Tingler, Agree whole heartedly but.... Where does it stop? And whilst I am at it as of today here in the good old UK it is now illegal to spark up your pipe so that has jsut earned you a $100 fine.... P.
Actually, I don't mind these for active work zones, with human bodies in harm's way. However, they're gonna grab most of their revenue from the 90% of the time the work zone sits there "unworked". I drive thru Ill quite a bit and not uncommon to cross 10 work sites without seeing one worker. You want to talk highway safety and work zones? How bout 24 hour construction until the job is done, and THEN move on to the next site. How many motorists have died in construction zones that had been torn up for 60 days with 20 days of actual labor?
Yeah, here too. I think most places are now smoke free. Where does it end?....exactly. I don't know. Like I said, though...tax walking and I'm going to kill somebody. It all sucks.
Illinios has used the bogus "work zone" for years to generate revenue. I have wutnessed a "work zone" established, a 4 or 5 inch hole excavated, "repaired" with asphault and left there for the next days rush hours to collect fines. It was then taken down. On the same stretch of road, a "patinaed" but undamaged gaurdrail was removed from the top of a concrete barrier between lanes on a short bridge. A work zone was established and left for 4 months while the rail was missing. It was reattatched immediatly after labor day and the attending Cherry Valley patrol car was redispatched at the same time. A new law has been passed to suspend ones license for 3 months if you get caught driving with no insurance. Now, you have no business doing so, but beware if you buy a car and take it home without somehow covering it. Your current policy may not have or could lose its coverage for such things. This is a precurser to enforcing future manditory health insurance policies. They will need leagal precidents set for those cases. The public good of car insurance will do that. I will be an alcoholic if I stay here much longer.
After living in quite a few states i must say illinois is the most uptight and weaksauce. That being said, their is alot of opportunity here and it has started out as one beautiful summer. so all in all i cant complain too much.
New vehichels with services like ''on star'' are setting the course.The manufacturers sell it as a got to have option.You can hit the ''on star''system and ask the operator who answers,Where am I right now.They will come back with your location,direction of travel and your speed.You can thank them and have a dozen roses sent to the wife. In the not to distant future as you return home from that family vacation,you'll find your mail box full of citations from every jurisdiction that you ''3 mile an hour over'' thru.New cars with the little plastic bubble up there on the dash are already set up,just for you. I'm proud to be on a hotrod board with so many conciencious drivers who would never spin their tires or exceed a speed limit. We are special.
forgot to mention that the construction zone cameras arent a problem in my opinion, we have too many yuppie douche bags around us for them to ever figure out themselves to slow down in those zones. and i meant yuppie douche bag in the best possible way
Look, IDiOT can't seem to set up work zones that make sense on a highway system that is always 15 years in the past.... However, when I back down to 45 mph in a work zone AND move all the way to the right, I get passed at 80 mph and see nothing but grille in my rear view mirror. The horn blasts and the (twice) fast food debris hurled at my truck by the SUV crowd don't help either. Me? I've started to drive the state highways instead. It takes a bit longer, but this way I don't think I am gambling my life on a road trip.
not a good idea to speed through work zomes anyways but this time of year there are more work zones than not!! seems a little harsh on the 1 mile an hour over thing. most speedos are NOT that accurate. i think there is some fudge factor expected in them and thats why most cops won't right you up for less than 5mph over. it does seem a bit harsh/strict.
If you buy a car and have insurance on another vehicle, the typical policy includes a provision to bind coverage for 21 days. This allows you to get the car home. I will not guarantee this for all insuarnce companies, but I have not personally seen a policy that didn't include this. The idea behind the law is to keep people from buying insurance, getting their license plates and then canceling the insurance. This happens a lot when the economy sucks as it does now.
On the insurance subject..................we live in a state with a mandatory insurance law. Ok, cool, but why is uninsured motorist coverage a required part of the policy? Tim D.
In case the guy who hit you only bought the minimum coverage for liability. If your med bills are $65,000 and he has coverage for only $25,000 the balance is paid out of the UM.
