Disclaimer: I got pulled over by a group of officers who were 'stationed' in a parking lot so they could issue the tickets for 45 in a 40 zone. They would take turns sticking the radar gun around the corner of the building blocking their activities and run out into the middle of the street and pull over five to ten cars at a time. Strangely, they seemed to think it safe to do that despite the "speeding madmen!"
I was naive enough to think that I was actually being pulled in to be thanked for having my two teenaged passengers buckled up!
I dropped that idea rather quickly as the crowd of cars were directed into the lot (so many that the police had to act as traffic control to get the street clear).
When I reported to the Judge, I met almost a hundred others who had been ticketed at the same place that day. I'm sure the majority of them were missing work to be there only to have the Judge dismiss our tickets. Needless to say, I considered this pure thievery, even though I was out only the parking costs. Speed Trap, in a city? End-of-Month quota filling? Sending a message to all those stopped? Who knows? Fair? Not in my book. Were we all driving above the 40mph limit? Probably, we were all still pretty well spaced out but moving together in the three lanes without any apparent trouble... Contesting the fine would have been even more time consuming and costly.
<begin sermon>
I
don't assume the police are always right (see above, and that only speaks to their motives). Of course, I'd never suggest that to an Officer!
And there
are cities and contractors who rig the lights for increased profits. But I don't particularly rely on statistics on causes of vehicular accidents. The fines/sentences for driving under the influence are probably higher/longer than simple speeding. So which 'cause' gets put on the report?
QUOTE
aggressive tailgating, aggressive road behavior (abusing, insulting, yelling at, or making rude gestures to or at other drivers), and weather conditions.
And, which one of those categories doesn't
usually involve a 'need' to go faster? I contend that much tailgating is because the 'gater' can't pass the 'tail.' The aggressive behavior is often due to the same problem - the inability to pass a 'too slow' vehicle. Speeding itself, is, by my definition, "aggressive road behavior." Fortunately, I'm not a judge, much less a police officer.
As for "weather conditions," the ones I know of were the result of going faster than was safe in those conditions. I suppose there are a few people killed by falling trees...and certainly many get washed into swollen rivers/creeks...but even some of those were driving too fast to stop in time. "Speeding" is sometimes only tangentially related to speed laws.
I won't argue with statistics, but I will argue that the "causes" listed are far from throughly investigated, detailed and researched. There is simply not enough man-power and time to investigate traffic "accidents." Usually nothing is "researched" except the length of skid marks and breathalyzer results. The first are often inaccurate due to factors such as road surfaces, tire conditions and inflation pressures, when the brakes were first applied and for how long and with what pressure, the effectiveness of the brakes, etc. Breathalyzer/blood tests are only applicable in certain alcohol related crashes. Even then, different folk react differently to the same amount of almost any sedative or stimulant.
The main problem with driving is that we do it so often that we convince ourselves that we are better at it than we probably are. If we go for years/decades without a mishap, we take that as further proof. Instead, we should be asking critical questions of any 'near-misses' and consider that they may not have been because of our own abilities to avoid the recklessness of someone else. The old adage about flying could be just as well applied to driving; "If you aren't just a little bit scared, you shouldn't be flying." Just replace "flying" with "driving," "boating," "cycling," "mountain climbing," etc. Basically any human activity that can result in death of you or someone else.
<end of sermon>
Just be careful out there! You already know so many people choose the wrong computers! What makes you think they would be able to drive safely?!
And remember, do like I
say, not how I
do...
