Oh brother....

Speeders outgun new limits Analysis: Drivers going faster than ever in Lead Foot Nation By Rick Hampson

and Paul Overberg USA TODAY

LANCASTER, Pa. -- Barry Landis was doing 109 mph when the radar detector on the dash of his '97 Dodge Avenger started to beep and blink. That's when he saw the police cruiser.

Why was he driving so fast? Because he was in such a good mood.

Why was he in such a good mood? Because he was driving so fast.

''It's a cyclical kind of thing,'' he says.

To Landis, who once pushed his little Dodge to 130 mph, it boils down to this: ''I like to go fast on a snowboard. I like to go fast on a bike.

''I just like to go fast.''

So do many other drivers -- so many that the state police here have started releasing to the news media the names of speeders ticketed at

90 mph or more. The idea: shame them into slowing down.

At another time in another land, it might work. But not today. Not in Lead Foot Nation, where drivers hit speeds that once seemed out of reach to everyone but race-car drivers, stuntmen and moonshiners. Here, many drivers regard the posted limit as a minimum, not a maximum.

USA TODAY analyzed 1.2 million speeding tickets issued in 2002 on interstate highways in 18 states -- or about 40% of the interstate system. When compared with similar tickets from 1991 and 1996, they confirm what many suspect:

  • We're speeding faster than ever -- in some cases, much faster.

  • Even though highway speed limits have been raised by as much as a third over the past decade, we speed further above these new limits than we did above the old ones.

  • Despite official promises that higher limits would be more strictly enforced, we're getting more leeway from the police, who all but ignore speeders 10 to 15 mph over the limit.

Most striking is the rise in extreme speeding -- driving over 90 mph, or 15 mph above any speed limit. In 1991, just 2% of ticketed drivers topped 90 mph; in 2002, 10% did.

Even what police call ''The Century Club'' -- those driving 100 mph or faster -- is getting much less exclusive. In 1991, just one driver in

300 was ticketed at or above 100; in 2002, the ratio was down to one in 100.

In an attempt to slow traffic, judges in Sutter County, Calif., have tripled the fine for driving 100 mph to almost $1,000.

So many Sutter commuters use triple-digit speeds to shorten their morning drives to Sacramento or the San Francisco Bay Area that the state police have added a 5 a.m. patrol.

It's the great paradox of the American road. Traffic is getting heavier, there's less open road, and gasoline costs more. That should slow us down.

But we want to drive faster, and we do it every chance we get.

So why do we speed?

Because we have a full bladder or an empty cooler. Because the cake is in the oven. Because class starts in five minutes. Because the day care center is closing, and it's a dollar a minute after 6 o'clock.

We speed because we want to get away or because we want to win a race. Because we think we're James Dean or James Bond. We speed because we believe F=ma: Fun equals mass times acceleration.

We speed because our engines are bigger, our tires better, our suspensions firmer, our cabins quieter, our roads smoother.

We speed because we don't realize how fast we're going -- at least, that's what we tell the trooper.

Here in Lancaster County, where the Amish still travel by horse and buggy, the state police say they get so many complaints about speeding that they've borrowed an old vice squad tactic: fight prostitution by embarrassing the johns.

But the strategy assumes people are ashamed to speed.

When friends of Barry Landis found his name in the local newspaper, they cut out the story, presented it to him for his scrapbook with their congratulations and offered their own tales of high-speed brushes with the law. ''It sorta made me a celebrity,'' Landis, 26, says sheepishly.

The trooper who stopped him, Phillip Matson, acknowledges the limits of publicity: ''People's feelings aren't hurt by it. Some of 'em take pride in it.''Cover storyCover story

Reply to
Richard
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I caught this in the NY Times. Quite a tug-of-war we're facing here, folks.

We (as motorists) are sick and tired of having 'calming' devices (stop signs, lights, narrower lanes, crap like that) installed to slow us down, and when we FINALLY get the chance to get some serious air through our hair, here comes ol' Smokey the Revenue Bear to take a week's wages for letting those horses run. Then the Ins. Co. comes in right behind Smokey to collect a bit more.

Has anyone noticed lately how local municipalities now time the lights to stop everyone at EVERY DAMNED INTERSECTION??? Two-way stops are now a thing of the past: get used to 4-way stops, folks, no matter how heavy traffic on either direction is.

Remember 'yield' signs at rural intersections? They're gone too, replaced by those damned 4-way stops. Everyone is so paranoid from being sued by STUPID PEOPLE WHO CAN'T DRIVE PROPERLY that they now assume we're all too stupid to obey a simple 'yield' sign. Worsened now by the propensity to coast through most stop signs anyway, because we're sick and tired of this nonsense.

