About 40% of all tickets written in San Diego are in just 4 locations, and 2 are basically College student areas

11% near SDSU at College Avenue between El Cajon Boulevard and Montezuma Road

5% in Pacific Beach, Garnet Avenue between Ingraham Street and Balboa Avenue

another of the top 5 most ticketed is also in Pacific Beach, coming down Mt Soledad rd to Balboa

So, are cops targetting young speeders? Seems like it. But keep in mind what I posted http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2008/01/speed-limit-enforcement.html about cops giving speeding tickets, they prefer to ticket in the 2nd or higher price bracket... not in the 5 to 15 mph over, but over 15 mph over the posted speed limit when fines really get expensive... because a million people driving the same way 5 miles over the limit as they do at the limit, versus a few people driving way over the limit who will get fined enormously for driving near or over the limit of their braking and avoidance ability is another way to see the issue, but keep reading to see that it really is all about the money.

So reading on the article, you find that the first one I wrote about, the 11% of all tickets in San Diego, the most of any place in San Diego, are at the bottom of the hills on either side of a speed limit drop zone of 600 feet (for nothing different in the road condition, no schools) because it's a senior citizen residential block where the speed drops from 35 to 25 (again... at the bottom of two hills when you've got gravity speeding you up), and to quote the reporter "Nearly all the tickets were issued in the senior zone when drivers exceeded 40 miles per hour, causing fines to increase by $125 or more."  confirming what I said about the 15 and over ticketing method causing fines to increase by $125 or more.
Using today’s fine amounts, the drivers ticketed on the College Avenue stretch during the year reviewed were fined more than $600,000. If all of the drivers paid those fines — and some do not — the city’s take would be more than $109,000 with the rest going to the county or the state.

Here is where you can see its all about the money... putting in a stop light will cost about a half million, writing tickets will earn about 20% more than that, about $600,000

More than that, the reporter, Matt Clark doesn't hold back.. I like that! He puts the matter in clear perspective when he points out
In the College Avenue zone (the one I've been talking about), 39 accidents occurred and cops handed out 1,678 tickets between July 2005 and June 2010,

Other areas of the city had more accidents — and fewer speeding tickets.

Three people died in 104 accidents on University Avenue between Park Boulevard and Utah Street in North Park. Officers issued five speeding tickets.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/dec/18/11-city-speeding-tickets-written-one-spot/?page=1#article

All fired up? Or would you like to read a really good rant about speed traps and how people got fed up and fought back? http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/01/here-comes-rant-moneymaking-speedtraps.html 

be careful in Poway (just off the 15 north from San Diego) the cops are hanging around everywhere catching speeders, here at the intersection of Poway and Silver Lake roads

Just across the street from KFC where I was getting lunch,

they were running radar on Community south of Poway Rd as well, but I didn't have time to take pictures and it isn't necessary to illustrate my point. Here is last months Poway speed trap: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/10/for-all-you-do-this-guy-is-ready-to.html

Worst speed trap state? and worst speedtrap city?

Florida, and Livonia Michigan

Livonia has 28 sppedtraps per 100,000 residents
Nevada has Reno and Las Vegas making 2 of the top 6 (4 and 6)
Colorado has Denver and Colorado Springs making 2 of the top 8 (5 and 8)
Florida has 4 of the top 14 worst speed trap cities in a list made from stats that http://www.speedtrap.org/ compiled and was printed in Hemmings Muscle Machines Nov 2011 issue

Great news, Arizona Speed cameras turned off

Arizona turns off speed cameras

Arizona has turned off every speed camera on its highways after complaints that they violated privacy and were designed to generate revenue rather than promote road safety.

A spokesman for Jan Brewer, the state's Republican governor, said she "was uncomfortable with the intrusive nature of the system", which was inherited from her Democratic predecessor.

Opening in October 2008, the scheme was first in the United States to use speed cameras across a whole state. Amid objections of Big Brother-ism, numerous cameras were vandalised, while the operator of a van carrying a mobile camera was shot dead in a lay-by in April 2009

The 76 cameras took 2.7 million photographs, but only 16 per cent of drivers who received a speeding ticket paid up.

The scheme generated $76 million (£50 million) for a state which has struggled to balance its budget, while the Department of Public safety reported a 19 per cent drop in fatal collisions on highways. But campaigners argued that safety could be improved by more police patrols.

Speed cameras introduced by the authorities in several Arizonan cities are unaffected by the decision.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7895310/Arizona-turns-off-speed-cameras.html

The definitive hick town speed trap, Boulogne Florida, popluation 50,

The 4 lane highway was a 55 zone, but the people of Boulogne posted a 45 zone, and cashed on. They won the lottery.

The speed trap was so effective, 60 %of the city income was from fines and forfeitures.

Of the 1008 arrests in 1961, 999 were for speeding. Accordingly 88% of the budget went to policing the zone, all 1.3 miles long and 2000 feet wide.

Greed was their downfall of course, so many complaints, etc caused the state road dept and a senator to get involved. They lost about 10 million dollars due to bad will, and people going out of the way to avoid the now nationally known, nasty little town that was a parasite on the highway and drivers just passing through. The few businesses and citizens left had their charter revoked 8 years after getting it, and 2 years after the senator took a side against them.

