Travel News - Where are you most likely to get a speeding ticket?

USA Today: Where are you most likely to get a speeding ticket? (http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/dispatches/post/2012/05/where-are-you-most-likely-to-get-a-speeding-ticket-this-holiday-weekend/699492/1)

While I know many of us tend to fly, this is something to keep in mind if driving...
:)

Your odds of getting a traffic ticket are greatest in Nevada, if the analysis of a motorists' rights group is on the money.
...

New in this year's analysis (the NMA issued a similar tally in 2010) is a ranking of most ticket-happy metro areas. They are:

1. Atlanta
2. Los Angeles
3. Dallas-Fort Worth
4. Miami
5. New York
6. Chicago
7. Washington, D.C.
8. Houston
9. Orlando
10. San Diego

Those places all pale in comparison to Hwy 13 in Greenwood, DE...:D

I wonder if this takes into account typical driving behavior. Flow of traffic on many L.A. freeways, outside rush hours, is often 80 mph or more (in a 65 speed zone).

Those places all pale in comparison to Hwy 13 in Greenwood, DE...:D

You are 100000% right.

I wonder if this takes into account typical driving behavior. Flow of traffic on many L.A. freeways, outside rush hours, is often 80 mph or more (in a 65 speed zone).

It's only 15mph above the limit; this is not fair :cool:

You are 100000% right.

Do I detect a fellow victim?

In a car...

You are 100000% right.

Absolutely right! Everyone driving to the Delaware beaches knows about this town - it's an absolute speed trap. I swear, 100% of their local economy must come from tickets. We once had a cop follow us for a couple miles out of town - I wouldn't go 1 mile over the limit there.

Delaware can be bad, but you'll see cops everywhere on Virginia highways and I noticed quite a few on a road trip through Oklahoma too. My experience also says that North Dakota likes to ticket, especially out-of-staters.

Moving this over to the Travel News Forum.
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

I suspect the Nevada numbers are the all too common bogus stuff we get.

Remember, we have far more tourists than average--this drives up the rate of incidents per population.

I also suspect it has to do with tourists driving like idiots. They can get awfully lead-footed coming up from California and in a hurry to gamble. Many of those stop at the state line, though, and thus couldn't be picked up speeding in Nevada.

USA Today: Your odds of getting a traffic ticket are greatest in Nevada, if the analysis of a motorists' rights group is on the money.


Bingo! And it's 10x worse if you have out-of-state plates. For some of the little towns where the local mine has closed, speed traps are the entire economic base of the community (Ely NV, I'm looking at you...)

63 in a 60? $150! Never mind that's within the margin of error. I was going to stop for the night - that's dinner, maybe a couple beers, a motel room, breakfast, tank of gas, & etc, all going into the local economy. But now instead I think I'll push on through to Vegas...

Absolutely right! Everyone driving to the Delaware beaches knows about this town - it's an absolute speed trap. I swear, 100% of their local economy must come from tickets.

Indeed. Check out their budget here (http://greenwood.delaware.gov/government/council-meetings/)

Police fines revenue is about 2x that of property taxes. 48.7% of the city revenue (excluding utilities) comes from police fines. Wow.

Compare that to Atlanta (#1 on the OP's list), where all fines (traffic and otherwise) are only 3.5% of the total city budget.

I believe that you are MOST likely to get speeding tickets in small, podunk, punk towns with absolutely nothing to do & no revenues to speak of, aside from slight property taxes, perhaps.

These people and towns are unscrupulous, pathetic, disgusting & should NOT EXIST!!! They harass innocent motorists for the purpose of revenue generation. They often have inappropriately low speed limits and they pull people over on thin threads.

San Antonio has a few of these punk towns in its metropolitan area. It saddens me greatly that we are blighted by these disgusting, parasitic, predatory municipalities in a state as great as Texas and a country as amazing as America. Horrific!

