At 23:37 17-10-2002 -0400, John Giorgis wrote:
Out of curiosity, how high was the fine? In The Netherlands, this particular violation would set you back EUR 92 (approx. USD 91).Indeed, I got hit for doing 46 mph in a 30 mph zone that only had one fairly obscured speed limit sign.
I was really upset about it too, because the street is non-residential, is low-traffic, and has few pedestrians.
You only need to hit one of them to make it a lethal accident...
Thus, I was driving at a perfectly safe speed for the conditions (indeed, I wasn't in a particular hurry at the time),
All the more reason to stick to the speed limit.
When the road owner decided on the speed limit for that stretch of road, he probably had a good reason for setting it at 30 mph instead of 45 mph.and was simply not particularly worrying about how fast or how slow I was going.
So, apparently you believe you should not have been fined. Then what do you propose? Making up elaborate rules about the maximum allowable speed on a specific stretch of road at a specific time of day under specific conditions (weather conditions, traffic density)?
Personally, I do not believe anyone ought to complain about getting a speeding ticket, because there is usually no valid reason to exceed the speed limit. The only valid reason I can think of is when you need to rush someone to the hospital, but in that case no cop will give you a ticket (he will probably give you an escort instead) and every judge will tear up the ticket. If you were speeding because you were late for work or an appointment, then it only shows that you did a lousy job at planning your trip; you should have left for your destination earlier. That also has the benefit or arriving at your destination more relaxed.
Disagreement with a speed limit does not mean you can violate it.
If that leads to a drop in traffic accidents and a drop in the number of people injured or killed in traffic, then it was worth the money.Anyhow, I hope that DC puts up thousands of cameras - because pretty soon the revenue from these cameras will drop to zero as nobody will ever speed, anywhere. Heh.
Of course, you will then need to find a way to pay for keeping those cameras up and running -- because as soon as you start removing them, people will start speeding again.
Not that I believe you can ever totally eradicate speeding, no matter how many cameras you put up. There will always be people who think they can get away with it. Example: in The Netherlands your driver's license gets revoked and your car gets seized (both temporarily) when you exceed the speed limit by 50 km/h. Favourite whine of the "victims": "But I need my car for work!". Yeah, so? You should have thought of that before you put the pedal to the metal.
Jeroen "You do the crime, you do the time" van Baardwijk
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