Virginians Face $3,000 Traffic Ticket Virginia is for lovers, or so the state slogan has declared since 1969. Starting today, Virginia also will be the home of the $3,000 traffic ticket. In an effort to raise money for road projects, the state will start hitting residents who commit serious traffic offenses with huge civil penalties. Beginning Sunday, Virginia is adding new civil charges to traffic fines. They range from $750 to $3,000 and will be added to existing fines and court costs. The civil penalty for going 20 mph over the speed limit will be $1,050, plus $61 in court costs and a fine that is typically about $200. Virginia's traffic law is one of several thousand new state laws that take effect Sunday. Jan. 1 and July 1 are the most popular dates for state laws to become official. Virginia's new traffic penalties are expected to raise $65 million a year and are part of an effort to improve the state's roads without raising taxes. A first-time drunken driver will face a $2,250 civil penalty, plus fines and court costs that typically run about $500 or more. Driving without a license? That's a mandatory $900 civil penalty, in addition to the ordinary $100 for a fine and court costs. "It's outrageous," says traffic court attorney Thaddeus Furlong of Springfield, Va. "When Mr. and Mrs. Middle Class find out what they have to pay, there's going to be a backlash like you've never seen." Some other states impose extra civil penalties for traffic offenses, but the cost is usually $100 or $200, Furlong says. "What sets this apart is the Draconian size of the civil penalties," he says. Another difference: The civil penalties apply only to Virginia residents, not out-of-state drivers. Virginians must pay in three installments over 26 months or lose their licenses. The state Legislature didn't think it could enforce the extra penalties in other states. Motorist club AAA Mid-Atlantic supports the new penalties. "These penalties are harsh, but normal fines haven't gotten people to drive sanely. Maybe this will," says Lon Anderson, spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic. He says the new law will help reduce the nearly 1,000 traffic deaths the state records annually. "We wish motorists didn't have to pay more, but the fact is Virginia's transportation trust fund is broke," Anderson says.
Good Lord. $3000 traffic ticket. On the flip side though, I went out today to the local state park to take my family for a walk. Driving on a two lane 55mph road. I was doing 55mph just like the sane driver in front of me. It was a refreshing change as most folks drive 70mph on that road. Sure enough I look in my rearview and there is a little gray car hauling ass. It gets right up on my bumper and then hangs a wheel onto the double yellow....basically just itching to pass. My wife said the driver was AN OLD WOMAN. Jeez. Anyhows, as soon as I saw her headlights dissapear under the tailgate, I jammed on the brakes. Whoops. It backed her off for maybe 10 seconds and then the bitch was right back at it again. People need to wake the hell up out there. $3000 fines? Some folks deserve them! I need to stop ranting on this thread. ha ha.
they cant give you a ticket for one over the limit from the factory your cars speedo is only calabrated for +/- 5 mph tk
Hello Slicks, Welcome to the strickest state in the union. (ILLINOIS)I have been on the receiving end of the ticket police. 375.00 and a very strong worning not to return to that manicipality with the same offence. Our Govener Begolivitch has been looking for money in every place he can. To bad he cannot find the time to arrest the illegal immigrants and send their asses back to the border with a nice fine. Instead its the True American flippen the bills for the whole world...Might be time to protest and do a rod drive accross the map to Washington and start smoken tires in front of the White House. The real issue here is safty and we all know how dangerious the roads can be. As far as the people working on the Tollways, slow it down for them but you have to admit that you have to be crazy to work on any highway next to traffic. Hugs and kisses BOYZ BSB
This does not tell the whole story, at least according to the news report that I heard. Not only are these excessive fines going into place, but many of these offenses are now FELONIES! According to the news report, speeding more than 15 mph over the speedlimit is now a felony. So is failing to give a proper turn signal and driving with impaired vision...such as balloons in the car...or maybe a rearview mirror hanger or a chopped top??? That means no more voting privileges, no more gun ownership, and maybe over a year in jail! [The definition of a felony is a crime that carries a possible punishment of over one year of incarceration.] Also according to the news story, there was not even a nod given to safety in the reasoning...the whole stated intent was to generate revenue. The only way to legally raise the fines so high was to make these offenses felonies. The news story said that the law states right in its language that the intent is revenue production...talk about brazen.
They are making a type of slider where the plate slides off to one side now and shows a custom plate or design behind them for use at shows. Of course, they aren't street legal.... 60 days is nothing in the great state of Oklahoma. There was a stretch of US-69 from McAlester to Crowder, Oklahoma, where the road was torn up and worked on for around 15 years for the same project! Seems whoever was constructing the road couldn't figure out how to work the expansion joints right on a new concrete roadbed. I agree with the working on one area and then moving on though. There are construction areas all over the Tulsa area, and all they are doing is temporarily patching the holes - all except where they are widening the city streets, and those few are new construction. And as for a 1mph over ticket, that'll never fly if anyone challenges it. Tires that are new versus tires that are legal, but almost worn out can account for a 1mph difference in what the speedo registers.
