heinrich

Bill bring it. Bring the better roads and safer vehicles, better drivers and consistent enforcement and open freeways. Bring it.

I'll pay. Happily.

heinrich

Btw no-one has stated the obvious .... speed limits are in direct opposition to traffic flow. So's hogging the left lane. In other countries, traffic flow is KING. In America it is public enemy number one.

John Struthers

It will be a rare day indeed, if ever, that I will be convicted of complimenting something that has anything to do with Texas with the exception of select citizens of said state.
However, I know a bunch of the DPS Troopers, County Sheriff'stheir routes and timetables.
So, with the exception of Big Fires, Big Highway Dope Busts', Major Accidents and the rare overlap
of DPS routes I have a pretty free hand (right foot) to get near the limit out in the boonies.
I'm not looking to scare myself or others, nor, endanger them/myself. While my adrenal gland
might move production and distribution up a notch it's nothing like free-falling from 10k ft, or finding yourself being scoped or worse during deer season... Unless you are a complete idiot -as opposed to being mildly brain damaged- extended runs of 80 -130 mph should be preceded by a good pre-flight. If your intent is on utilizing the speed/performance/handling of your sHARk on PUBLIC ROADS
-two key words- you had better be focused on what you are doing, your situational awareness which includes the possibily of having a conversation with a representative from the LAW ENFORCEMENT
-two key words- Branch of the government. A V1 with a back-up 8500 with lidar component won't
hurt a bit either. Above all know when to use 'your off button'.
Good points by all here, different camps and all that crap.
Nicole,
If the good Doc does help you out, GREAT!
Wether, or not, the law is fair/bogus -income stream-, enforcement is balanced/equal, your sHARk was personally built, vetted, and blessed by God the bottom line is that when you, or, I choose to speed it was OUR decision to do so. Having elected to drive faster than the posted speed limit takes
a little thought, we need to apply some thought to the consequences prior to being ticketed.
Texas might be unique in that we can petition for higher speeds -locally we have done so. Recently and the speed limit on BI-20 East was raised to 70 mph. Some rural roads have also bumped the speed limits up to 70mph. The process includeds the highway department, petioners, law enforcement and local government.
BTW Guess what happens when those roads were re-posted to 70mph?
Yep!
Just as many tickets on a road where they just gave us a 10 mph boost...go figure .....
Sorry you got caught.

Fogey1

Nicole, don't they have an automatic traffic school option in California? By far the easiest route for the rare ticket.

Jason, I understand the "walk a mile in a cop's shoes" argument. I used to do a lot of civilian ridealongs and was a police reporter for a while. I saw a lot of excellent judgement in hard situations with both normal citizens screwing up, a$$holes and some real bad guys. 'Course the guys I rode with tended to be the best and most open, since they were volunteers. I've also met a very few bad guys with badges.

Neither here nor there with speeding. I observe widespread disobedience on the highways and in town. I find that speed and/or the speed over the limit consistently goes UP in town. I presume this is a result of the lessened vulnerability to radar revenooers in dense urban traffic. Kind of ironic, since dense urban traffic is much more dangerous and the open interstate much less so. I also note that it's unlikely that the 85th percentile engineering have been re-done in the last 35 years and that the interstate speed limit in Ohio is 65mph now. It was 70mph in the 50's, for the wallowing, brakeless, numb steering dinosaurs of those days. As Ron said, "Do I appear to be a moron?" And then there's the open road made more dangerous by the half mile of drivers a car length apart at the speed limit, piled up behind a cop car going the speed limit in either lane. Talk about an enforcement generated dangerous situation!

In the days before radar and vascar ambush, I usually figured I deserved a speeding ticket if I had been paying too little attention to notice there was speed enforcer nearby. That equation has changed and, being an infracaninophile, I root for the underdog, I.e. myself and and others who are ticketed for violation of a law that is usually couched in "excessive or unreasonable" terms, with a posted limit that is merely a prima facie number, above which the driver is rebuttably (yeah, right!) presumed to have been driving at an excessive or unreasonable speed.

What I want to see is enforcement against bad equipment and the reckless and boneheaded drivers. I think most agencies could probably make their quotas by writing those. The junk driver, the over aggressive weaver and tailgater, the left lane bandit, obliviously or self-righteously failing to yield.

Will
If it means anything other than good luck (and I think it does), I've been ticket-free for more than ten years and accident-free for more than thirty (Unless you count that guy who turned left in front of my scooter in '84. Not my fault, exactly, but I did fail to miss him.)
When I'm really speeding, rarer these days than it used to be, I SLOW DOWN TO PASS.

Fogey1

All the speeding tickets have been very polite, even humorous, though a number were for way over.

The one in '92 was a doozy. I'd been northbound on I-71 in Northern Kentucky at 115-120mph in the 911. Middle of the night, four to six lanes on my side, and another car every few miles. Unbeknownst to me (which means I had it coming) I'd been being paced by a trooper since I'd passed him about ten miles back, while he waited for backup because we were close to the border and he'd thought I might run. I didn't, of course, and after some polite conversation he wrote me for 95. Afterwards I asked him if, during the time he'd followed me, he'd seen me do anything dangerous. He said no. And he was right.

The part that was really amazing was that cost me all of $110.

Will
I have been a speed sinner in my time.

