Some thoughts on speeding and cops...

[Samir]

This was posted in the Tennessee Valley Sportbike Club email list, but it was so well written that I think it needs to be posted here:

Why do cops focus on speeding?

1: Cos it is easy. Easy to measure, easy to provide objective evidence, easy to catch people. No nuances really. Hard numbers. 70 in a 55. Guilty. Pay up. Go home. It is seldom contested.
2: Cos everybody, or nearly everybody, does it. Most drivers don't consider it a crime.
3: Cos it brings in revenue. Lots of it.

The speeding laws are there, ostensibly, to make our roads safer, and god knows the roads are not safe at all. We all descended into a global panic recently and closed the f ing schools cos some kid sneezed, while all around us people die on the roads at an unbelievable rate. About 40,000 per year in the US over the past few years. The fact is that the drive to school is a FAR bigger risk than sitting in a classroom where some kid sneezed a few days previously. Driving is a major risk.

Especially if you are a teenager. From the CDC.gov web site...

"In the United States during 2005, 4,544 teens ages 16 to 19 died of injuries caused by motor vehicle crashes. In the same year, nearly 400,000 motor vehicle occupants in this age group sustained nonfatal injuries that required treatment in an emergency department".

So, death and injury on the roads is the real epidemic that should be scaring us, not f ing pig flu.

However, I digress. So, faced with all this carnage, what are we to do as a society? What we should do is to identify why these accidents occur and tackle the root causes. Part of this is the accident investigations process, part of which is the police report. The police officer is asked to record factors which contribute to the accident, and these factors end up in research reports aimed at finding out how to make our roads safer. One of the boxes on ALL these forms is, of course, speed. Well WTF??? Every single RTA involves a moving vehicle, and since cops tend to focus on speed, that damn box ends up getting checked an AWFUL LOT! Regardless of the root cause. And so the cycle continues. Speed becomes a major factor in more and more accidents; local governments, and therefore cops, focus more on speed, etc. etc. I was a traffic engineer way back and was involved in this process, so I know how it works, in general.

I once attended a "Driving school" where the "trainer" presented an accident scenario. A vehicle crossed the median on a straight road and collided with a vehicle coming the other way. He asked the "students" for factors which might have caused this. All around the room, populated almost exclusively with people who had been caught speeding, hands shot up and they all mindlessly babbled "Driving too fast" or "speeding". I blew up, ranting on that there was no indication whatsoever that the vehicle had been speeding, that you could take your hands off the wheel at 120mph and the vehicle would not cross the median, and that going faster did not EVER make you cross the median on a straight road. The trainer called me an asshole (and an engineer!) and almost threw me out.

The point is that we have all been programmed to think that speed = risk. Cops too, unfortunately.

We all know that the risks posed by cell phones, crying babies, sheer f ing incompetence, disinterest in the act of driving, drinking, drugs, or just being in a real pissed off mood are far greater than those posed by just speeding. But those are all harder to detect from outside a moving car. And there aren't even laws against most of them. So what is a cop to do?

Easy... get the speeders.

Now the fact is that we sportbikers all speed, a lot of the time, and to a somewhat extreme extent compared to normal road users. Most of are judicious about where we do this, but when we are railing through the Tennessee curves at 140+ , we are well past the point that we care about anything other than keeping the bike on the road. The fact that the limit is 55 is forgotten. To most road users, this is insane behaviour and they would have us all locked up for it. We are, to put it succinctly, just taking the piss.

There is no justification for acting like this other than it is bloody good fun. But we are away from other traffic, for the most part, endangering nobody but ourselves, for the most part, and are not the usual disinterested drivers. So it generally works out and we get away with it.

If we ever get caught, the law will not see it like that, and to be blunt, nor should it. It is a flagrant display of disregard for the law and the principles behind it. Which is perfectly fine with me, BTW. However, ask me if other, less capable mortals than you and I should be allowed to do that, and I will say no f ing way. Do you really want to meet a bunch of folk doing 130MPH in their Cadillac SUVs through Skyline? I sure as hell don't. Too damn dangerous. We do actually need speed limits. And they will never be high enough for us sportbikers.

So, we choose to put ourselves above the law, and we accept the risks. If we get caught at 140MPH, we simply have no grounds for complaint.

If, on the other hand, we get caught doing 70 in a 55 on a big f ing wide open stretch of divided highway with little or no traffic, then that is where the theory of needing speed limits for safety reasons breaks down. Then it becomes revenue generation. Any argument that the laws are being enforced for safety reasons goes right out the window.
And that is what pisses us all off and makes us turn on the cops.

And a blitz like that undertaken over the past few days by the Harley mounted state troopers is in NO WAY aimed at road safety. If they really want to improve saftey, they should be tasked with taking on the more difficult transgressions, like driving carelessly, running red lights, pulling out in front of oncoming cars, or worse, bikes, and causing them to have to take evasive action. Driving while reading, texting etc. etc.

But that isn't going to happen.

So we will keep speeding, and keep getting caught, and keep being mad about it. Just be BLOODY THANKFUL that we generally don't get caught doing the extreme stuff. I consider myself as unbelievably lucky to have got away with my transgressions - I could not count the number of times I have seen 110, 120 and even 130 MPH on the way to work (uuuuhhh, if you are an LEO reading this, I work in Athens), so when I get caught at reasonable speeds I accept it as the much lesser evil. Regardless of its merits on safety grounds.

And don't be so hard on the cops. While there are arrogant tossers and low lifes among them, most are normal people doing what their bosses have told them to do. The arrogant ones would still be tossers if they were working at McDonalds. It isn't being a cop that makes them low lifes. Those exist in every walk of life.