From a late 1960's Road and Track article by Richard Poe

Utah tests 80mph limit on particular stretches of I-15

It's a success, and that means nothing changed, most everyone was already speeding, and not having accidents, and they are still going about the same speed without accidents.

Ergo, we're going to drive the way we drive regardless of posted speed limits, duh. Put more cops on the road and watch us slow down though.

For the full article: http://www.nextautos.com/utah%E2%80%99s-experimental-speed-limit-increase-deemed-successful

Amusing civil disobedience in Arizona to protest speed trap cameras being used as a revenue generator by taxing speeding

37 speeding tickets are in contention due to being unable to identify the driver, of the Dave's '05 Subaru, because the driver always wears a monkey mask when getting photographed by the speed trap cameras. Dave lets several people use his car, has masks standing by in the car for anyone driving it, and whoever the monkey mask driver is, they just go with the flow of traffic. $6,700 dollars worth of fines are waiting for police to cite the driver, who isn't identifiable due to the mask. I love it.

He is fighting every one by claiming the costumes make it impossible for authorities to prove he was behind the wheel.

"You've got to identify the driver, and if you can't, it's not a valid ticket," said Dave VonTesmar, a 47-year-old.

The tickets must be prosecuted in a limited amount of time by the judicial system, or the become invalid according to: http://motoring.asiaone.com/Motoring/Drivers/Story/A1Story20090914-167856.html

The chairman of the Arizona Citizens Against Photo Radar, said he finds it interesting that the agency had conducted surveillance on Dave VonTesmar. He said: "They're out staking out a guy with a monkey mask? If they had pulled him over, they could have pulled the mask off. It just proves photo radar is not about safety, it's about money."

There are 78 cameras in Arizona targetting speeders, and Dave's car has been photo-ticketed 90 times.

I wonder if the cops will just tail Dave's car until it speeds, require the driver to remove the mask while they identify the driver, and give the driver a ticket the old fashion way, or will the cops empathize since cops are the most frequent speeders on the road? I'd love to work for the camera company that sends the photos to the Arizona Dept of Public Safety, and count how many cop cars are photographed speeding through the same speed trap cameras.

Some info collected from http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/09/08/20090908dpsmonkey0908.html

0 to 60 in 2.2 seconds. In a 1986 Trans Am, top speed, 252 mph... that's 3 less than the record for a production vehicle, McClarens old record

http://www.pollymotorsport.no/index.php?mapping=2 Via Hemmings Muscle Machines, Muscleaneous, pg 12 April 2009 issue

Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap, and is wickedly clever

It seems that a bunch of kids have come up with a way to fool those annoying speed cameras into giving tickets to the wrong people. Students from Richard Montgomery High School dubbed the prank the Speed Camera "Pimping" game.

How? Printing out fake license plates, taping them over their own and then speeding through the speed trap.

Students duplicate the license plates by printing plate numbers on glossy photo paper, using fonts from certain websites that "mimic" those on Maryland license plates. They tape the duplicate plate over the existing plate on the back of their car and purposefully speed through a speed camera, the parent said. The victim then receives a citation in the mail days later. Students are even obtaining vehicles from their friends that are similar or identical to the make and model of the car owned by the targeted victim, according to the parent.

Lesson to be learned form this, use it as your defense if you get a camera ticket, in conjunction with the American legal right to confront your accuser, and I bet the judge throws out the ticket. Or, use a lawyer to help, and have the same defense worded in a more proper legal fashion to impress the judge with your lawyers elocution.

http://hardocp.com/news.html?news=MzY4ODUsLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdCwsLDE=

IN the same line of camera misdoings, in Tempe Arizona, guys dressed as Santa Claus put gift wrapping paper around the cameras at a stop light, and posted a video of it to youtube.


http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/world/santas-sabotage-red-light-speed-cameras/2008/12/24/1229998563232.html

Speed Limit Enforcement

There's a terrific post I'm linking to on Jalopnik about speed limit enforcement, I've read the whole thing, and all the comments..... there's a daily hazard for everyone who drives a vehicle being discussed and they have a lot of cool stories and info in this article about what states fine for speeding, where lots of tickets occur, etc etc.

I was just learning from Wayne about a CHP officer's Q and A on tickets. . . and since the speed limit here in San Diego is 65, and the amount of speeders is about 100% of everyone on the road, they have a situation to solve with logic... and here's what Wayne said to the best of my memory: fewer speeders over the 75mph range means a more viable target for cops... you can't pull over all speeders, so pull over the worst right? I buy that, it makes clear sense.

Also, if you pull over a person for less than 10MPH over (for example. if that is only one point on you license and you can do a online course and have that removed for a price) than why should a cop bother? If they only pull over the far fewer people who go 20 MPH over the limit, they can get many more of them, plus the fine is bigger, maybe even be able to write them up for reckless driving (way too far over the speed limit) and nail them for even more points against their license that they can't get removed off their license no matter what.

The summary? The faster they go, the fewer there are, and the more you can punish them.

IE: More job satisfaction? Perhaps. But it accurately gets the worst speeders ticketed instead of wasting time with all the 5 mph over drivers who drive just as well at 70 (legal in some states and is the limit once out of southern California) as they do at 65. So why bother with a million minnows when you can land a few whales?

http://jalopnik.com/340913/rules-of-the-road-jalopniks-guide-to-speed-limit-enforcement