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Hey everyone!
I'm super ecstatic as I've just come home from getting my first speeding ticket! 78 in a 50 just north of Granville Gulf. I had been following somebody for about 10 miles and attempted to pass. The sheriff was just around the bend of the first passing zone south of Warren. Seems like kind of a cheap trick to me (waiting in the passing zone where the most excessive speeding goes on), but it is, in fact, Uncle Sam's road, and not a racetrack, no matter how badly anybody wants it to be. So I sucked it up pulled over before he even pullled out of his spot on the side, and waited. The guy was reasonable enough and I tried to be professional as possible and gave him my documents. He ran my shit as usual, and I ended up walking away with a 65 in 50 ticket for 2 pts and $150 bucks. I forced myself to go down and ride brandon gap even though I just wanted to go home, but let me say that rt73 is not quite as exciting at 50mphAnyway I gotta see what my next paycheck looks like before I get back on the bike.
I am wondering if anybody out there is keeping track of where people are getting tickets, and when. I am hoping to kind of piece together where are the areas with higher concentrations of speed traps so this doesnt happen again.
P
I didn't know the Sheriff department can hand out tickets.
Dean
That sucks, been there done that.
Fight it, particularly b/c its a 65 in 50. Had it been 78 in a 50 you'd have almost no chance, but at 65 in a 50 you have a decent chance of talking your way out of it to the magistrate.
EVERYTHING is a repost
06 749R #0047
08 R 1200 GSA
13 Monster EVO 1100
at least u didnt let it ruin your day. fight it maybee you can explain that u just passed a car and doing it as fast and as safe as possible caused u to exceed the speed limit.
Any public law enforcement can, if they have a ticket book with them, I'd think. Two recent anecdotes:
- Lynn, on the Lynnway. Transit Police cop in the right lane, some douchebag in the left lane, me in the middle lane. Light turns yellow, then red.. douchebag runs it in full view of Transit cop. Transit cop lit him up and pulled his ass right over.
- Salem. Four-way intersection with lights. Me, stopped behind a pickup truck emblazoned with "Salem Harbormaster". Light turns green but a douchebag in an Eclipse blasts straight through his red light in front of the pickup. Harbormaster lit this guy up and pulled him over instantaneously.
If it has blue lights on the roof, don't fuck with it I guess.
no bikes currently
Congrats dude..
CCS|LRRS EX#49
2006 KTM 560 SMR - 2006 Yamaha R6
LRRS Rookie of the Year 2002-2006
Yea I was actually trying to be good and not speed the whole way there, but once I saw the twisties sign, I had to pass. Anyway I have kind of accepted it already, I don't really like effing with the law on these things, I'd rather just pay the ticket and disappear. However, as I'm paying my own insurance on the bike and all, if I did fight the ticket, would my points be removed and my insurance company therefore wouldn't raise my premium? That's pretty key to me I liked my clean insurance record, and if I can go to court and work something out with a legal person I guess I'd do that.
thanks,
P
Havnt got a ticket yet! (Knock Knock) But shoulda Yesterday. Was haulin ass through Northwestern Mass! Nice Riding out there... Alot of s-turns
well basically if the cop comes to court im screwed because the guy I was passing was already doing like 60 in the 50 so I was just trying to pass him. I feel like that doesn't help my cause since I was already speeding before the passing maneuver.
Guess I have some time to think about it.....
P
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9530/4.7.0.151 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)
Sucks but nothin u can do shit happens
Mike (Stan) Facebook username = MJStanley508
2006 Suzuki GSXR 600
Yoshi R-55 Slip-on, PUIG rear hugger, PUIG windscreen, Pazzo levers, 6k HID kit
the ride I got in yesterday was worth it (thats why i was riding like an a**hole today) hahaha
First...uhm, congrats ??![]()
As for your insurance...all depends on the company. They don't always check your record when your policy renews. I've had 3 tickets, 2001, 03 and 05. How much did my insurance go up as a result of those tickets??
$0.00 in 01, $0.00 in 03 and $0.00 in 05.
