cop car chase

~ > This seems a bit crazy but I think a cop car tried to chase after me for ~ > speeding. Yes, terrible me was doing 63km/h in a 60 zone highway (it also ~ > goes to 80km in some places). (In other words - 40MPH = 60km) ~ >

~ > ............snip ~ ~ ................heh heh............In southern California, you'd have been ~ on television from 'Live in the Sky' helicopter cameras while several police ~ cars chased you all over the area.

Lol :o)

Here in England the police don't really seem to care if you're doing say,

35mph in a 30 zone. As long as you're not going round a corner at the time hehe. I've often driven past/in front of/behind a police car at a few miles over the limit and they don't take any notice. I don't bother slowing down anymore.

On Sun, 10 Aug 2003 17:57:34 +0100, Clare ran around screaming and yelling:

most localities don't seem to get into a tizzy over few MPH over...they understand that most speedometers are not 100 accurate, and most cases would be dismissed in court...or at least reduced to "defective equipment" which carries a much smaller fine... J

I'm living in Melbourne, Australia. The Labor government run by Steve Bracks (I won't comment on his politics but when he took over from office the conservative party before had turned a s@#$house economy around) has screwed up the economy and is in need for hard cash.

They don't seem to know how to earn it the honest way and so they are going after motorist who are exceeding the speed limit by a few km. Why do you ask? Because it is so damn easy to catch them!!!And most of them aren't the decent honest blokes who will pay.

And the fines are exhorbitant - A$200 - $150 or US$100 or UK70 pounds?

Most of the time the police aim to catch them in "trap zones" ie down the bottom of the hill or up the top of the hill or along a straight empty highway where the speed limit is very low.

Well, the speedo is only accurate to within +/- one-half the smallest graduation. So, for some cars the smallest graduation is 10mph. Cops here in ATL will usually give you about 10mph on the highway.

Or, those in SUVs pacing slowly in the fast lanes while talking on the cellphone and trying to make the kids behave.

No, the traffic cops here in MELBOURNE VICTORIA RUN BY LABOR don't give damn now. They are charging people for doing 3 or 2km above the speed limit. And we're talking about 50km and 60km zones here.

The state government here in VICTORIA AUSTRALIA run by the Steve Bracks a Labor politician argues that cutting 3km or 2km off the speed dial will save lives. So the police are deploying themselves in (wait... black spot danger areas?) easy to catch people areas.

1. downhills - you drift a few km above the limit as you go downhill - 0 fine
2. up hills - you accelerate uphill - and hello 0 fine.
3. at night straight highways - 4 lane roads - where the speed limit is

60km. You think you're the only person on this empty highway? Wrong my friend!!! $200 fine.

1. And, god help you if your speed limit is over 30km/h above the speed limit - they slap you with a 0 fine and you lose your license.

That kind of abuse lead to our new speeding law down here:

5kph over the limit: no fine 10kph over the limit: small fine (the same as a parking violation) 15kph over the limit: medium fine (the same as a Yield sign) 20kph over the limit: big fine (same as red light or stop sign) and a mandatory suspension of your license for up to 90 days. Normally a 30day suspension if not a regular offender.

Yep, sounds Australians have stupid elected officals just like Americans. Which goes to prove my theory that "popular" means average, at best.

This is OT but fyi in 1980-1990 this state was being run by the Labor party (in the US you might call them the Democrats). Well, they ruined it completely - many banks including the state bank went bankupt and had to be liquidated. Thousands of people went unemployed and it was a damn sad sorry and frequent sight to see 1,000+ people que up at a factory to fight over 10 jobs that were advertised. The state was bankupt - no international bank would loan them a dime.

Then the Liberals run by Kennett took over. He was absolutely hated by the left-wing media and the unions but he turned the godforsaken state around. People came back to live in the city. Employment increased - buildings started being built -everyone's lifestyle improved... etc..

But he was an arrogant so-and-so. And a few elections afterwards, his party got voted out despite racking up a huge economic surplus. In came a feel-good Labor politician named Steve Bracks.

In a few years time - Bracks managed somehow to squander the entiire budgetery surplus. Then the huge increase in speeding fines and also parking fines came up.

They also sold off the right to speed cameras to a BIG YES FOR profit organization.

The state now earns $400 million dollars a year in speeding fines alone. My state only has a population of 3 - 4 million people.

The Labor government now factors in the speeding fine revenue into their budgetery estimates.

Rant over.....

On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 03:01:05 GMT, "Jerome Morrow" scribbled this interesting note:

Sorry to add to this, but here in North Texas there once was a small town (well, it still is a small town) that had a thing for writing traffic (read, speeding) tickets. This town has one major (kind of) highway running through it. This town was renown for writing speeding tickets.

One day, several years ago, the Texas legislature passed a law that mandated that any municipal government could only derive a certain percentage of its revenue from writing tickets. That is in the entire state of Texas. This is in response to one town having too good of a time with their speed traps. Now no local government in Texas may derive more than a certain (I forget the actual number at the moment) percentage of their revenue from cops getting out of hand with their ticket books.

Sounds like Australia needs to take a note...

-- John Willis

On Wed, 13 Aug 2003 02:15:20 GMT, MUADIB® scribbled this interesting note:

Nope. Lavon.

-- John Willis