And I don't care if the cop who crashed was one of those tossers. I still don't want to see him getting hurt, no matter how misguided his decision to chase a sportbike was. I hope he heals well and quickly.

Be careful out there :-)

Jim M.
( on the Vespa and at no risk of getting caught speeding today! )

[NiTeZ]

Wow that was well written. Reminds me of everytime i've been pulled over. Only one time have I ever wandered why I was pulled over and gave a cop problems. They are out there to make a living just like the rest of us. It's the laws we don't respect most the time but take it out on the cops that are only there to enforce them. Something everyone should really think about.

[1 BAD Z]

i dont have a problems with cops what so ever and dont understand ppl who do... usually the ppl who have a problem with the cops is cause they are doing something wrong anyway and are those lowlife tossers in regular civilian world... now ive personally seen cars on the interstate pass me while i was doing 80mph and a bit down the road pass a trooper and he didnt pull out... why? well the speed limit is 70 and doing 80 is not really increasing a safety issue along with the fact that me and the other guy were the only two on this long straight road... most cops do add in a factor of traffic and safety to your speed...

if your in a school zone and do 2 miles an hour over.. you should be pulled over

residential i can see maybe 5 mph window

most other places i can see a 10mph window unless its in the rush hour times

interstate i could see all the way up to 15mph over just cause cars pretty much drive themselves now and are so easy to drive along with the interstate not usually being busy (at least around here) unless once again its rush hour

but like this week they usually call it "taking back our roads" when if it was up to a vote, i highly doubt this would happen... these are nothing but ways for they city, county, and state to increase some revenue

knock on wood but ive only been close to wrecking once doing extreme speeding where maybe 7 or 8 times to my own not paying attention and countless times other drivers have done something stupid but percentage wise... ive been close to wrecking probably 90 percent more because of carelessness then speeding between me and the other driver

[LagoGarda]

well I read the paper this morning and they have 3 things listed as factors in FATAL wrecks, in random order,
DUI
Speeding
No seat belt

Expect a ticket this weekend if (caught) doing any of the above.

I know HPD usually focuses on the 15+mph speeders on I-565..those are enough to keep them busy and hard to fight in court.

[1 BAD Z]

well hell in some spots if your doing 70mph your gonna get run over... but thats more b'ham then up here

[Samir]

I agree with the original poster that speeding for the most part doesn't cause accidents, but it definitely is a factor if a crash is fatal or not.

[Samir]

A followup post by Jim:

I seriously believe every driver should have to take a course similar to the portion of the MSF course that teaches awareness and defensive driving. Funded by the students. Getting a licence to drive here is STUPIDLY easy. We should be more selective, and train drivers before letting them on the roads.

[NiTeZ]

Amen to that.

[1 BAD Z]

yup im with that... make everything legal at 18 also... drive, military, cigs, alcohol... i mean your an adult at 18 right? driving is something only adults should be allowed to do

[JayMack75]

good point david. I think anyone under 18 should have a mandatory training class each year until they are fully licensed at 18. I think alcohol should be set at a higher age due to maturity level. Thats why its where it is now anyway i think. People over 60 should be tested every 6 months for competency. If they fail then their license is revoked. Keep the roads safe for all.

[1 BAD Z]

some say thats age discrimination but hell it is for the young ppl too... well if you can be tried as an adult at 18 and serve in the military at 18 then i think you should be able to buy what you want at 18... its really not fair to say your mature enough to know you murdered someone but not mature enough to drink a beer??? thats a dumb double standard... kids know right from wrong and should be taught better... i dont think the government should regulate what we can do to our bodies such as cigs and stuff (even though im highly agaisnt cigs for personal reasons)

18 should be the legal age to do everything and since retirement is usually age 65 that starts what jay is talkin about with testing for ability to drive and comprehend stuff...

[NiTeZ]

I've always said if you are old enough to die for your country, you should be able to do what you want. And the fact we live in Alabama it's even worse cause you have to be 19 to sign a lease or get a car in your name and buy cigs. Everywhere else is 18. Alabama just has to be the odd state and it still upsets me about the lottery as well. An Education Lottery is what this state needs to better it's schools. Help keep kids in school and want to learn instead of dropping out. Teachers now just care about a pay check instead of actually teaching and caring about kids. Alabama just sucks IMO.

[JayMack75]

I see where you're coming from on that point too, but still...you can be immature and take a bullet. I'm just sayin...some folks parents don't care enough to discipline their children which in turn teaches them right from wrong. If parents let their kids run wild, then those should be the ones allowed to join the military first. If mama wont teach you discipline, Uncle Sam will. You don't wanna learn? You may just end up on the receiving end of target practice.

[NiTeZ]

That is true. I see it from both sides. Just like with anything you have your pros and cons. If parents would stop just handing thier kids everything and actually be parents instead of being too busy to take time with their kids things would be different. Same for the laws. Laws are made to keep the peace and help protect us. If we had more discipline we wouldn't have some of the stupid laws we have. Like public intoxication...I mean if you can hold your booze and not act a scene it shouldn't matter. As long as you are not disturbing the peace and having a good time then I see no problem with it. But because of the ones that can not handle it and wantta act completely stupid everyone has to pay the price. Just things like that. I had a lot of people come up to me and tell me they loed what I did with my hair. I told them I did it to represent our freedom. One guy that is with us is millitary police and he tod me how much he appreciated my hair..I was like man I appreciate you for serving in the millitary. It sucks that more people don't tell our soldiers that. You enjoy the freedom we have then you should thank our vets and soldiers for that freedom not down them. That just upsets me so much.