Lightening doesn't strike 1,000 times in the same place. We're not the problem here. Cities USED to time lights so that anyone driving the speed limit hit every green light in their direction. Stop signs were frowned upon altogether within cities; yield signs ruled. Now the trend is to slow traffic down to a FRIGGGGGINNNN GD CRAWL to minimize liability, and most folks are sick and tired of it. Whenever we can flat-out FLY, we're gonna do it, period.

Why does Big Brother think this is social abhorrence? It's a simple cause and effect equation, damnit!

Q. When did it become socially acceptable to drive 15-25 mph. over the limit?

A. When Big Brother decided it was best to slow everyone down to a GD crawl as a matter of public safety, without taking into account that 90+% of us are more than capable of safely driving 100+ mph on a freeway without any problem whatsoever.

Q. Why doesn't Big Brother simply weed out the morons who are incapable of driving a motor vehicle without running into something?

A. Money. Big Brother would rather choke things down and rake in HUGE PROFITS from those who dare defy their authority in these matters.

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd like to ask of you all: when did it become socially acceptable to model societal norms around the lowest common denominator???

Read that question again. If you cannot comprehend it the second time around, we're discussing YOU.

Okay fine...I'm done with my rant now. I'm just up to *here* with having Big Brother dummy-down every GD thing we do to accommodate STUPID f******G PEOPLE!!!

In keeping with decorum, intelligent, restrained responses only, please.

Thank you.

Regards,

-JD

--------------------------------- JD's Locally-Famous Mustang Page: http:/207.13.104.8/users/jdadams---------------------------------

Reply to
JD Adams

Fort Collins, CO has several (OK, at least 2) vans with speed cameras and 1 speed camera set at the most used intersection. The speed vans often sit about 100 yards away from where the speed limit drops from 45-50 mph to

30 mph - the camera is set to go off at 33 mph. Several of my co-workers have been tagged with this setup, the fines are high and of course, are reported to the insurance company. I just wonder if State Farm and Allstate gave the vans and speed cameras to the FCPD?

Here in FC, if you're on college going North to South, you will get hit with a yellow light that quickly changes to red every 2nd traffic light.

Have to go thru 3 of them on the way to work.....

On this NG? Puuuuu-lease!

Breathe into a paper bag.

Reply to
Ralph Snart

The parental government types have teamed up with the corrupt and the power hungry.

This is the Lowest common demonator thought of the USA. (see my posts on this topic in rec.autos.driving)

When the limits stopped making sense in 1973 for the interstates. Today's cars are perfectly comfortable and safe crusing at 100mph on most interstates if we enforced competency in driving. Instead incompetence is catered to, leading to a 100mph roadway sprinkled with drivers that are unsafe at 35mph and everyone else trying to deal with it.

Yep. It's also a power thing. When reasonable people are defined as violators the government gains a great deal of power over the people. The police gain the power to stop anyone they want, any time they want. People are either driving normally (violating the assinine LCD laws) or driving legally (abnormally) and therefore oddly, suspiciously, avoiding contact with law enforcement.

1968 best I can figure for a start point.

JD, you'd be welcome in rec.autos.driving anytime.

And if you can do it, you have to drive the autobahn in Germany, least before these idiots destroy it too. That's the way it should be here.

Reply to
Brent P

Ya know what kills me (even though it happen last weekend) My daughter had a gymnastics meet in Reno Sunday, so we decide to head out and make a visit with my dad for a 1/1/2 days.We leave out at 6:30 PM Friday night up Hwy 88 and get to the other side of Pioneer. We were just cruising up the road (except when I had to leave a truck behind that was blinding me from the rear) Anyway, I got pulled over by a HP sitting in a parking lot at the bottom of a hill. For what you ask ? NOTHING more than no front plate and tinted windows. MR. no personality I tell ya, at first I was polite (except when I told him "you have to be joking" right after he walked up) Oh well, will have it signed off shortly, Front plate going on... hell no, tint coming off....hell no. Before leaving I told him it must be awfully quiet up there for him to have nothing better to do.

TIM -aka- MUSTTANGUY "at" AOL "dot" COM

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Reply to
Musttanguy
**soap box mode on**

The inherent problem in the USA is that we do not effectively *train* people how to drive/operate a motor vehicle. This includes fair weather as well as emergency driving situations. The so called "driving tests" administered by the states are quite a joke. Does anyone *really* believe that they gain significant/adequate knowledge regarding handling a motor vehicle via the training and tests administered by individual states?

IMHO, at best, the end result for most people is that they have a *basic* knowledge of traffic signage and laws and nothing more - oh, maybe you can parallel park. Enough knowledge to be dangerous. Therefore, unfortunately, the majority of drivers on the road ill prepared once they do get behind the wheel. You do not have to look long nor far for evidence of said ignorance.

** soap box mode off **
Reply to
Grover C. McCoury III

JD Adams wrote

That's a very scary thought, 90% of the motorists doing 100 mph. It's really not all that easy. You've got to concentrate and have a car in top shape to cruise at 100 mph. The 85th percentile rule is the way to go -- set the speed limit at whatever speed covers the slowest 85 percent of drivers on that particular road. I wonder what the effect on fines vs. costs of enforcement would really be.

