Thread: Speed Traps
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Old 03-29-2010, 07:19 AM   #9
chipj29
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Originally Posted by Phantom View Post
Well -- already this is spreading from my original intent. Speed Traps are speed traps..... been around forever in one form or another.

My serious issue is the not so uncommon (training?) parctice -- in what seems to be only MA and NH of an officer WALKING (sometimes sprinting) out onto one , sometimes as much as two lanes of a highway to point with bravado & authority at a particular vehicle - pointing at that vehicle and then the shoulder in an attempt to get him to pull over. It actually makes me want to laugh sometime- like, where's the puddle in the road when you need it? (but then again I do have a sick sense of humor).

First of all, the LEO (as you all seem to refer to him) is placing himself into a position as a roadway hazard as well as personal danger. btw,what happens if someone not paying attention (i.e. texting) does unfortunately hit him?

Second, and the part I like most, what is a driver expected to do? SLAM on the brakes and park? If truely they are over the speed limit on a highway it will take them a minimum of 1/2 mile to safely slow down/change lanes- don't forget your signal/and pull into the shoulder.

My original beef and point is the practice itself -- MA & NH must be told (shown) in training how to impliment this type of stop. A practice that I personnally think is ludicrous.

I have no issues with the LEO in a car, or even standing in front or beside the car with the lazer gun -- my issue is simply the practice of walking into active lanes of traffic.

This, by the way has nothing to do with that same practice being used on the side of a secondary road where there is only one or two lanes and the posted speeds are MUCH lower.

Believe me, with the amount of traveling I've done, I have my fair share of speeding tickets(and I deserved them) -- It's not the issue of a "trap" that ire's me -- it's this particular implimentation
I am with ya 100% Phantom. IMO, speed traps are a necessary evil. However it is the way the speed traps are sometimes conducted by the officer that drives me bananas. When they step out onto the roadway, that is just plain dangerous-and stupid.

On 93 north at the MA/NH border in Salem on this past Friday (a very heavily traveled stretch of road, and is particularly busy on Friday afternoons), there was a cruiser sitting in the median cross-over. Now I don't think he was running a speed trap, because if he was, he would have been there for 6 years without seeing a speeding car. Why? Well because just the site of the cruiser has vehicles slowing to 10+ MPH below the speed limit. It was creating havoc. If he was just there to turn around, then he should have driven the extra 200 yards south to the Rt 213 interchange rather thin risk causing an accident. The same thing happens at most of the median cross-overs, with or without a cruiser present.
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