Comment on Burning Up
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 3 months agobut everyone goes 5-10 over
Do police not arrest people for this?
Lol no, you have to be going something like double the speed limit most places to get arrested
You might get a ticket, but almost any judge will throw the ticket out if they write you up for going 5-10 over. Some places will write the ticket anyways in the hopes of making some extra revenue, but generally speaking it’s not a ticket that is worth writing because it’s so easy to get tossed out.
Some places are sticklers about the speed limit, and other minor offenses. If you’re local, you tend to know where they are, either from word-of-mouth or local news. Most places won’t ticket for going 5 mph over because a lot of judges will just throw the ticket out, especially if you come with a receipt saying you had your speedometer calibrated. In seemingly more and more places, 10 mph over is the norm. Some of that’s due to shrinking police forces. Pretty much everywhere, 20+ mph over is considered reckless driving.
What part of the country are you from? IME that’s far from universal. I have gotten pulled for 20+ over in multiple states and it’s often just a warning, if I do get ticketed it’s just a ticket and that’s the end of it:
When I had first gotten my license in CA I got pulled over while doing 105-110 in a 65 mph zone. The cop wrote it up for 99 mph, which was a simple speeding ticket without the option for traffic school. I went to court and the judge knocked it down to a <$200 ticket with traffic school so I didn’t get any points on my record.
85 mph in a 65 is normal in a ton of states, they’d be they’d be writing up people for reckless driving in every other traffic stop if 20 over were the threshold.
Just because they don’t ticket you for it, doesn’t mean it isn’t legally considered reckless. Cops often exercise a bit of discretion when deciding which ticket, if any, to write up. Some people just get out of tickets. I’ve never been that lucky, and I’ve never really driven particularly fast. A quick search suggests reckless is considered 15-over in CA, but I can’t find the specific statute.
To answer your question, I’ve lived all up and down the east coast and TX.
The only threshold that will automatically get you a reckless driving violation in CA is over 100 mph
Texas has no defined speed threshold
Alabama, where I lived previously on the east coast, has no defined threshold
The guideline for officers in CO is to consider a reckless driving ticket at 26 over the limit and above
I could keep searching individual states but I guess my point is there are many states where 20 over is pretty much a common thing among drivers and not typically punishable with a reckless driving charge. I haven’t spent much time in the northeast, perhaps things are different there.
Do police not arrest people for this?
Depends on the city. Some cities are notorious for using speed traps to increase revenue.
From Texas to Ohio, municipalities are using law enforcement to counteract declining tax bases through the aggressive enforcement of fineable offenses such as speeding. A 2019 report estimated that nearly 600 jurisdictions nationwide generate at least 10% of their general fund revenue through fines and forfeitures.
Other municipalities have enacted their own policing-for-profit programs. In Brookside, Alabama, the town of about 1,200 residents saw its revenue increase more than 640% in only two years, according to AL.com, after police began an aggressive traffic stop and ticket-writing campaign. Fines and forfeitures made up almost half of the town’s budget.
Rozz@lemmy.sdf.org 3 months ago
Arrest no, ticket maybe. Depends on lots of things, like the road and expected speed, is it a neighborhood, school, or empty highway. how the officer is feeling. surrounding traffic speed. Also I think the ticket doubles or goes up in price 10+ mph over the limit.