What has 764 legs and eats wallets?
Last spring Damascus, Arkansas (population 382) was officially branded a speed trap and forbidden from writing speeding tickets. Shortly before the final order was issued the city got rid of its no-longer-necessary police chief. And the story got better. The city was stealing from drivers, and prosecutors suspect the police chief was stealing from the […]
Get away from my lawn
Boston suburbs post “do not enter” and “no right turn” signs effective during morning rush hour to protect residents from having to watch nonresidents drive past. Here’s a little secret about those “gated community” ordinances: police rarely enforce them. Signs are cheap. Police officers are not and they have better things to do. I wrote […]
Ring of molasses
Massachusetts politicians filed a bill to charge tolls on all the highways leading to Boston. The mayor of Boston likes the bill because toll revenue would be spent in his city. The new tolls are seen as politically feasible because there won’t be any toll booths. Cameras will track every car and decide who to […]
Dueling statistics
As part of its fight with the state of Iowa over ticket revenue, Cedar Rapids released statistics on the effect of city speed cameras. Until a judge stopped ticketing in May, cameras enforced a 66 mph speed limit on I-380. 67 would get your car a ticket in the mail. Speed cameras still collect speed data […]
Arkansas DOT accepts 75 mph request
After some delay Arkansas DOT acceded to a legislative request to raise the speed limit to 75. The speed limit proposal is open to comment by state residents (only) until December 13. Stripped of irrelevant material the 33 page speed limit report has five pages of content. One graph says the average speed on rural […]
Think fast
The police officer wasn’t asking where I lived out of curiosity. He wanted to know if I was a Massachusetts resident driving on a Connecticut license so he could write a big ticket to make his quota. “No, I don’t live here” was the only correct answer. A more risky answer is “I just moved […]
The Strictly Enforced State
When I hit the state line the speed limit changed from 65 to 75. The road was the same, but the DOT director was different. Oklahoma DOT ignores the law requiring speed limits to be justified by engineering studies. Texas DOT exercised its discretionary authority to raise most of West Texas from 70 to 75. […]
I brake for bugs
When I stopped in Billings I was surrounded by a swarm of yellowjackets. Luckily, they weren’t after me. What looked like every insect in the Great Plains was smeared across the front of my car. Yellowjackets are scavengers and I had brought them lunch. I thought about that trip when I saw an article proposing […]
Paging Congressman Hobbs
Palmyra, Missouri city prosecutor James Lemon just got caught extorting drivers caught in a speed trap. He agreed to drop one demand after he was contacted by KMOV reporters. US 61 through Palmyra is a limited access highway (crossroads but no driveways). In much of the country it would be posted 65 or 70, but […]
A little blue lie
Massachusetts State Police Colonel Richard D. McKeon told a little lie this week, saying an announcement of a DUI roadblock would “reduce fear and anxiety” for the general public. The announcement is not meant to ease anybody’s mind, or even be noticed. It aims to comply with a court decision saying an announcement you didn’t […]