A note to the MD state troopers- seriously, go catch some real criminals, stop wasting your time and my money.

I got nabbed by a speed trap today on 95 south near the baltimore beltway (695.) Basically my only crime was that I was driving in the left-most lane, therefore making it easy for the cop to walk out in front of me to make me stop. I was matching the flow of traffic and passing no-one. Here's the clincher though- he gave me a ticket for going 73 in a 55. I am 99.9% sure that there isn't a 55mph zone ANYWHERE on 95 in that area- its all 65mph. Needless to say I was more than a little ____ed, unfortunately I didn't realize that he pulled one over on me until the shock of getting a ticket wore off and I was about 100ft down the road (which was probably the point.) The funny/sad thing is, right after he gave me the ticket he went back to his car and immediately walked out and stopped another car. I don't even think he looked at his radar; the whole trap was such an obvious money making machine.

I'm SO tempted to try to take this to the traffic court and get out of it (since I am almost completely sure that I was in a 65mph zone, not 55, making the amount of money he fined me BOGUS,) but I'd probably lose more money taking an unpaid day of work off to contest it. So I'll probably just end up paying the damn thing. More of my money unwillingly given to line someone's pockets, yay. Its the same thing as parking tickets in cities (DC in particular is really bad about this), its an obvious way for the city or state in question to make money from a "crime" in which no one was being harmed. Hell, it would be more dangerous for me to drive slower than everyone on the highway than to speed a little and match the flow of traffic. ____es me off.

Moral of the story: Don't drive in the left most lane, drive fast and/or pass everyone on the right like every other idiot driver in MD, and you won't get a ticket!

/rant off

 

I see those kind of speed traps all the time, definitely stay out of the fast lane. Good luck getting everything resolved.

 

Several things.
it DOES go to 55mph there.
You admit you were using the fast lane for a lane of travel. You could be cited for that alone if the cop really wanted to be a punk. You know in New Jersey they will pull you over for driving in the fast lane?
A law is a law. I know it sucks getting a ticket but you broke it. Dont feel too bad, millions of people get tickets every day.
I would hardly call a state trooper walking out into the fast lane on 95 a "speed trap". If he isnt worried about traffic hitting him while walking out to flag you down, Id be apt to say that you couldve spotted him...

Go to court, if you have a fairly clean record chances are you will get probation. If you dont, the judge may offer you a reduced fine or sentence. Good luck.

 

Did you get a ticket before the I195 ramp towards BWI from I95 South or before the I695 exit towards Towson? If the later that area is 55MPH. If you got the ticket near the I195 exit and abit past the ramp where I695 traffic are merging to I95 South, that area is 65MPH. The ticket should state at which intersection he clocked you on.

 

Easiest way to put it anything inside the beltway on 95 is 55 like it or not.
Did you ask to see the evidence against you?did you ask for the calibration report of the equipment?did you ask for his certification as a operator?
if he cant produce them he has no proof.

Just my .02

Scott

 

Yeah, I went back today and sure enough that one area is 55mph. I've driven on that road for years and never noticed that a part of it drops to 55 from 65. No one every actually slows down there, that's for sure. The speed trap was a couple hundred feet north of where it becomes 65mph. Still a bit shifty in my opinion (the placement of the trap that is), but he was right and I was wrong, as annoying as it is. I actually did see their cars parked and tried to merge ahead of time, but I was boxed in my a damn 18-wheeler, and by the time I slowed down enough to get behind it, the trooper was already walking out into my lane

I'm mostly just annoyed that I happened to un-luckily get singled out of an entire highway of people going just as fast as me. Oh well. I'm still of the opinion that speeding tickets in general are bs unless you are vastly exceeding the speed of the flow of traffic, creating an unsafe situation for yourself and the other drivers, and/or are swerving around like an asshat. I'd rather see people that are tailgating and driving agressively get ticketed, but that never seems to happen.

 

the death rate from a crash at 55mph vs. a crash at 75 mph almost triples. Think about that....

 

http://www.sha.state.md.us/safety/oo....asp?id=S20+S9
The ticketed speed (18mph over posted limit) was outside the level of tolerance (assuming that the Target of Enforcement is 13mph over the posted limit from the above chart)

 

I just wanted to vent, I'm not looking for a lecture guys. Maybe if I didn't see so many cops breaking the same traffic laws they are supposed to enforce (speeding, tailgating, merging without use of signals, etc etc- all without their flashers on I might add) pretty much every day I am on the roads I wouldn't be so cynical and annoyed about getting ticketed.

All I'm saying is that I'd rather see more time being used catching agressive drivers and people driving really dangerously, than just picking people at random out of a highway where everyone is going the same speed (despite the fact they are all speeding.) I'd personally feel a lot safer seeing the jerkoff in a huge SUV who is tailgating me and trying to blind me with his highbeams get pulled over (which I've never seen happen once, ever) than seeing someone who is speeding to match the flow of traffic get pulled over. Both of those people are breaking laws, but the level of severity is different- yet the more minor crime is the one that is more often punished. See my point?

Here's an interesting quote from the above link that points out something else that I was trying to get across:

I was matching the speed of traffic. Had I actually been going the speed limit, I would have had people swerving around me, cutting me off, tailgating, flashing their highbeams, and displaying all sorts of other nice examples of road rage. I feel safer matching the flow of traffic even if it means speeding, than going significantly slower than everyone. I'm not saying that this makes speeding legal and/or OK to do (I may be opinionated, but I'm not blind,) but it is safer, or at least feels that way. That official site seems to support that claim.

Or heck, instead of having 5 police to pull over a single speeder (which I have seen happen before,) take some of those police off the highways and put in situations where they can catch real criminals. Case in point- at my wife's old grad school in baltimore, there was a serial rapist that was just recently caught. That's good, right? Well this guy had been at large for MONTHS. They finally caught him Christmas eve, after he had raped two women that very same day. All of the incidents happened in the same area, they had a description of the guy for a while, yet it took months before this horrible person was brought in. That's just pathetic IMO. I'm just thankful that my wife had graduated in the spring before this mess happened, and that none of her friends were victimized when it did.

Anyways, I could go on, but I'm done. I'll send out my check, the police or state or whoever gets more of my hard earned money, they win, I lose, life goes on.

 

Partly why I never go anywhere without at least a Valentine 1.

Even if you get pulled, it's hard for a cop to pull one over on you when they didn't use radar and they see you have a V1. Only issue is if you do actually get zapped and pulled over with a V1, theres no way youre getting off, they know you're a joy rider.