I've always threatened that I was going to break into the state or county roadbarns one of these nights and cut 12" off the ends of the shovels just so's I could watch them try to lean on them afterwards. The joke here in Oklahoma goes "What is yellow, has 4 wheels, and sleeps 6? - A state road repair vehicle!" You California guys out to enjoy this one. After reading all of these comments, I was reminded of one thing my grandfather and a buddy of his once did. California had just implemented the radar enforcement via airplane (many years ago) and it worked by the planes calculating the distance a car was traveling based on a set of approximately 12" wide x 48" long white lines on the side of the road that were at a 90 degree angle to the road. If the cars went too fast between the 2 set marks, the cars would be pointed out to traffic enforcement on the ground. Well, anyone who knows about the Southern Cali coastal areas knows there is fog almost every morning, and its good enough to 'hide' in while out running around. One night, my grandfather and his buddy went out with a roller and a bucket of white paint and found all of these lines on a stretch of I-5. Every half mile in between the marks they added another white line, in essence DOUBLING the recorded speed limits as seen from above! As an side note, I don't think it'll be long before these radar vans, once parked on the side of the road in the construction zones, are vandalized. I see mucho problems with this type of enforcement, and much of the 'affected' public will as well. It is unfortunate that worker safety isn't taken into account when people speed through a construction zone, and no - I don't condone it either in any way, shape, or form. I do, however, advocate the requirements of a sign or other type of instant notification whenever workers are present, and whenever they aren't there, raise the speed limits back up to a 'safe' level. At the same time, I also advocate the issuance of a 'leveled' driver's license - one that allows you to drive as fast as you have legally been checked out and deemed qualified to drive. Sure, drop the limits in and around cities, but out in the open areas, hammer down. Personally, for the most part, I'm with Tingler. They'll be slowly working their way down to walking, and then we'll have a problem. I'm reminded of the Preamble to the US Constitution - "A government of the people, by the people, and for the people." Its getting about the time to take back our country.
I hate to say it but with all these states having such hefty fines, the inevitable is more people driving illegally without a license or insurance due to previous fines or their licenses being revoked.Then who's gonna pay the bills? Not the dope in jail who doesn't have a pot to piss in
When I was a kid growing up in Connecticut in the '70's, the State Police tried the same thing. But the vans kept getting stolen...
Question: Why are we given cars where the speedometer goes up to 120+ mph if we are NEVER supposed to do that on ANY road or highway? That's like handing a kid a giant lollipop and saying, "You can look, but you can't taste." Fucking sadists!
The last thing I would ever want to do would be to hit somebody with my car, but honestly - if you get hit at 45 mph or at 65 mph ... how much difference is it really going to make? I mean, technically, if we were all trying to prevent accidenta, wouldn't we have to literally creep by construction zones at parking lot speeds so you could absolutely stop in time or the dude in the orange vest could leap out of the way? I don't know, just thinking out loud here.
I think the point of 45 vs. 65mph is in the driver's realm not the victim. logic there is probably that a driver doing 45mph is less likely to careen out of control than a`driver doing 65mph in those narrow lanes. My old neighbor killed a road worker and is still in prison here in Michigan so it does happen as much as some like not to believe. Safety should be the concern not money. I have to take my wife down to Missouri next week so thanks for the heads up on this one...last month the Indiana warning and now this...Pretty soon it'll be cost effective just to fly to Missouri. Glad I just put that speedo on my bike.
There was a big debate recently in the FL legislature about red light cameras and they decided to not put it in the state code. Some localities are still moving forward to install these things and ticket the cars. The ticket doesn't rise to the level of a moving violation, but is more like a big parking ticket since it isn't enforceable at state level, but my feeling is, more power to them. I am tired of risking my life crossing every intersection around here by idiots who deliberately run the lights. I wish that we had enough cops to enforce the traffic laws here in Orlando, but except for the occasional crackdown it's very rare to see anyone pulled over for a violation. That kind of leads to a "whatever you can get away with" driving mentality here. It's not unusual to see multiple assholes weaving 30-40-50 mph faster than prevailing traffic. One recent speeding crackdown on I-4 handed out hundreds of citations with the AVERAGE violation being something like 86 mph in what is supposed to be a 50-55 mph zone..... So on one hand, I hate the idea of a Big Brother automated cop, but on the other hand, we need to get some discipline and courtesy back onto the roadways.
I just hope they set these things up to nail the assholes who go as fast as they can right up to where they have to get over for a lane closure, then slow down everyone else so they can get in. I tailgate the guy ahead of me just so those pricks can't get in. Then I go slower than the posted limit in the work zone. The slower you are going in a work zone, the easier it will be to control and stop your car in the event you need to avoid a highway worker or equipment. Unfortunately, until people stop driving like assholes, this stuff is going to be a necessity. I had a black guy in some kind of uniform, in a Kia, pass me doing like 50+ in a 35, on the shoulder so far he damn near hit a mailbox, the other day. Had he done that 500 yards up the road he would have mowed down three teenage girls walking along the shoulder. And the asshole gets like 100 feet in front of me to the next car, who is doing the speed limit, and can't get any further. We get up to the next light and I go right around him in the left turn lane. One of the most retarded examples of driving I've ever seen. There's a reason why I say Kia stands for Killed In the Accident. So if you get one of these photo tickets, can you challenge it in court? Every speeding ticket I ever got as a kid, in this county in NY, I was able to get knocked down to a non-point violation. One I even pled through the DA myself, didn't like his offer, and took it to a lawyer who got it down to a loud muffler cite. I haven't had a speeding ticket in a long time; the last one I got I missed seeing a 35 sign because I was looking right into the sun. That was like 6, 7 years ago. More maybe.
The Jalopy Journal
