IMO. Speed limits are set lower than necessary as a way for the government to take our money without having to ask us permission to raise taxes. I also think the government and the insurance companies are in collusion. Not only the government collects the fines, but the insurance companies raise your rates.
It is interesting that when the 55 MPH limit on the interstates was finally abolished, accidents decreased.
Many states are now using the photo cop. Every car over the limit gets a ticket which is sent to the owner, regardless on who is driving. I fail to see how punishing the car owner is going to induce the driver to be any safer. However, there is a ton of money to be made, which is then used to hire more highway cops who in turn go around and issue more tickets.

Before last summer I haven't got a ticket in over 15 years, and don't use any detector. I contestrd that speeding ticket in court and the assistant DA changed it to a double parking ticket.

 

I live in a different country than you do.

But even if that's so, the best way to thwart it is to drive the speed limit. If nobody speeds, they don't get any income from speed cameras.

And I've found that, with the obvious exception of highway driving, speeding really doesn't save much time at all. When I used to do it all the time, I'd get from home to one of my jobs in about 30 to 35 minutes. Now, I get from home to that job in 35 minutes, without fail.

Is 5 minutes that big of a deal?

That said, I'll admit I'm not following the limit 100% of the time, but on a regular basis I've found there's little point to speeding at all. Generally the only way it saves a significant amount of time is to drive so fast that you're a danger to yourself and everyone around you.

On the other hand, when I drove to Missouri and back, I was pretty much going 80 mph the whole way, regardless of whether the limit was 75, 70, or the 100km/h (62 mph) limit we mostly have here. In that case, I did save a fair bit of time for it, but to go to work and back, it's just added stress and wasted gas.

I guess I should apologize for derailing the thread, by the way >.>

 

You seldom find speed limits being enforced where they should be, like around town, bad roads, curves, or congested areas, because rational people will be careful and slow down when necessary. The speed traps are usually set up in open stretches of good roads where they know most drivers will exceed the artificially low speed limit.

In NYC where speeding tickets are rare due to traffic congestion, the city government decided to sock it to the public with parking tickets and other non moving violations, collecting $ 1,600,000 in fines daily, and expecting to finish 2009 with a take of around $600,000,000. For 2010 NYC plans to collect an additional $93,000,000, and has hired another 200 traffic agents to write more tickets. There are enough agents that if you don't immediately feed the meter as soon as the car is parked, the parking agent will instantly be there to place a ticket under your wipers. Overstay by a minute and the same will happen, and depending on location, the tow truck will tow your car to impound lot in front of your face. Tickets are huge money makers.

In all fairness, one thing I can say about NYC, is that at least they don't assign cops to ticket duty, but actually use them to control crime.

I apologize for my rants and hijacking this thread, but be aware that the government has an eye on your wallet.

 

Your government. I'm Canadian.

I can say that rational people are surprisingly uncommon, at least around here. Anyway, you've basically just backed up my whole point. It's not about whether the speed limit is what it should to be or not, it's that it's the law. You will never get in trouble for not breaking the law.

Tickets are a major source of profit because people, in general, allow it to be. If enough people stopped speeding, photo radar and the like wouldn't be nearly as common, because it's not as much of a cash cow.

 

This is exactly why I avoid big cities. I still can't understand why anyone would want to live in the same place as millions of other people. I mean really people the nation is huge diversify yourselves. Stop gathering in groups, you're asking for nothing but trouble.

 

yea, i made the mistake of leading a group on my way to school. even though i was being passed at the moment, i got popped for 72 in a 55.