Where are you most likely to get a speeding ticket?

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USA Today: Where are you most likely to get a speeding ticket?

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


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Your odds of getting a traffic ticket are greatest in Nevada, if the analysis of a motorists' rights group is on the money.
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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
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Those places all pale in comparison to Hwy 13 in Greenwood, DE...
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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).
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Quote: Those places all pale in comparison to Hwy 13 in Greenwood, DE...
You are 100000% right.
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Quote: 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
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Quote: You are 100000% right.
Do I detect a fellow victim?
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In a car...
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Quote: 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.
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Moving this over to the Travel News Forum.
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator
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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.
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Quote: 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...
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Quote: 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

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.
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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!
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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!
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Quote: 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.
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