(no subject)

[vicarz]

Got my first speeding ticket today! I've been jinxing myself for years, saying "I've never gotten a speeding ticket." So some jackass will certainly say "See, if you hadn't said that..." ignoring the past decades of saying "Fuck you, jinx!" Actually, today I said "Wow it would really suck if we got in a crash on the way!"

The ticket was in the speed trap that they put on the bottom of the hill by my house. I know it's there, but didn't think they'd have one in bad weather or think that the cop pick-up was something to pay attention to. I got 37 in a 26, $116. I usually go much faster, and I think I was coasting in nuetral when I got it. Slight aggravation, more because I know there has never been an accident here ever, and the speed limit is too low. It's just a speed trap - no safety has ever been gained by this revenue raiser. I've called the police non-emer and asked them to stop trapping my block - long before I ever got a ticket.

Am I wrong, or do most people find the limits too low? Why do we have laws that no one obeys? This is democracy yet no one likes the system we allegedly choose. Eh. How mild my reaction when the financial blow is so small. Well, that and I have far more pressing issues.

Now to study for exams.

Comments

[greekphilosophy.livejournal.com]

Well, I think that people will always go faster than the speed limit - whatever that limit is. So if your speed limit was 40, people would go 45 or higher. I think that you're right that the limits are too low, but absent focused lobbying by residents en masse, localities are not likely to change the limits. I-45 was 75mph for a long long time, meaning that we went 85 all the way to Houston. Then, they rolled back the limit to 60mph, which was miserable! Eventually, they raised it, after much fighting, to 65mph, so now we all go 75mph...as was originally intended.

Hmmm. I hate driving. I'm sorry you got a ticket. That is "teh sux."

[vicar.livejournal.com]

Eh - everyone goes 75 on the highway regardless of the limit. The speed limits were made with large auto-matic transmissions in large metal cars that had drum brakes. They left the speed limits there despite better handling and brakes in lighter cars today.

Still, I understand most of the limit is based more on the human reaction time. I just can't believe they need to be as low as they are, or that the societal cost is less for a slow speed limit than the impact of occasional accidents. Perhaps people do like lower limits and I just don't know them.

[greekphilosophy.livejournal.com]

No, I really don't think that people like low speed limits. They would be CRAZAY!

[topaz720.livejournal.com]

I've never received a speeding ticket either. One warning for a broken tail light, but that was all. I usually do 5-10 over the limit, but not much more than that. I've been in a bad crash (notmyfault), and it isn't anything I want to experience ever again. I do think some areas are too low, though. It makes me wonder how some people ever get where they are going!

[cweaselle.livejournal.com]

I think most people are terrible drivers and don't keep to the speed limit anyways. If we raised them, they'd just go that much faster.

[kernelpanic.livejournal.com]

go to court early, speak to the prosecuter (in Arly, sits across from the court room) you can most likely get things reduced or dropped altogether... maybe either offer to take or take it ahead of time - the "I'm a lame driver and need re-education" class - I think you can do it online (see the DMV website). You prolly can keep your good record. Esp if you've had a good record etc.

The citation/summons is just that. Don't cave. Fight the Man! The $$'s you'll save in insurance alone is worth it.

[vicar.livejournal.com]

Great - you know more about the practice of local law than I do. No time for the lame class unless it is online. My point record is positive, not sure what score.

I'm all about fighting the man, but he might win here on the argument that my time would cost me more than taking a stand based on principle.

[kernelpanic.livejournal.com]

Great - you know more about the practice of local law than I do.

Not entirely by choice ;-)

The immediate $120 or so ticket, ya... your time may be worth more. Its the years of increased insurance costs that make any sort of traffic violation painful, in my experience.

[kernelpanic.livejournal.com]

And, besides, aren't you studying to be a Lawyer? Wouldn't it be... criminal... to give up an opportunity to see the gears of the machine churning, first hand?

[vicar.livejournal.com]

My insurance costs will probably not go up. I have good driver, government employee, honor scholar, good credit rating, long-term customer...and perhaps other discounts going for me. I think this is my first ticket in 8 years.

This is only one very narrow area of law, hell most lawyers don't touch criminal law of any sort, and of the ones that do even less would ever see a traffic ticket as part of their issue (I think).

I'd rather fight to get the speed limit changed or change the policy of using speed traps (or using a performance appraisal system that rewards frequent traffic tickets). I'm a systemic person over issues like this.

[boadiccea.livejournal.com]

The limits are definitely too low in some areas, and in others, they're fine.

One thing I like about L.A. is that the surface roads are usually 35 and the highways 65. Much more tolerable, speed-limit-wise!

[bentrazor.livejournal.com]

If ever there is a time, when my faith in God and man fails, my passion, my love, lost, when my will to pick myself up off the ground ever subsides, my heart and soul sink irreparably, I will manage to keep myself alive, to keep myself going, by drawing upon my pure, firey hatred for the Fairfax County Parkway.

[trhodes.livejournal.com]

Yay for doom!

Though I always ran like hell from the Vile.

--
Tom Rhodes

[bentrazor.livejournal.com]

Yeah they were something of a bastard, you hear that "bah ha ha" and boom, fire, death. fuckers.

[vicar.livejournal.com]

I tried doom 3 but it didn't really hook me. To this day my favorte thing to do in doom was run around not shooting in huge mixed monster areas, letting them all wail on each other until only a few remained. They don't do that in DOOM 3, and that flashlight / dark crap was just annoying.

Old school doom was so fun (though I only did single player)

[bentrazor.livejournal.com]

I got DOOM3 for my birthday last year and I still haven't gotten past the first level. It's hard and the flashlight is just bad gameplay.

DOOM Multiplayer was a blast. When I was in highschool, there was a local BBS called Underworld that hosted DOOM and DOOM2 multiplayer games. But then it was gone. Then a few years ago, I used to frequent a server called Enter.net and stay up til the wee hours of the morning playing Quake 2 online, but that's gone too. All the new games are too shiny and clunky for even my p4 to do right online. I miss online gaming =(

[trhodes.livejournal.com]

I almost always ignore the speed limit and go a speed relatively based on the current traffic situation and saftey.

--
Tom Rhodes

[tehcas.livejournal.com]

arent speedtraps at the bottom of hills a bit shady if not illegal?

[vicar.livejournal.com]

Completely legal, damn shady.