Fighting a Speeding Ticket in NY?

Off Topic
21

[quote]vali wrote:
Haha I agree with that.

I drive at track events regularly so it is easy for me to see how little most people really know about driving, especially accident avoidance/ skid control, as well as just…paying attention.

I still think most speed limits are ridiculous, especially mandatory 55 mph limits in some cities that have 4-5 lane highways.[/quote]

Oh, I agree with the limits being stupidly low, especially considering that EVERYONE breaks them by at least 10km/h…
The whole situation just creates a lot of these sort of problems ala police occasionally giving someone a fine who goes 5 over, sometimes they ignore you until you go 10 over or whatever… Some officers I know joined the police simply to enforce the law (exactly what the police is there for), but what are they going to do? It’s sort of understood that you can go X over and everyone does, so should they fine pretty much everyone? Other officers don’t… And that’s where you get the whole selective reinforcement issue.
Make the limits higher so the average guy no longer needs to go over/has no excuse to go over usually and reinforce them properly.

22

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:

[quote]angry chicken wrote:
Welcome to America, the “home of the free”. The home of a ZILLION laws we didn’t vote on, we don’t like or want, that take money out of our pockets, and exist for the sole purpose of putting money into the state’s coffers. It’s really just another form of taxation. But “It’s the LAW!” and you broke it…[/quote]

You guys can join the fucking Jedi knights officially (or at least I think you can), you send your army into foreign territory and then invesitage the fuck out of every single shot they fire lest they hurt the poor terrorists or something… But you don’t have a big enough group of people voting to change traffic laws? Or is there something in particular preventing those from being changed? Have enough people tried? (asking for real, I don’t know)

It can be summed up in three simple words, my friend: AMERICANS ARE STUPID.

Seriously. There is a very good reason our schools suck - so that the MAJORITY of the American public can’t think for themselves. I’d be willing to bet my ENTIRE net worth that MOST Americans know who Kim Kardashian is than know the name of their own congressmen or senator. They are sheep. Sheep that exist to buy shit at Walmart.
[/quote]

23

[quote]angry chicken wrote:

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:

[quote]angry chicken wrote:
Welcome to America, the “home of the free”. The home of a ZILLION laws we didn’t vote on, we don’t like or want, that take money out of our pockets, and exist for the sole purpose of putting money into the state’s coffers. It’s really just another form of taxation. But “It’s the LAW!” and you broke it…[/quote]

You guys can join the fucking Jedi knights officially (or at least I think you can), you send your army into foreign territory and then invesitage the fuck out of every single shot they fire lest they hurt the poor terrorists or something… But you don’t have a big enough group of people voting to change traffic laws? Or is there something in particular preventing those from being changed? Have enough people tried? (asking for real, I don’t know)
[/quote]
It can be summed up in three simple words, my friend: AMERICANS ARE STUPID.

Seriously. There is a very good reason our schools suck - so that the MAJORITY of the American public can’t think for themselves. I’d be willing to bet my ENTIRE net worth that MOST Americans know who Kim Kardashian is than know the name of their own congressmen or senator. They are sheep. Sheep that exist to buy shit at Walmart.
[/quote]

I can’t think of a single country I know anything about where that’s any different… Oh sure, some don’t have congressmen and senators, or they call them something else, but the sheep part is the same.

I’m honestly surprised that nothing has been done though. So many people complain about it all the time… You’d think that “I’ll raise the speed limits” would be an instant ticket to the oval office/local equivalent for any up and coming politician…

24

Ah, if you want to fix quotes etc after you posted… Wait a few minutes before doing it… Otherwise the edit will revert back apparently…

25

[quote]pushharder wrote:

[quote]caveman101 wrote:
Pay the damn fine, you broke the law and put others and yourself at risk by speeding.
Did you notice WHY it may have been reduced to 55 for that stretch? dangerous road conditions, residential area, to catch idiots who arent even paying attention to the speeding tons of metal that they should be in control of, let alone their surroundings and approaching hazards?[/quote]

Officer Zealous P. Coltrain [/quote]

Is that Rosco’s brother?

26

are people seriously defending an instance of 25 over the speed limit? (Push - your example is trivial and pointless as you say, and nothing like this) Im a pussy for thinking that driving on public highways is a mode of transport and laws are in place to try and stem the thousands of road-traffic deaths which happen every year in every country? That its fine to break the law if you think you are a better driver than everyone else? (if they are crap drivers - they are a risk to YOU dumbass). Do normal roads have racetrack quality surfaces, gradients and corners designed for driving as fast as possible?