I *almost* couldn't afford my policy after those crazy price hikes![]()
I almost got one today, rounded a corner a bit fast and there's a cop heading in the same direction driving VERY slow. I just laid on the brake and followed him to the next intersection. Thankfully, he didn't even give me a 2nd glance. He then proceeded to peel the f out into a left turn, it was pretty funny. I've never seen a cop purposely roast the tires to get into traffic![]()
2023 KTM 890 Adventure R
Yup...I own a 900cc rocket and a 1000cc race repilca V-twin + 3 tickets (got my first 2 EVER last summer) and my Ins for both bikes, full coverage, is less that a grand per year...bummer you got caught! Like I said, sometimes you have to pay to play...I call it the speed tax.
Them Sheriffs is tricky too. One of the main reasons I don't go for serious rides on the weekends.
Carpe Diem
'10 Yamaha R6-Race-
'05 Aprilia Tuono Racing -Street-
#46, Expert, CVMA -cvmaracing.com-
The towns are making money by hiring the Sheriff's...
Driving the gauntlet Town along Route 4 collects $232,715 in speeding fines
Chief Deputy Thomas Herb of the Windsor County Sheriff's Department uses a hand-held radar gun to clock traffic on Route 4 in Bridgewater on Friday. Herb said the advantage of the hand-held radar is he can show the clocked speed to a motorist.
By JOSH O'GORMAN STAFF WRITER - Published: July 26, 2009
BRIDGEWATER Running north and south, the Green Mountains limit a motorist's options to travel between the eastern and western parts of the state. The options that remain offer mountaintop vistas and winding riverside drives.
But a combination of location and law enforcement has also provided one small town along Route 4 an opportunity to make $1,000 a week last year in traffic fines.
For many years, Bridgewater has contracted with the Windsor County Sheriff's Department to provide speed enforcement in town. During the past fiscal year ending June 30, the town paid $179,100 to the Sheriff's Department and received $232,715 in revenue from speeding fines, a net profit of $53,615.
Bridgewater is one of six towns in Windsor County along with Barnard, Cavendish, Plymouth, Pomfret and Redding to contract with the Sheriff's Department for speed enforcement. Each town pays a flat rate of $41 an hour, and for the past two years, Bridgewater contracted for 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
"They tell us where to go, and we go there," said Sheriff Michael Chamberlain, who oversees the five full-time deputies who provide speed enforcement for the towns that contract with his department. "We could go in and patrol and might not ever write a ticket, and the town would still have to pay for our services."
Of the other towns that contract with the Sheriff's Department, however, none make a profit like Bridgewater. Barnard, which contracts for eight hours a week, paid $16,764 for the fiscal year ending June 2008 the most recent numbers available and received $17,141 in revenue, a profit of $377. Plymouth saw a profit of $352 for the most recent fiscal year ending June 30, paying $69,431 and receiving $69,783.
Three other towns Reading, Pomfret and Cavendish lost money in their traffic enforcement efforts, losing $9,688, $10,029 and $17,431 respectively.
"It's not a money-making proposition and it's not intended to be a money-making proposition," said Richard Svec, town manager for Cavendish, where police focus their speed enforcement on Route 131 through the villages of Cavendish and Proctorsville, along 20 Mile Stream Road and Depot Street.
While it might cost the town money, Svec said, it is still a wise investment.
"Cavendish used to have its own police force more than 30 years ago but it was cost-prohibitive," he said. "This is a good way to provide an affordable police presence."
Bridgewater Selectwoman Mary Oldenburg also said traffic enforcement is not about the money.
"The money is not the issue. The issue is safety," she said. "We're not trying to make this a money-making thing, but it has turned out that way the last few years."
During the last five years, the town has made $147,703 in profit from speeding fines from 12,515 tickets. While a handful was written by Vermont State Police or Division of Motor Vehicles Enforcement, nearly all were written by the Windsor County Sheriff's Department.
Sheriff Chamberlain is quick to point out that his department never sees the money from the fines, which are sent to the Traffic Bureau in White River Junction. The state then returns the money directly to the towns using different formulas depending upon the type of ticket issued. In some cases, nearly all the money returns to the town. Other times, the money is pooled and divided among the towns based upon a ratio of the money a town spends on law enforcement versus what it pays in property taxes.
While it doesn't receive the revenue from the tickets, the Windsor County Sheriff's Department did receive nearly $179,100 from Bridgewater last year. However, Sheriff Chamberlain denied any implication that the town pressures his department to turn a profit.
"They've never said to me, 'Sheriff, if you don't make us money, you're gone,'" he said.
So how does Bridgewater generate so many tickets and so much revenue? Even accounting for the high number of hours they contract for more in a day than Barnard, Pomfret or Redding do in a week Bridgewater consistently sees profit margins of between 10 percent and 30 percent.