I wanted to mention this website to y'all: http://www.speedtrap.org

It's an excellent resource when you know you will be driving through unfamiliar territory. Just check out all the cities and towns on your route, look at the number of posts (and the level of vitriol expressed in them) and compare it to the relative size of the city or town and you should get a general idea of what sort of "speed trap town" it is.

This website's saved me numerous times, the most prominent one being Atoka, Oklahoma. Now THAT was a pathetic, punk burg!

This website's saved me numerous times, the most prominent one being Atoka, Oklahoma. Now THAT was a pathetic, punk burg!

Ah, Hwy 69 through Atoka. You're right, it's a classic. I've been through there many times, but have managed to avoid a ticket.

Flow of traffic on many L.A. freeways, outside rush hours, is often 80 mph or more (in a 65 speed zone).

Not sure I would agree that the flow of traffic on freeways is 80 during off-periods, but it certainly is not a risk driving 8-10MPH over.

Los Angeles (City) is considered one of the most underpoliced large cities in America. To wit these 2009 stats:

Officers per 1,000 population
National Average: 2.5
Washington DC: 6.53
Chicago: 4.79
NYC: 4.35
Los Angeles: 2.41
Long Beach, CA: 1.96

Another factor is the sheer size of the Los Angeles City limits - 468 square miles. Chicago in comparison is 227. While there is a noticeable part of Los Angeles that is not occupied (sections of the Santa Monica Mountains), the number of officers per square mile are pretty dramatically lower.

Ultimately getting back to the original report about speeding tickets, you have to really be obvious to get a speeding ticket here, or lack common sense.

I wouldn't say I am a lead foot, but I moderately exceed the limits fairly often. My last speeding ticket was 29 years ago, and that qualified as lacking common sense.

I suspect the most likely place for you to get a ticket is near home, where you probably put on a vast majority of your miles. I have 3 in the PIT area of the last 20 years, and 6 across the rest of the US, none in the same state.

I suspect the most likely place for you to get a ticket is near home, where you probably put on a vast majority of your miles. I have 3 in the PIT area of the last 20 years, and 6 across the rest of the US, none in the same state.

Probably true. One interesting note in my history is that I have been stopped by the police in Foley, AL 3 times in the past 10 years (only one stop resulted in a ticket). The weird (or maybe not) part is that each time I was driving a rental car with out of state plates. I've driven hundreds of miles in Foley and never been stopped in a vehicle bearing Alabama plates. :rolleyes:

Do I detect a fellow victim?

You do. It's like a little cash register there. That plus the I-95 tolls for DE. No wonder they have no sales tax!!!

You do. It's like a little cash register there. That plus the I-95 tolls for DE. No wonder they have no sales tax!!!

The I-95 toll can be easily avoided, and sometimes quicker too. Their income tax is pretty high too. Another trick they use is calculate DE tax on all income of non-residents (not just income derived from sources in DE), prorate it based on the ratio of DE income to total income. This could bump you up to a higher marginal tax rate.
They will also give you probation if you appear in court, so that you don't get points on your DL. AT least you are not gouged by insurance then.
I have never p[aid that toll, not once in 35 years.

Any night landing at IAD you will see the ground dotted with flashing blue lights.

M 6-mile commute to the office in Reston-Herndon includes at least one speed trap - radar/lidar - daily. The end of my street in Reston is what cops call a "cherry spot." The road is much faster than the speed limit. There are good places to hide, light traffic. More important, the traffic is commuters, not gang-bangers likely to take a punch at a cop.

Last weekend I drove about 400 miles through four states. Here is the speed-trap box score:

N. Virginia - 8
W. Virginia - 1
Maryland - 1
Pennsylvania - 0

While I agree that Washington DC area drivers are the worst this side of LA, this seems a bit lopsided.

I-95. Anywhere in SC.

I-95. Anywhere in SC.

Actually, most speeding tickets handed out on I-95 in SC are the result of people seeing a billboard that says "Squat and Gobble" on it, and they are speeding to get there and see if that place really exists...