Vali, youre an idiot with that attitude, race tracks are not roads. Oh avatarless-one, art though really a grown man, or merely a beardless boy? I have been driving 5 years me without so much as a scratch. Having passed the Institute of advanced Motorists exam, i am a much better driver than i was, as well as being able to control the speed of my car, which many have a problem doing.

I know im preaching like some old-testament ned flanders, but if people are going to talk about being ‘alpha males’ around here, they can have the balls not to put other peoples lives at risk when they are driving to fucking work or wherever. I bet you guys would all bitch if bus drivers, commercial pilots and train drivers acted irresponsibly with other people lives directly in their hands.

yes i cut my hair ages ago, needed a change. thinking about shaving it right off too.

27

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:

[quote]therajraj wrote:

[quote]SteelyD wrote:
DAMN CANADIANS!

Tearing up American roads with yer speeding, eh?[/quote]

Pfft, it was a speed trap!

Highway is mostly 65 but for some reason this patch of road I was on dropped to 55 for a few miles. Not a construction zone, no lane reduction. Not surprisingly a cop was sitting there

I actually thought I was going the speed limit. I was going roughly 67-68 when pulled over.

I’ve heard a lot of these border towns make a point to give out of state drivers tickets because they’re unlikely to set a court date. It’s one of their main sources of income. [/quote]

You know, with all the costs involved in the fining process, I don’t think they actually make much, if anything? It’s entirely possible that giving you a ticket is a net loss for the town/police agency…

[/quote]

Possible, but that’s what one of the locals told me.

Looking online, I would be paying around $185 since it’s my first offence.

If most out-of-staters plead guilty and send them a big fat cheque, I have hard time believing they aren’t making a decent return.

I don’t see the benefit to society of a cop wasting time pulling over someone going 70 in a 55 on a 3 lane highway.

28

[quote]therajraj wrote:

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:

[quote]therajraj wrote:

[quote]SteelyD wrote:
DAMN CANADIANS!

Tearing up American roads with yer speeding, eh?[/quote]

Pfft, it was a speed trap!

Highway is mostly 65 but for some reason this patch of road I was on dropped to 55 for a few miles. Not a construction zone, no lane reduction. Not surprisingly a cop was sitting there

I actually thought I was going the speed limit. I was going roughly 67-68 when pulled over.

I’ve heard a lot of these border towns make a point to give out of state drivers tickets because they’re unlikely to set a court date. It’s one of their main sources of income. [/quote]

You know, with all the costs involved in the fining process, I don’t think they actually make much, if anything? It’s entirely possible that giving you a ticket is a net loss for the town/police agency…

[/quote]

Possible, but that’s what one of the locals told me.

Looking online, I would be paying around $185 since it’s my first offence.

If most out-of-staters plead guilty and send them a big fat cheque, I have hard time believing they aren’t making a decent return.

I don’t see the benefit to society of a cop wasting time pulling over someone going 70 in a 55 on a 3 lane highway.

[/quote]

The cop is there to enforce the law, the end. He’d be fucking up if he didn’t fine you. He doesn’t make the laws though… Not that some of these guys aren’t being dicks about it, but still.

As for those 185… Well, clerks’ salary(ies), cop’s salary, legal costs etc… With that big of a fine, ok, they may still make some money, but I doubt that it’s all that much.

You could check on the website of the police agency in question, or the community site or something, btw.

At the end of the day though, no matter whether you think the law there is unfair or what, it’s still a law and you broke it (by a good margin, too)… If it was 5-10 over, maybe you’d have gotten off with a warning. But man, it’s 15 over, and that’s miles not km…
What exactly stopped you from going 55? I mean, hell, if it struck you as odd that the limit there was 55 instead of 70, why not be careful and drive slower for a bit?

Speed traps are usually painfully obvious… And in painfully obvious places… If you usually speed (don’t know if you do) you ought to be familiar with the whole system and be able to easily circumvent it… Same as any good criminal :wink:

29

[quote]therajraj wrote:

Possible, but that’s what one of the locals told me.

[/quote]

It’s also what people who don’t know anything about that sort of thing say when they don’t like getting caught driving over the limit… To convince everyone and themselves that they have the moral high ground… Not that the guy you talked to necessarily falls into that category.

31

Idk about NY, but in Texas you can do a driver safety course and get the ticket dismissed. You can even do the class online. They time each page so you actually have to sit there and click next for 6 hours or whatever it is, but the quizzes are so easy you don’t have to pay attention to any of it.

33

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:

[quote]therajraj wrote:

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:

[quote]therajraj wrote:

[quote]SteelyD wrote:
DAMN CANADIANS!

