Tag: revenue collectors

Speed Averages

Guest Post by Eric Peters

Few people with working brains respect the obviously stupid. Which explains why almost everyone disrespects posted speed limits … by ignoring them.speed averages lead

Any law or edict  that is almost universally ignored can be safely presumed stupid. Or – as here – cynically dismissed as a tool for separating people’s money from their persons. Most speed limits (and thus, speeding tickets) fall into this latter category.

None of this is news.

But because speed limits exist as an artificial barometer of reasonable maximum velocities, there is the problem of a generally distorted perception of what constitutes reasonable average velocities.

The Clover who mopes along at say 44 in a 45 contents himself with the thought that he is “doing the speed limit” and feels righteous or at least, justified, about not yielding to the faster-moving traffic stacking up behind him. Even though almost everyone is doing more than the limit – or at least, trying to – he does not question the reasonableness of the statute. Typically, he defends it. Takes the position that whatever the posted maximum is, the fact that it is posted constitutes definitive proof that it is the balls-to-the-wall highest safe speed; that anyone (which is almost everyone) who drives faster deserves a ticket.

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COPS – SHAKEDOWN ARTISTS FOR THE STATE

This has been sticking in my craw since yesterday morning, so I’ll get it off my chest. I was driving to the Post Office at 10:00 am on Bustard Road. It’s a fairly rural two lane road, with wide shoulders, virtually no pedestrian traffic, and it’s not considered dangerous or hazardous. The speed limit is set at 35 mph, which is too low. Most traffic flows at 40 to 45 mph with no increase in danger to anyone. As I proceeded up the hill towards Sumneytown Pike there was one of Towamencin’s finest partially blocking the right lane with their turbo-charged brand new police car flashing its lights. He had pulled over a middle aged man in a newer pickup truck and was writing a speeding ticket.

This working class guy was probably headed to Wawa to get a coffee and a breakfast sandwich or to Lowes to get some materials for a home construction project. He was minding his own business, safely cruising along at 45 mph like hundreds of other cars do per day on that road. Now he was being shaken down by a cop, collecting revenue to sustain the bloated government budget of Towamencin. His Saturday morning trip probably got $100 more expensive. The sight irritated me, as cops increasingly become nothing more than intimidating revenue producers with guns.

On my way home I knew where to look. There was the government lackey parked on a side street out of the view of cars coming in both directions, waiting for his next victim. He wasn’t protecting the citizens of Towamencin from reckless drivers. He was adding no benefit whatsoever to society. He was nothing but a blood sucking parasite, generating dollars to pay his department’s bloated government salaries, benefits and pensions. This entire episode pissed me off, so I decided to do a little research and understand what my taxes are supporting.

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