BTW, only once have I been ill-treated by cops. I had dropped another fed lawyer off at the airport and was coming back to my downtown hotel. He'd also been a participant in the federal court seminar we'd just finished. It wasn't about speeding, but more like a "whatchoo doin' in my neighborhood, white boy?" stop. As always I was polite and respectful but, without any probable cause I could rationalize by any reasonable stretch, they searched my car and trunk for ten minutes. They actually cleared leather, partially but threateningly, as they snarled when I asked why they were doing so. I was clean, also as always, 400 miles from home and not desirous of a jailing, beating or shooting, so I let it go. To be very fair, I was lost in a bad suburb of St. Louis, cruising slowly and erratically trying to get unlost. I could have, to a very suspicious mind, looked like a crug courier or shopper. Not that i ever got an answer, explanation or directions, just a grudging "Be on your way." The "punk" remained unspoken.

Bill Ball

Nicole:

Not worth the time off to try to fight it. The ticket is probably $100 or so and you can go to traffic school for $25 online. http://www.trafficschool.com.

I'm doing it right now myself.

Jim bailey - 928 International

Fogey..."at 115-120mph in the 911. .... I'd been being paced by a trooper " I can only imagine how uncomfortable the trooper must have been at 115-120 mph in a hunk of Detroit Iron ! he was nearly pedal to the floor. That part IS scarey.

heinrich

I passed a bunch of men in a brand new Police Interceptor yesterday on my way to a restaurant. They were doing 30mph in the left lane in a 35 zone, and they were basically impeding everyone else .... they also changed lanes very abruptly once to get in front of someone who was passing them on the left. So anyway ... I looked over (I was in a new Explorer) and the thing's speedo goes only to 130!!!! Wow.

Ron_H

Re: Jim Bailey's post:
When I lived in Honolulu, I got so sick and tired of being harrassed in my 911E,
(don't EVER take a P car there!!). For a long time I just thought the prerequisite for being on the force was possession of an air head. Then, in a moment of empathy, I realized that the clowns may not actually have a basis for comparison, having never driven a competent vehicle. Putting myself in their position, I could understand how they must have freaked out watching someone not actually slam on the brakes for a corner that they would take at 25 mph, or actually travel above 60 mph on the "freeway". If I had been in their cars, (usually Olds Cutlass), I would have been holding my *** and gritting my teeth. So I seriously considered buying a new 911 and donating it to the Police Dept. for them to experience the difference. No kidding!!

When you think about the crap that the smokeys drive, and the bull with which they are brainwashed, it starts to hit you that they ARE scared....at least some of them. I don't know how some of them who are assigned to duty at the racetracks around here (Laguna Seca and Sears Point) keep from running out on the track and arresting racers in an attempt to "protect them from themselves".

Anyway, my problem was resolved when I moved from Honolulu. I just feel sorry for my other P car friends who remain. It makes California seem like Italy and living there with a P car is like the Middle Ages. There are stations where you can put in a quarter for a head air charge before you go to traffic court so you won't get confused so badly by the cop's testimony. (OK, not that bad, but you don't want to know how bad it really is. Tonight, before you go to bed, be thankful you don't drive your P car there).

heinrich

There are environments wherein Porsches are respected, and where tickets are often not issued because the car is built for speed. In those environments, insurance rates aren't affected by tickets; people aren't jailed for speed and everyone moves the hell out of the passing lane - especially when a Porsche approached from behind; or when flashing lights are seen. Similarly, tickets are issued there for left-lane hogging.

Isn't that right Colin and Pierre?

blau928

It is now illegal to flash your lights for passing in Germany. You are limited to using your turn signal.

And, not only do you get ticketed for left lane hogging, you also get one for flipping off other drivers...

A24 - Hamburg - Berlin is a P Car driver's dream, 320 kms of unrestricted pleasure...

Jim bailey - 928 International

As long as there is little real driver training,a single drivers license, single auto license plate, single speed limit and no vehicle safety inspections(many states) everything gets reduced to the lowest common denominator.......... If the 90 year old in their 1953 Rambler can safely negotiate a curve at only 35 MPH then the safe speed limit MUST BE 35 . The problem with each and everyone making their own judgement about what is a reasonable speed is the tendency of many to grossly over estimate their driving abilities . The whole topic of speed limits , selective enforcement, and near total disregard as each and everyone calculates how much over the limit they dare drive , borders on the absurd .

Ron_H

I have posted the legal procedure for determining the speed limit both in California and the nation. It would be nice if the engineers and scientists responsible for implementing that procedure would be allowed to do so unhindered. Of course, in that case, the unemployment lines would be filled to overflowing by mindless idiots seeking subsistence because no further funding was available to the departments and companies for which they had worked, such as the court system, the police department, the insurance company, the body shops , the emergency facilities at the local hospital, the visa card companies (yes, traffic fines are payable by visa), the car rental companies, the tow truck drivers, the ....ad nauseum. Then, after mass famine, the gene pool will have been refreshed, and life could begin anew.

WER

Jim, you have just said, in one paragraph, what it's taken me many posts and a lot of words to try to get across, and done it much more clearly.
But, as to your thought that we police had to drive junk, I do wish that you could have had the opportunity to have driven a '94 Chev. Caprice police package, the last year any US car company put any effort into building an effective pursuit vehicle. Absolutely rock steady at 140+, well balanced, with awesome acceleration. Too big to be comfortable in town, not that great in the twisties, and drank gas like crazy, but, IMHO, one of the only US cars to rival Germany's best on an Interstate.

heinrich

Well ... Jim my objection is in principle. I object to society saying speed is evil while each and every one of us breaking that very rule.

If we all decided to make a law that stated that you may not drink more alcohol than your body can handle because it shortens your life and because it costs the State and your fellow man billions of dollars to care for you when you finally fall ill, or because you COULD go out there and be a danger to your fellow man, then I think despite the fact that it is TRUE, we would dump that law.

STEP AWAY FROM THE JACK ....