Tearing up American roads with yer speeding, eh?[/quote]

Pfft, it was a speed trap!

Highway is mostly 65 but for some reason this patch of road I was on dropped to 55 for a few miles. Not a construction zone, no lane reduction. Not surprisingly a cop was sitting there

I actually thought I was going the speed limit. I was going roughly 67-68 when pulled over.

I’ve heard a lot of these border towns make a point to give out of state drivers tickets because they’re unlikely to set a court date. It’s one of their main sources of income. [/quote]

You know, with all the costs involved in the fining process, I don’t think they actually make much, if anything? It’s entirely possible that giving you a ticket is a net loss for the town/police agency…

[/quote]

Possible, but that’s what one of the locals told me.

Looking online, I would be paying around $185 since it’s my first offence.

If most out-of-staters plead guilty and send them a big fat cheque, I have hard time believing they aren’t making a decent return.

I don’t see the benefit to society of a cop wasting time pulling over someone going 70 in a 55 on a 3 lane highway.

[/quote]

The cop is there to enforce the law, the end. He’d be fucking up if he didn’t fine you. He doesn’t make the laws though… Not that some of these guys aren’t being dicks about it, but still.

As for those 185… Well, clerks’ salary(ies), cop’s salary, legal costs etc… With that big of a fine, ok, they may still make some money, but I doubt that it’s all that much.

You could check on the website of the police agency in question, or the community site or something, btw.

At the end of the day though, no matter whether you think the law there is unfair or what, it’s still a law and you broke it (by a good margin, too)… If it was 5-10 over, maybe you’d have gotten off with a warning. But man, it’s 15 over, and that’s miles not km…
What exactly stopped you from going 55? I mean, hell, if it struck you as odd that the limit there was 55 instead of 70, why not be careful and drive slower for a bit?

Speed traps are usually painfully obvious… And in painfully obvious places… If you usually speed (don’t know if you do) you ought to be familiar with the whole system and be able to easily circumvent it… Same as any good criminal :wink:
[/quote]

Yes the cops job is to enforce the law, but by that standard he should write tickets to people going 1MPH over the speed limit. Cops shouldn’t waste time writing tickets for people going 70 in a 55 on a road that predominately has a 65mph speed limit. They should focus on individuals who are displaying reckless disregard for the law, excessive speeding, swerving, overly aggressive driving etc.

I don’t agree that speed traps as being obvious most of time, I’ve seen ones that really aren’t. Especially if you’re from another country/state. Cops will sit behind signs, dimly lit side roads with their lights off. Unless you live in the area and have seen cops sitting their previously, I don’t see how they’re mostly obvious.

I didn’t go 55mph because I thought the speed limit was 65 as it is in most areas of the highway. I would consider it unwise and potentially dangerous to go 10MPH+ under the speed limit on a highway.

34

[quote]pushharder wrote:
Sorry, CC, the speeding ticket business in the US is nothing more than (legalized) organized crime.

[/quote]
Do we have a thread with a decent discussion on the specifics of that by any wild chance? I’m curious (just in case you happen to remember one).

[quote]

I’ve been driving here since 1975 so I might just know what I’m talking about.[/quote]

Wha… DAD?.. Get off the internet before you break the computer again, goddamit!

Seriously, the two of you should meet. I don’t think the language barrier will be a problem.
You can ride shotgun in his car while he, after accelerating from a stop at a traffic light, forgets that his foot is on the pedal and ends up going 240 in a 30 zone with children playing on the street.
That would be the police and the state’s fault somewhow, too.

He’s never caused an accident either… And that’s with a reaction time that goes from 0.000003 seconds if the other object is just becoming visible at the horizon (only time he consciously uses the breaks I think, though god knows why) to 2 minutes if there’s someone swerving into his lane 2 meters in front of him on the Autobahn.

Used to be a torpedo boat guy… Guess that’s where his incredible reserve of sheer reality-breaking luck comes from, as well as his kamikaze driving style (Sees object at the horizon: “Is that a Nato Cruiser? Let’s slow down right now and check the silhouette ID book”… Sees object right in front of him “Shit, he got us anyway, but not before I BLOW HIM THE FUCK UP!”).

Edited, because my spelling is terrible today.

35

[quote]therajraj wrote:

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:

[quote]therajraj wrote:

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:

[quote]therajraj wrote:

[quote]SteelyD wrote:
DAMN CANADIANS!

Tearing up American roads with yer speeding, eh?[/quote]

Pfft, it was a speed trap!