180 Out TS 28
Reply to
180 Out

I realize you had to end the rant, but I'd like to add the third revenue-scam. "Traffic fines doubled in construction zones" Lots of those construction zones, wouldn't you say?

Vic

2kGT 5m blk suspension upgrades
Reply to
Victor DiMichina

A freeway (or an interstate) out West is much different from a freeway (or an interstate) here in the East. I was thinking about what it would be like here if 90% of drivers were cruising (or trying to cruise) at 100+ mph...

I'd be taking the back roads.

I can see "gusts" up to 100, but even that is pushing it. Even on I-95, I don't see a lot of places where a sustained 100mph is a good idea.

I agree that the current speeds are too low. In many cases, I see the 85% naturally flowing at around 70-80mph, which seems to be a comfortable range for most.

dwight

Reply to
dwight

I tend to agree, 100mph for any length of time requires a well maintained car. My daily driver (1992 Sundance) is in good shape but it can't go 100mph for very long without blowing up. We all know the condition that some people keep their car in. I truly am surprised at how many people don't realize that a cars needs oil (or in one case I discovered she thought you only had to add it and never change it. I think she went 4 years without changing oil. the egninge burnt oil like crazy though and it got a new quart one a week.) and they don't know how to fill it up with gas because they use only full service stations. They shouldn't be on the road like that but they are so we have to share it with them. Not really sure what one could do about it though.

Kirk

Reply to
Mulatz

IL puts up 45mph construction zone, 24-7 limits for 20 feet of shoulder work on I294. The 55mph limit is at least 20mph underposted....

Reply to
Brent P
** Before leaving I told him it must be awfully quiet up there for him to have ** nothing better to do.

I've had similar experiences up there. I was once pulled over for a 'drug enforcement inspection' by local Chippies, who promptly stuck their wet, stinky dog into the cab of my truck in search of contraband.

The damned dog started growling, and dragged my lunch box out onto the ground. The dufus cop kept egging him on; 'Goo boy...goo boy!'. The damned dog proceeded to nearly eat my entire lunch, which had 3 slices of pizza in it. After a very close inspection by said dufus cops, they turned me loose with a warning: 'don't EVEN let us catch you with dope in this truck, asshole!'

And cops wonder why nobody likes them much these days.

Warmest regards,

-JD

--------------------------------- JD's Locally-Famous Mustang Page: http:/207.13.104.8/users/jdadams--------------------------------- Please note: I use a 'white list' to screen incoming mail. Unless you are on this list, your reply will never reach me. Are you on my white list? If unsure, use 'important-mail' in the subject line.

Reply to
JD Adams
** I tend to agree, 100mph for any length of time requires a well maintained ** car. My daily driver (1992 Sundance) is in good shape but it can't go 100mph ** for very long without blowing up.

Same goes for my Winter Beater. We pretty much stick to the trucker lane too.

Warmest regards,

-JD

--------------------------------- JD's Locally-Famous Mustang Page: http:/207.13.104.8/users/jdadams--------------------------------- Please note: I use a 'white list' to screen incoming mail. Unless you are on this list, your reply will never reach me. Are you on my white list? If unsure, use 'important-mail' in the subject line.

Reply to
JD Adams
** A freeway (or an interstate) out West is much different from a freeway (or ** an interstate) here in the East. I was thinking about what it would be like ** here if 90% of drivers were cruising (or trying to cruise) at 100+ mph... ** ** I'd be taking the back roads.

Ah, yet another added benefit of such a policy I hadn't considered.

Warmest regards,

-JD

--------------------------------- JD's Locally-Famous Mustang Page: http:/207.13.104.8/users/jdadams--------------------------------- Please note: I use a 'white list' to screen incoming mail. Unless you are on this list, your reply will never reach me. Are you on my white list? If unsure, use 'important-mail' in the subject line.

Reply to
JD Adams
** I realize you had to end the rant, but I'd like to add the third ** revenue-scam. "Traffic fines doubled in construction zones" Lots of ** those construction zones, wouldn't you say?

Oh, this goes WAY beyond scammy. The cops around here LOVE to sit in those things, and they're everywhere, even when no construction is going on. Just one more way to seperate citizens from their paychecks here in the Golden State!

Warmest regards,

-JD

--------------------------------- JD's Locally-Famous Mustang Page: http:/207.13.104.8/users/jdadams--------------------------------- Please note: I use a 'white list' to screen incoming mail. Unless you are on this list, your reply will never reach me. Are you on my white list? If unsure, use 'important-mail' in the subject line.

Reply to
JD Adams

I was in court some time ago when a gal was charged with driving too fast in a construction zone. She said it was Sunday and no one was working, and the judge threw it out. Would never happen to me.

Al

Reply to
Big Al

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