Speeding tickets?

Steering with your knee should get you thinking more about safe
driving rather than speeding tickets.

A more appropriate question might be.......How many times have you
gone off the road ?

 

Wow, they actually ticketed you for running a stop sign on a bike? In my area they all blow through stop signs without hesitation and sue the hell out of any cars that manage to hit them (even though they're supposed to share the road and follow traffic rules).

 

I have Salsa Red; a color that I consider to be very conservative looking.

The sad thing is that I just realized that I haven't had three tickets in the Prius. I remember I really have had four! I can't believe I forgot the ticket I got for doing 85mph while driving thru Electra, TX on a 65mph zone.

 

Well there were actually 15-20 of us road racers on a training ride, dawn on a Sunday morning, 25mph residential area. I happened to be in the lead (we traded off), looked both ways twice, nothing coming. We all got tickets. Oh well.

When in a group we normally stopped at stoplights. We were on the backroad to avoid all the stoplights and traffic on the main drag.

While the two cops were writing us up, a car whizzed by at well over 50mph. One cop took off after him but didn't catch him.

These days I ride a lot in Boston and yes many cyclists run stop signs and red lights (especially if they can see that the lights have stopped traffic for pedestrians) and sometimes cut things pretty close. Or pedestrians cross against the light, lost in texting or phone calls. Or cars drive on the painted bike lanes or open doors without looking first (it's called "getting doored").

 

I've seen several cyclists getting ticketed for running stop signs and red lights. During major ride events, small town police will ticket just a few before giving up. Sometimes the police will complain to event support first, and we tell them that the riders have already been told to obey traffic laws, so start ticketing.

Like cars and speeds 5 over the limit, it is usually an exercise in futility.

Nearly all the cyclists killed recently in this area were not doing anything wrong. Staying in the bike lane or shoulder, obeying stop signs, and being brilliantly lit up with flashers and reflective vests at night, offer no protection against young texters departing from their lane, vehicles severely cutting corners while making left hand turns, and drunk drivers.

 

In my area, most of us have acclimated to bicyclists running stop signs and treat them like pedestrians, as police doesn't do anything about them and we'd get sued otherwise. It may be different in your area so I guess it depends on local culture.

 

1 in my 2008 Prius for illegal window tint. They let me off with the $25 fix it ticket vs. the $280 Illegal Window Film ticket. My dad was driving it with my mom in the passenger seat but the ticket goes to the owner not to vehicle.

 

TheEM, it seems so easy to pick on you this week.
I'm guessing LEO radar just doesn't pick up the Fit since it's so small.

:kiss:

 

Ummmm.....am I the only guy that got a speeding ticket on a bicycle...AND it showed up on my IN drivers pts!!!! Don't get too shocked, it was 26 in a 20 mph school zone in Columbus, GA back when I raced bicycles and NOT cars!

 

I have not gotten a ticket of ANY kind since 2002. That was the year that I sold my radar detector at a garage sale, started only driving the limit to 10% over, and kept my eyes open. Now a-days I don't even look for officers since I've slowed down a bit more. Around this area of Indianapolis all of the traffic lights are timed and I used to really tick off speeders in hot cars when I caught back up to them at lights and blow past just as they turn green....in my 3 banger Geo!

 

Maybe JC Whitney has necker knobs for knees.

 

Well, I managed to whizz unnoticed past a cop on a rainy, slippery, curvy mountain road today... I was doing about 55 in a 40. Oops. In my defense, I had just picked up a little speed on the way down a short hill to use up on the way up a much longer hill, and was soon back under the speed limit. Maybe the Prius helped, or the fact that everybody else was going just about as fast (and I was in the right lane surrounded by a group of 4 or 5 other cars).

A couple miles later, we were paced by a cop for a mile or so at 20 mph (I was second in line), and he occasionally stopped to set out flares on either side of the two lanes in our direction. After that mile, we came upon about 8 cars with varying-sized dents and several emergency vehicles...

 

I couldn't agree more with this. I used to drive my CRX Si to work at 85-90 MPH (limit is 70) every day, and then gas prices started rising and I started driving the limit, which has carried over to the Prius. I really enjoy the relaxed enjoyment of driving at the limit or a couple over, and NOT worrying about getting a ticket.

 

I've had as many as three speeding tickets in the same day back in my younger days as an outside salesman. I used to drive about 1000 miles per week back then, and to be honest I never thought I was dumb enough to allow this to happen, but apparently I was. After purchasing my Prius I gave away my radar detector. I know there will not be any speeding tickets in my future.

 

I stopped getting speeding tickets about the time I started wearing my seat belt without thinking about it.

I don't think it is coincidence that I also stopped getting stressed out by traffic.

 

The law is that you don't speed up until you reach the sign. That's what I do.

I don't deliberately speed, but I try to maintain the limit so, occasionally exceed it by one or two for a moment. If I'm approaching an increase in speed and my speed happens to exceed the limit, I usually just hold that speed rather than coasting to slow down.

I don't speed so I've never had a ticket.

I was riding with my wife (then my fiancee) on the Interstate (PSL 65) late one night when we were stopped by a state trooper.
Trooper: "Did you realize you were traveling at 75?"
My Wife: "But I swear I'd set the cruise control at 70!"*
Me: *deep breath*
No ticket.

My wife has seen a Prius pulled over for speeding. It flew by her while she was riding with a friend on a shopping trip to NH. Then an unmarked police car with blues and twos on** flew by.

* I believe she had. She used to drive at PSL+5. The Prius whine has slowed her on the Interstate, at least when I'm with her.
** I just realized that's British slang: lights and siren.

 

I'm a fairly fast driver but somehow I haven't gotten a speeding ticket from a real live police officer since 1979. (This isn't counting automatic speed traps, which have caught me a couple of times.)

One of the concerns I have, though, is that, unlike with my old car, it's hard to tell from the Prius's engine noise how fast it's going. I think I'm just tootling along, then check the speedometer and find I'm doing 75. (My old car was a very old car and would sound as if it's about to fall apart at that speed.)

 

I've not gotten a speeding ticket in my Prius and I rarely put myself in a situation where I could get a speeding ticket. Still, were I too get one, it would either be on surface streets, if I'm not paying attention to a change in speed limits (aka "speed trap") or if I was gliding down a steep hill and allowed my speed to build up beyond the speed limit (example would be the Sunol grade, where I could literally glide to 80+ mph by the bottom of the grade in a 65 mph zone).There is a huge benefit to driving below the max posted speed limit on the highways, I no longer have to constantly scan my mirrors for Johnny Law, which allows me more time to concentrate on traffic in front of me.

 

Once he's behind you, it's too late anyway...