the new meter maids

[happythoughts 0]

Before large cities started having commercial car parking lots, everyone parked on the streets. Parking was timed, overstay and pay a fine. Meter attendants in Tampa have no essential legal authority or arrest powers, just clerks with a pad of tickets.

Now cities can’t use parking meters for extra revenue. To replace it, a lot of them use speeding fines. I know that there is a theoretical public safety issue with speeding, but that isn’t the case most of the time. In my opinion, doing 52 in a 45 zone with no traffic is not a danger.

I don’t think that police officers should be doing speed enforcement. The meter readers should be retrained. Police should be doing crime-prevention stuff like patrolling, things they are trained to do. I wonder if police resent running speed traps so that the mayor gets a new desk and carpet.

[Gawain 0]

Some police officers don't like traffic duty. Others revel in it. Some make games out of it. I had a Massachusetts State Trooper stop me once, in the middle of a pack of cars doing 80 on I-91 because my car was silver and that was his color of the day. I beat the ticket in court (he didn't show) anyway.

Unfortunately, speed limits have nothing to do with safety, and everything to do with revenue (one exception: Montana when they adopted "Reasonable and Prudent" then people started careening themselves off of cliffs and shit at 120mph).

Tampa is tough, Florida in general too. Local cops, Sheriff's Deputies, State Troopers, all get paid for their time in court. So tickets are hard to beat, but they can be beaten if you do the research, and present yourself professionally. Even if the cards are stacked against you, you can always request a withholding of judication.

If even 10% of the people that got speeding tickets challenged them to traffic court, the system would collapse.

So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh
Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright
'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life
Make light!

[billvon 3,120]

>I know that there is a theoretical public safety issue with speeding,
> but that isn’t the case most of the time. In my opinion, doing 52 in
> a 45 zone with no traffic is not a danger.

Then have the speed limit changed to 55. Speeding does kill a lot of people, and quite often people really, truly believe that driving 60 on a wide open road with few lights (but with a speed limit of 40) is just fine until a kid runs out in front of them. And then they realize there's a reason for having a lower speed limit near a shopping center, even if they can safely go faster 90% of the time.

In 1995 the 55/65mph national speed limit was repealed. States immediately increased their speed limits. Since then, speed-related highway deaths have gone up; 600 more people a year die under the faster speed limits. Montana had no speed limit for a while, with the only law requiring them to drive in a "reasonable and prudent manner." They went back after they realized it took essentially a week-long trial (which costs a _lot_ of money) to give someone a ticket when they were doing 130mph.