From: jgd@dixie.com (John De Armond)
Subject: Radar Observations (was Re: Quick radar question )
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 09:40:41 GMT
Organization: Dixie Communications Public Access.  The Mouth of the South.
Distribution: usa

ca@cbnewsi.cb.att.com (christopher.arnone) writes:

>	You'll have a hard time convincing me that I'm a threat to society
>doing 67 in a 55 zone instead of 60?  I guess to you those few extra MPH
>makes me some sort of capital criminal.  The truth is that most speeding tickets
>are not issued to lunatics doing 90 MPH but to regular people driving at speeds
>that are proper given the road conditions.  As far as our criminal justice
>system is conerned, on the night that a mother of three was carjacked and
>knifed to death here in New Jersey outside a supermarket, I drove up the
>Garden State Parkway and saw 4 State Trooper cars over a 12 mile stretch!  Talk
>about putting our limited police resources to their best use!!!!  The system
>sucks and regular people are the victims of it in the form of speeding fines,
>higher insurance premiums to keep the dollars flowing from the insurance lobby
>into the hands of greedy politicians, and misguided use of police resources
>leading to increased personal and property crimes!

Yep.

For the last few weeks I've been driving around with an MPH brand
X-band moving radar in my car (67 Plymouth Fury - pretty innocous) have been 
keeping pretty detailed dictated notes on what I've observed.  It has been 
very enlightening.  I live in Marietta, a 'burb of Atlanta, in one of the 
fast growth areas.  As such, the proportion of yuppy scum is very high.

As to speeds, here's what I've observed.  On the overcrowded two lane
roads around my area, most of which will be 4 laned in a couple of years,
the average speed is 50 mph in zones marked 45.  Unfortunately the 
average speed is still 50 mph in the school zones.  On the 5 lane roads
(4 lanes and a turn), the average speed is about 54 mph for zones marked
45.  IMHO, 55 would be a very reasonable speed limit for these areas.
Unfortunately I've also seen way too many "flyers", that is, bozos doing
65-75 mph in these areas. These roads are typically those that were 2 
lane rural/residental a few years ago and still have a LOT of houses
with driveways opening onto the road and a LOT of strip-malls.
Unfortunately subdivisions are where the most flagrant speeders lurk.
I don't have enough figures for an average yet but it is typical to
clock someone doing 45-50 in a zone marked 25 mph in a dense 
development.

On the interstate during non-rush hour traffic, I've observed the 
average speed to be about 67 mph.  Quite reasonable.  I don't have 
as many figures for the interstate because moving radar does not
work very well across medians (surprise, surprise) and does not 
work at all through the concrete barriers that are common in urban
settings.  I usually just catch up to a clump of cars and instant-on
my ground speed to see accurately how fast we're going.  Also lets me
get a few more Trolling for Taillights points :-)

In terms of flagrant violators, generally defined as those going over
65 on the 5 lane, 45 mph roads, going over 40 in subdivisions and
going over 55 on the 45 mph 2 lane roads, here is the rough 
breakdown to date in order of decreasing frequency. 

At the top of the list:
* Bimbos in late model hondas. guys don't seem to be nearly as bad.
* Either sex in a 3 series BMW.
* Housewives in minivans full of yuppy larvae
* young, probably high school age or slightly older, boys in minitrucks,
	particularly the slammed ones.
* High dollar Benz drivers. (Guess they think they can buy their way out.)

The way I make these notations is to set the "violator alarm" setpoint
on the radar at the speeds indicated above and then when it beeps,
note what kind of car set it off.

Of course this sample is somewhat self-selecting to those who don't 
properly use radar detectors.  Surprisingly few drivers use
radar detectors around here.  Particularly surprising in light of the
heavy fee grabbing conducted by the Cobb County Pigs.  I may at some
point retune the radar so as not to trip radar detectors and see 
what I come up with.

So, given this profile of dangerous driving types and locations, where
would one guess that Cobb County puts the majority of their fee grabbing
efforts at?  Thats right, on the interstate and the divided 4 lanes.
And why is that, boys and girls?  That's right, because piggy wiggy can
sit on the side of the road dozing until his "take the money and run"
alarm on the radar goes off.  Then he has only to wake up and go
harvest the crop of greenbacks.

Oh, forgot to mention the Cobb County Pig I clocked at 72 mph without
lights or siren on the 45 mph 5 lane a couple of nights ago.  I flipped 
around and tailed him.  Guess where he ended up?  Yup, a Dunkin' Donuts.  
Definitely a code-33 run.

John

-- 
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