Peek-a-boo, I see you!
Do you remember playing “hide and seek” as a child? My kids still play it and seem to enjoy playing that game. I haven’t played it as an adult and don’t really feel the urge to play it any time soon. However, I have seen adults play “hide and seek” lately and it may seem a little unfair to some people.
I’ve recently seen our local police department enforcing the speed limits. They’re all over our region and I think that’s a good thing. Drivers need to keep their speed down in certain areas to ensure our roads are safe for both drivers and pedestrians. The problem as I see it is that they seem to be hiding behind hydro poles and bus shelters with their radar guns. Surprise! The mixed feelings that some people have is that drivers shouldn’t be speeding on these roads to begin with, but that they shouldn’t be tricked into getting a ticket either. Maybe there can be a compromise. Are they being tricked?
When I want my kids to play fair, I will often watch what they’re doing and make sure they know I’m watching them. They stop jumping on the chairs when they know I’m watching. Can’t our radar traps be the same? Would we keep our speeds slower if we saw the police up the road with their radar guns? Isn’t one of the purposes of radar to inform the public that their speed should be reduced? The reality of this is that we can see the police and their radar guns if we’re looking ahead and moving our eyes from building to building. By the time we see them, they’re already locked onto our vehicle and it’s too late to do anything to save yourself.
While I was on the freeway recently one morning I saw three police cruisers that had pulled drivers over for speeding. Just the sight of those officers seemed to keep traffic moving along at a reasonable rate of speed. There wasn’t anyone driving along recklessly. Perhaps knowing the police were monitoring the speed of traffic allowed everyone to play nicely.
Many years ago I would often find a speed trap on my regular trip to work. As drivers, we had to go under a long bridge and on the other side there was the police officer. They were standing there in plain view and their cruiser was also easily spotted. I would expect it to be there and would often keep my speed down. It made a lot of sense to me, mainly because it was close to a public school. Having the speed trap in the same location seemed to have worked as a preventive measure for drivers speeding. Most of the regular commuters kept their speed down during that stretch of road, so I guess the speed trap worked.
Maybe their plan is to keep it a surprise so drivers have to keep their speed down like they should. I think that’s a good idea, but as long as the police have these traps all across our city. If drivers know there may be speed traps anywhere, perhaps they’ll drive at a reasonable and prudent speed.
I understand the hidden factor can be unnerving, and its not impossible to be above the speed limit if you are considering other factors around you. A slow truck you wish to pass, boom, speed trap, or a fast approaching tailgater you speed a bit so he doesn’t hit you and, oh boy, a speed trap. Perhaps having a road 3 lanes wide shouldn’t be a 50km/h zone instead of 70km/h but if all things were perfect the traps wouldn’t be there. I’m sure many have had the ticket, hopefully not often, and learned to slow down. Safety is the goal, always has been. Slow people down, so the roads are safer. Some have suggested its a cash grab, I disagree, the charges are often reduced as are the fines, as long as you admit to it.
If they want to make money, the best place is a mall parking lot where they can nab about 4-5 fire lane loiterers an hour. They are a good thing, and they are better if before a school zone, because I cannot count how many I see daily speeding through school zones as though they have no idea the children they have put at risk.
I will also thank Sgt. Burrows for asking my opinion on a blogger that had the anti-speed trap posting claiming safety was not the priority. He was wrong.
Well said John…and thanks!
Let me start by saying that anyone on the Province of Ontario who has the Privilidge of being a Licenced driver knows at what speeds the law requires them to travel at ( 50 km/h in a built up area and 80 km /h in a rural area UNLESS OTHERWISE POSTED). Since every car has a speedometer, this is not rocket science. When police operate radar, the purpose is to monitor speed compliance with those established rules. We don’t lay in wait to “trap” people at random. Those that are stopped are failing to comply with the rules. Quite frankly, it should not matter whether there is a setup there or not… Drivers are expected to follow the rules.
What’s the most frequent question I am asked when I stop someone for speeding? “How fast was I going?” Funny, you’re the one with the speedometer!
Well said!
Ha! I once “hid” behind my cruiser parked at the roadside with emergency lights flashing to run laser. I could still write them as fast as I could get back to the laser…
Generally, in urban/residential areas, I find speed limits completely acceptable, and in residential neighborhoods, I find the unmarked 50kph too fast.
I understand that Rules are in place for our safety, but I believe, in this case, some of these rules were set for reasons that no longer exist.
Highway speeds are a fair bit to slow, and here’s my, and many many others thoughts on the matter:
In the past, and in most countries adopt the “85% rule” for setting speed limits – as in a speed limit is the average speed of the Middle 85% of the drivers.
Ontario abandoned this during the energy crisis around the dawn of the 1970’s, and never looked back, The 401 was designed for roughly 120kph. There are stretches of 400 series highway with 12-15km between exits, no turns, no hazards, etc. Except Radar traps below many of bridges. I firmly believe its time to revisit our speed limits on our major highways.
In 1994, 40 US states raised the speed limits from 55 to 65mph on undivided and some interstate highways – Fatality rates decreased by 3-5%. The reasoning is that a good portion of people (wrongly) disregard the speed limit that they feel is unreasonably low, and go at a speed comfortable to them. another good portion of people Obey the limits. Now you have faster drivers and slower drivers occupying the same space – Collisions occur. They attempted to address this with minimum speed limits before raising the speed limits, but the slight increase (16kph faster) lowered accident rates. Ironically, They didn’t notice the original “speeders” driving 10MPH faster once they increased the limit – They just noticed the law abiding citizens travelling at a proper “85th percentile” speed, resulting in fewer accidents and as a result, fatalities.
Texas has made a new toll Highway with an 85Mph (137kph) limit. The average speed traveled when unobstructed (no traffic) was below the MAXIMUM speed limit.People generally drive as fast as they feel safe to. In this case, it appears the speed limit has been set above the speed that the 85 Percent rule would convey as appropriate – but people drive how fast they would LIKE, and it is below the MAXIMUM speed.
Canada appears to be one of the few countries where everyone is unofficially expected to go at the maximum speed. If you’d like to prove me otherwise, I would like to see someone drive at the perfectly legal speed of 80kph on the 407 or 401 during a non-peak time of day.
The highway speed limits in Ontario are set artificially low. Ontario’s Dual Carriageway/Expressway are amungst the slowest in the world. There are FIVE countries that have slower limits, and over 70 that have a higher limit.
Most of the other countries that have a lower or identical limit are usually lacking major Divided highways (Iceland, Macau, Armenia, Vietnam,) , or a Developing nation, or lack graduated/any sort of licensing/enforcement and vehicle registration.
However, I am glad to see police enforcing safe driving practices, I have no problem with radar “traps” to enforce safe driving and catch reckless drivers, and monitor community safety zones. There are droves of people out there who lack common sense and need someone else to enforce or artificially apply preservation instincts for them (in this case, preservation of their wallets since they don’t seem to care too much about their lives or those around them)
Where I DO have a problem is with having lower than justified speed limits so the police can use speeding tickets as a reliable revenue stream to offset other costs. I’d much rather pay higher taxes than drive in fear when I’m just keeping up with the flow of traffic.
The Ontario government SHOULD re-evaluate the highway speed limits. – But they won’t.
In 2008, There were 780,152 Speeding tickets issued on Ontario roads.At an average fine of roughly 100 dollars, we’re talking well over 700 MILLION dollars of revenue.
I highly doubt the law makers will put common sense before dollars.