"There's just a lot more volume, and with that volume you're going to have a lot more speeding," Chamberlain said of the Route 4 corridor, arguably the most expedient way to cross the state. While it is a four-lane divided highway as it passes through western towns, such as Castleton and Fair Haven, on the east side of Rutland it becomes a regular two-lane highway, crossing over Sherburne Pass in Killington.
Drivers typically has a good head of steam by the time they reach the bottom of the pass, and the straight, flat road gives them little reason to brake. As Route 4 enters Bridgewater from the west, it has wide shoulders for cyclists and pedestrians, but those shoulders narrow as the speed limit decreases to 40 mph. The speed limit is clearly posted, except for those drivers coming from Plymouth on Route 100A, whose speed limit sign is hidden for most of the year behind the leaves of a tree.
Within a mile, the speed limit drops to 35 mph and then to 25 mph in front of the Bridgewater Village School. The wide shoulder several miles to the west has disappeared and the highway, now looking like any number of village Main Streets in the state, is lined with businesses and houses, some less than 20 feet from the edge of the road. With no sidewalk, pedestrians and cyclists either travel in the road or along the thin dirt strip on either side.
The speed limits themselves on Route 4 are not set by the town, but by the state. John Zicconi, a spokesman for the Agency of Transportation, said traffic engineers set speed limits based upon their surveys of the speeds drivers travel, the area surrounding the road and accident history.
Speed appears to have contributed to many crashes on Route 4 in Bridgewater. According to the Agency of Transportation, there were 75 crashes between 2000 and 2008, resulting in 39 injuries and no fatalities. Of those crashes, 27 were due to either exceeding the speed limit or driving too fast for conditions.
So while the Sheriff's Department sees no profit from the tickets it writes and the town hasn't created the situation that forces drivers to cut their speed in half, it does appear the town is using the situation to its advantage. Oldenburg said Bridgewater uses the ticket revenue for road projects within the town, including a recently completed project on Bridgewater Center Road and another on Gold Coast Road.
"It lets us do these projects without taxing these people out of their homes," Oldenburg said.
And how do the locals feel about a police presence that has written on average nearly seven tickets a day for the last five years?
"Some people are happy. Other people think they're overzealous. But people should know they're here," Oldenburg said.
In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that this reporter received a speeding ticket earlier this year in Bridgewater
TIMMYDUCK
I live in New York , I got a ticket from encon.. Thats the park ranger ..
I thought he was joking when he pulled me over ..
jokes on me
$250 for the lawyer and $100 to the local court..
Beat It Like A Rented Mule !!
Legend in my own mind
Wirelessly posted (Tilt: HTC-8900/1.2 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11) UP.Link/6.3.1.20.0)
fight the ticket... worst thing that happens is you go to the magistrate and he/she tells you your atfault... and then you could even fight it in court... Out of 5-6 tickets issued I have one on my record..and that's the one I didn't fight.Originally Posted by Stan
Wirelessly posted (Tilt: HTC-8900/1.2 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11) UP.Link/6.3.1.20.0)
Oh and the cop who gave you the ticket morelikely then not will not be at the magistrate meeting.
If it was just the fine I would have no issue with speeding tickets, it's when you lose your license for getting too many when it started to be a pain.
To the guy who got the ticket. fight it. i won one a couple weeks ago and I am SOOO gald i fought it.
It was a Ma State LEO that pulled me over when i was driving behind him for more than 5 miles. I was just dumb founded when he tossed on the blues and pulled over to the other lane to get behind me and pull me over![]()
fight it dude if the cop doesnt show up at court then u win instantly....if the magistrate offers u a reduction u may want to consider it but i said no and the cop didnt show so i was happy![]()
If it is your " first " ticket then you have a good chance of getting it squashed. Print out or go to the registry and get a copy of your driving record. Bring it with you that is key. Explain that you were simply passing an eratic driver who had been tossing trash out of his window and you wanted to get away from a potential problem. Show him your clean driving record and stress that you DONT DRIVE LIKE THAT if you did he'd have seen you in here before. Assure him that a simple warning would suffice and he will never see you before him again.
Only leave for tomorrow that which you are willing to die having left undone... ~chinese fortune cookie~
2007 Yamaha FJR1300AE Silver
2005 Suzuki SV1000S Red