this post was submitted on 11 May 2025
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And highlight the danger of this approach to speeding. Seems there's an imbalance to the risk/reward using this approach.
I haven't seen the US use this kind of approach since forever. The most dangerous I've seen is them on the side of the road, on the protected side of their car, step out and wave you down. Even then they'd be one step out, so they could step back. And since they often use laser, they had you 1/2 mile back - plenty of distance to wave you down safely and step back.
Too much speeding enforcement is high risk, for what, by statistics, isn't worth the reward. But municipalities love that sweet income - fines, court fees, required safety courses (for which you pay the state and a third party), increased insurance costs (so insurance companies lobby for increased enforcement, etc).
I've sat in court enough to watch how it works - it's a money-generating machine, judges plea down massive infractions, but your costs don't change much, you just don't lose your license or do jail time.
For example, a couple places I regularly drive through recently reduced their base speed limit in town to 20 mph from 25. I doubt most speedometers are even that accurate at those speeds (mine isn't, just because of the small graduations on the indicator, I could easily be doing 22 or 28 and not be able to tell). Interestingly, I've seen many more cops on side streets, where I used to see none. Clearly this is all about revenue. These are places where there's little pedestrian traffic (suburbs of large cities).