Highway is mostly 65 but for some reason this patch of road I was on dropped to 55 for a few miles. Not a construction zone, no lane reduction. Not surprisingly a cop was sitting there

I actually thought I was going the speed limit. I was going roughly 67-68 when pulled over.

I’ve heard a lot of these border towns make a point to give out of state drivers tickets because they’re unlikely to set a court date. It’s one of their main sources of income. [/quote]

You know, with all the costs involved in the fining process, I don’t think they actually make much, if anything? It’s entirely possible that giving you a ticket is a net loss for the town/police agency…

[/quote]

Possible, but that’s what one of the locals told me.

Looking online, I would be paying around $185 since it’s my first offence.

If most out-of-staters plead guilty and send them a big fat cheque, I have hard time believing they aren’t making a decent return.

I don’t see the benefit to society of a cop wasting time pulling over someone going 70 in a 55 on a 3 lane highway.

[/quote]

The cop is there to enforce the law, the end. He’d be fucking up if he didn’t fine you. He doesn’t make the laws though… Not that some of these guys aren’t being dicks about it, but still.

As for those 185… Well, clerks’ salary(ies), cop’s salary, legal costs etc… With that big of a fine, ok, they may still make some money, but I doubt that it’s all that much.

You could check on the website of the police agency in question, or the community site or something, btw.

At the end of the day though, no matter whether you think the law there is unfair or what, it’s still a law and you broke it (by a good margin, too)… If it was 5-10 over, maybe you’d have gotten off with a warning. But man, it’s 15 over, and that’s miles not km…
What exactly stopped you from going 55? I mean, hell, if it struck you as odd that the limit there was 55 instead of 70, why not be careful and drive slower for a bit?

Speed traps are usually painfully obvious… And in painfully obvious places… If you usually speed (don’t know if you do) you ought to be familiar with the whole system and be able to easily circumvent it… Same as any good criminal :wink:
[/quote]

Yes the cops job is to enforce the law, but by that standard he should write tickets to people going 1MPH over the speed limit.
[/quote] I commented on that before fwiw. [quote]
Cops shouldn’t waste time writing tickets for people going 70 in a 55 on a road that predominately has a 65mph speed limit.
They should focus on individuals who are displaying reckless disregard for the law, excessive speeding, swerving, overly aggressive driving etc.
[/quote] That’s just your opinion. Hot air unless you make it heard in the right places. Preferably from more than one mouth/letter.

[quote]
I don’t agree that speed traps as being obvious most of time, I’ve seen ones that really aren’t. Especially if you’re from another country/state. Cops will sit behind signs, dimly lit side roads with their lights off. Unless you live in the area and have seen cops sitting their previously, I don’t see how they’re mostly obvious.
[/quote] Really? Those are all such obvious spots to me, and I never even speed… I guess it comes down to the individual.
Dunno, guess I have a sixth sense for suspicious parked vehicles and what essentially looks something like a javelin launcher under camo netting at the side of the road.

In that case you didn’t do it on purpose… Happens… So let’s hope they let you off due to it being your first offence (if I remember right) etc.

And if not, well, then you got more points than I do and that means you win, right? :slight_smile:

37

[quote]pushharder wrote:

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:

[quote]pushharder wrote:
Sorry, CC, the speeding ticket business in the US is nothing more than (legalized) organized crime.

[/quote]
Do we have a thread with a decent discussion on the specifics of that by any wild chance? I’m curious (just in case you happen to remember one).

One too many cups of coffee today, looks like.[/quote]

I was kidding about comparing you to him, for what it’s worth.
I doubt there is a second person with his driving style alive anywhere for obvious reasons.

Still, the question about a discussion on the U.S. ticket business was serious… If you have any good links and a few minutes, fire away.

38

OP, my experience in NY (counting stories from others) is that if you get the ticket waved by the judge, which I doubt in this case, you will still have $100+ in court fees to pay before you go.

Keep that in mind.

39

[quote]Derek542 wrote:
Why fight it pay the fine and move on in life.

You were speeding and got caught.[/quote]
x2, what’s the problem here?

40

[quote]overstand wrote:
Idk about NY, but in Texas you can do a driver safety course and get the ticket dismissed. You can even do the class online. They time each page so you actually have to sit there and click next for 6 hours or whatever it is, but the quizzes are so easy you don’t have to pay attention to any of it.[/quote]

Not in NY. Texas’s policy makes good sense. There is always the chance that the drivers might learn something in Defensive Driving class. Graduated from a few of those and my take it was probably good many of my fellow students were getting reminded of the rules and laws of the rod. Me, hell I was just driving too fast. But speeding tickets in west Texas don’t really count anyway. They popped the limit up to 85 during the day.