Speeding

Jun 26 22:07 UTC 2003

I got another speeding ticket today.  This is the second one I've gotten
this year.  It was on the highway, and written for 5 over, so (the officer
tells me) there will be no points on my license for it.  I can afford the
fine, so there's really no damage to me from this.  
  What bums me out about it is that for something like the first 8 or 9 
years of my driving history, I cheerfully broke the speed limit all the 
time, even though a ticket at that time would have seriously 
inconvenienced me.  A year or two ago, however, I sort of vaguely decided 
that I just didn't care about getting places quickly enough to warrant 
risking a speeding ticket, and I've made what I consider a reasonable 
attempt to obey speed limits since then.  
  Predictably enough, the only two speeding tickets I've ever had have come
in the last year, when I've been trying not to speed.  Both times, I 
was not in a hurry, just driving along safely (if perhaps somewhat 
absently) on a route I drive often.  The first was on west bound Fuller
between north campus and downtown; the second was on eastbound M-14 
before the Main street on-ramp.  Both of these are areas where the 
speed limit suddenly lowers in preparation for an upcoming hazard 
while the road remains relatively straight and wide and safe.  Both times
I was aware of the hazard (the Fuller intersection and the Main street
on ramp, respectively), and was quite prepared to navigate it safely.  
In both cases, I even knew perfectly well what the speed limit was there, 
and that it changed suddenly.  I can't tell you how many times I've been 
driving past the main street on ramp, with the road perfectly clear, and
suddenly realized that I was going 15 mph over the speed limit and slowed 
down, well past the point where they caught me today. 
  What gets me about these tickets is that I don't think I could have 
avoided them.  Oh, sure, I could have slowed down in each case, but 
there would have been some other situation where the same thing would 
have happened.  Especially for M-14, they could probably catch me in 
that same spot at least half the time I go that way (which is my route to 
work, so it's at least five times a week, usually more).  
  I don't think I'm an unsafe driver.  I pay pretty close attention to the 
road and the other cars on it.  I leave plenty of space between myself and
cars around me.  I use my turn signal, leave my headlights on in the daytime, 
and generally drive pretty carefully.  But I don't think that I can prevent
myself from getting this kind of ticket in the future.  I don't think I'm 
capable of changing my driving patterns to conform to the speed limit
100% of the time even when exceeding it is clearly safe.  I try, but as
I've said, I often find that I'm exceeding the speed limit by a lot
without even having noticed it.  
  So, faced with the fact that I can't prevent myself from getting 
speeding tickets, I find myself strongly tempted to stop bothering to try.  
After all, what does it gain me?  If I reduce my chances of getting a 
ticket from (say) 3% to 2%, is that really worth the effort?  I say 
effort because it really is an effort to obey the speed limit sometimes. 

Sigh.  

response 2 of 111:

Jun 27 02:27 UTC 2003

There are certain kinds of places police like to hang out.  One of the
tricks to avoiding tickets is definitely to learn what those places are.
Expressways where the limit "irrationally" drops are a favorite place.
People in SE Michigan are not very good about driving right at the speed
limit, but this is very much a regional thing.  There are plenty of
other places where people religiously follow speed limits.  Also, in
some places, cops also are rumoured to preferentially target
out-of-towners.

response 4 of 111:

Jun 27 03:53 UTC 2003

Yes, I do think it worth the effort to try to obey the speed limits, Greg.
If only to reduce the number of people who are trying to run _me_ down.

M-14 was a regular part of my morning commute.  I think the speed limit
reduction at the Main Street on ramp (and Barton off-on ramp) quite
reasonable*.  Further, I think the right lane there to be particularly
unsafe.  So I would tap the brake, to disengage cruise control,
just before the speed-limit sign, and then start watching my mirrors.
If absolutely necessary to avoid a semi, I'd move into the right lane.
Otherwise, I'd expect the folks behind me to slow down.


* I think the reduction reasonable because the visibility from Main
Street is extremely limited, as is the opportunity to get up to speed.
Accelerating to 55 is easier and safer than trying to get to 70.  While the
visibility from Barton is better, the acceleration-lane is shorter AND
*up* hill.  Again, the merging cars are more likely to get to 55 than 70.
So I slow down, so they have room to merge *IF* I have to be in that lane.

response 6 of 111:

Jun 27 05:01 UTC 2003

"Absently" might be key here.  How did you respond when first noticing 
the presense of the police?

response 8 of 111:

Jun 27 05:25 UTC 2003

   Rumor among the cabbies I know is that the Ann Arbor police are
increasing the number of tickets they write per month from around
20,000 to around 35,000.

response 10 of 111:

Jun 27 10:38 UTC 2003

Re: #8  It's not rumor.  It's a revenue generating mechanism
that has been cheerfully reported in the Ann Arbor News at least
twice.

response 12 of 111:

Jun 27 13:37 UTC 2003

You have to keep in mind that these days speeding tickets are basically
another form of taxation.  It's a sort of game -- you need to drive
safely (and there are places where driving at the speed limit is *not*
very safe) while avoiding speeding in places where enforcement is heavy.

response 14 of 111:

Jun 27 17:45 UTC 2003

I've heard that the place the A^2 police have staked out is actually
reported in the papers (or some such).  I don't know how much truth
there is in that.

To some extent, where police concentrate their attention is based on
where people complain.  For a number of years the residents along the
southern end of Golfside must have been really complaining, because
there were frequently cop cars lying in wait along that 25 mph section,
and residents near there would warn visiting friends to be careful about
that.

response 16 of 111:

Jun 27 18:40 UTC 2003

It's pretty obvious you don't drive if you're saying that.  Speed limits are
set for a variety of reasons, and all too often they have little to do with
safety.  They're often too low for the road in question and its traffic
density.  Sometimes this is done specifically so the government can entrap
drivers into speeding and thus get more money (there are some towns in Ohio
that are notorious for this -- one was so bad that the Governor smacked them
down, and I think the feds got involved to).

response 18 of 111:

Jun 27 20:40 UTC 2003

There are some times when I consider not speeding to be unsafe.  A key
example would be when you have to travel in the left lane to make one of
the left exits that are unfortunately common around here.  If you're
going 65, you're a hazard to the rest of the traffic in that lane, which
is often doing 80+.

response 20 of 111:

Jun 27 22:50 UTC 2003

Different states have different formulas for signs and speed limits.
I've heard Ohio is pretty lax about warning you about road hazards, so
you have to watch and take care.

Michigan is pretty anal about putting up curve signs, lowering the speed
limit for hazards, etc., so it's very rare to find a situation where the
speed limit would not be safe.  It's a bit more common to find
situations where many cars won't be able to reach the speed limit (for
instance, turning off E.bound Huron River Drive onto S.bound Hogback).
And it's fairly common to find sections that you *could* travel at the
speed limit, except the road has crumbled enough that the limiting
factor is your comfort and concern for the longevity of your suspension.
Main st. south of Stadium was once like this -- signs said 45, but most
cars went 35.  I've heard that one of the algorithms for setting speed
limits is to measure the speed of traffic & pick the speed at which 80%
of traffic is below that speed.  They must have done this just before
fixing up main street, because sure enough, now that the road is nice
and smooth and you *could* go 45, the speed limit is now 35.

response 22 of 111:

Jun 28 04:17 UTC 2003

SuuuuuEEEEEEEEEEE!

response 24 of 111:

Jun 28 11:24 UTC 2003

(That stretch of Huron Parkway was 40 a few years back; I've not figured out
why "they" lowered the speed limit there.)