposed to, and there are accidents constantly. The CHP is loosing their patience now that that truck went over the railing the other day and almost took down the supporting beam.

Commute traffic is usually 10-15 MPH over the limit out here, I think everybody knows that, even the CHP, but they can still ticket you. :iono:

I'd probably go to traffic school rather than try to fight it in court. .02

[CompanyXPaladin]

My last speeding ticket was for 55 in a 45 at 1AM on a Monday - I was the only car on the road and the cop was bored. I was going maybe 48, the cop was headed in the opposite direction and turned around as soon as he saw me before proceeding to pull me over for "50 in a 45." I asked if I could see the radar, he said he didn't have it "locked in," so the radar wouldn't show anything. Which was "Fine, because he wasn't required to have it locked in." He wrote me up for 55 in a 45, so I took it to court and ended up with the ticket anyway. IMHO cops can pretty much say whatever they want and get away with it - at least in California.

[wiirenet]

This is a REALLY stupid question... but whats this about driving/traffic school that's been mentioned? i got my license in high school, so i know about drivers ed obviously. In movies/tv I've seen people need to take lessons if they got a lot of tickets or did some huge traffic violation, not for one speeding ticket..

[CompanyXPaladin]

This is a REALLY stupid question... but whats this about driving/traffic school that's been mentioned? i got my license in high school, so i know about drivers ed obviously. In movies/tv I've seen people need to take lessons if they got a lot of tickets or did some huge traffic violation, not for one speeding ticket..

I'm not sure about IL, but in CA you can take a driver education course once every two years (?), and not have your speeding ticket put on your driving record or reported to insurance.

[ezhacker1]

and that is why, my car cam comes in handy, i can dispute any traffic ticket with evidence..or have evidence i sped.

[YarisSedan]

Driving home today i looked at the speed limit sign and it actually is posted 50 not 45 like it was written on the ticket. So i was doing 56 in a 50 I am not sure if its true but i heard you have to be doing a higher rate of speed than that to be given a ticket without radar. Unless its 45 on the oncomming lane but i dont think thats possible.

[Kaotic Lazagna]

Sorry to hear that, Jason. But cop cars have built in radars, I think. Some people I know got slammed with a ticket at CSUS because the cop car picked their speeding up with their 360 degree radar (from what others told him).

Also, they're going to tell you that speeding is speeding, no matter if you're doing 1 mph over or 100 mph over. Some cops don't care, and others do.

[YarisSedan]

Sorry to hear that, Jason. But cop cars have built in radars, I think. Some people I know got slammed with a ticket at CSUS because the cop car picked their speeding up with their 360 degree radar (from what others told him).

Also, they're going to tell you that speeding is speeding, no matter if you're doing 1 mph over or 100 mph over. Some cops don't care, and others do.

On the ticket where it said if there was radar it showed non and the speed listed was approx 56.

Either way i think the best thing is to just take traffic school once the ticket comes in the mail. I am just hoping the fine isnt too high. I heard the fine is lower the smaller amount you are over the limit and increases incremental depending on how fast your going so mine should be the lowest possible fine i would hope.

[firemachine69]

My last speeding ticket was for 55 in a 45 at 1AM on a Monday - I was the only car on the road and the cop was bored. I was going maybe 48, the cop was headed in the opposite direction and turned around as soon as he saw me before proceeding to pull me over for "50 in a 45." I asked if I could see the radar, he said he didn't have it "locked in," so the radar wouldn't show anything. Which was "Fine, because he wasn't required to have it locked in." He wrote me up for 55 in a 45, so I took it to court and ended up with the ticket anyway. IMHO cops can pretty much say whatever they want and get away with it - at least in California.



You live in a quasi-communist state. What could you possibly expect to be different?


On that note, rest assured, that sort of ticket would be thrown out in short order around here.


And oh.

Don't ever, I repeat, EVER tell a judge "my opinion is"... You will only unleash his wrath on yourself...

[bobselectric]

I think you just won the law enforcement lottery.

Best thing to do is plead not guilty, and at the "pre-trial" conference arrange a plea. Usually with speeding though, they'll just lower the "amount over", i.e. if you were ticketed for 10-15 mph over the limit, you might get reduced to 1-10, which is a lower fine.

Pulling someone over also has a psychological effect on the other drivers... more like "I'd better slow down, they're giving out summons"

[Yaris Hilton]

In my opinion, everybody who's got an opinion that the existing speed limits aren't reasonable should express that opinion to their legislators. State, city, and Federal, depending on the roads in question. I think some of them are way too slow, but I obey 'em anyway. I've fought the law, and the law won.